Revisiting Revision Control

with focus on Star Team

Part 1 of 3 on SCM and Issue Management

Shafqat Ahmed
 Objectives

Refresh our memory

Establish usage guidelines
 Topics
• What is Revision Control?
• Benefits of using Revision Control
• Concepts Related to Revision Control
• Issues faced when using Revision Control
• Different Revision Control Systems
• Star Team as Revision Control
• Best Practices
• Check list
 What is Revision Control

• Versioning
• Also known as
– Source Code Control
– Version Control
– Source Code Management (SCM)

• Some Known Revision Control Systems

• Storage
• Delta
 Benefits of using Revision Control

• Versioning
• Code Synchronization
• Have latest files
• Team work
• Conflict Resolution
• Branch Out
• Disconnected work mode
• Revert
• Problem solving by version comparison
 Concepts Related to Revision
Control
• Baseline / Trunk / • Code Freeze
Mainline • Label / Tag /
• Version / Revision Checkpoint
• Change / Diff / Delta • Repository
• Checkout / Update • Conflict
• Check In / Commit • Branch / Codebase
• Lock • Merge
• Change list / Change • Resolve
Set • Working copy
• Atomic Commit • Latest Version
 Issues faced when using Revision
Control
• Conflict
• Difference in concept between systems
• Merging branches
• Storage
• Connectivity
• Working folder
• Revision Control System Bugs
• Code Overwrite
• Code Merge
Different Revision Control Systems
• CVS
• Subversion
• Visual Studio Team System
• Visual Source Safe
• Borland Star Team
• Perforce
• Git
• Vault
• Many more …
Star Team as Version Control System
• Introduction • Queries
• Storage • Revisit the SCM
• Client concept screen with
• Automation with
ST
SDK
• Access Control
• Issue Management
• Check in enforcements
• Workflow
• View back in time
• Custom Fields
• No Atomic Commit
• Filters
• Views • Known Bugs and
 Best Practices
(Some are only specific for Star Team and our development process,
otherwise not needed)
• Keep your code latest
• Commit Regularly to avoid conflicts
• Commit Atomic
• Make sure Code is Compiling
• In case of Star Team keep two folders, one for Star
Team another for work and manually sync
• Label frequently
• Branch out only when necessary
• Recheck before check in
• Observe what files were merged when updating
• Observe for files that are out of the versioning
System
 Best Practices (Continued …)

• Make sure your working folders are correct

• In case of Star Team be careful when changing
working folder, so that you only change alternate
working folder
• Always recompile and test after resolving conflict
• Try to add new files to source code control ASAP
• Keep a separate note to keep track of changes
• Verify note with changes reported by Star Team
• Keep an eye on project file changes, specially in
VB6
• Do not check in binary output files, except for
Enough best practices to
remember for one day …
More will be on next session
Q&A
 Exercise

Collaborateively create a checklist for code check

in
 Thank You

See you again on the next part of the discussion