Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

svn posts

Filed under: Developer, Macintosh, Shareware, Beta

Versions.app - OS X Subversion with Style


One of the fundamental tools for developers is not just their development environment of choice, but also their version control system of choice. The debate over just which version control system is undoubtedly set to rage on for eternity, however one of the more popular systems is Subversion. On the Mac, up until now there's been a number of choices: Terminal (command-line) which is built into the OS and includes Subversion as part of OS X Leopard, svnX - another open-source graphical user interface, or using the built-in Subversion support in Apple's OS X development IDE Xcode.

For some of us here at Download Squad, a fear of the command-line, compounded with a little loathing of the svnX interface made the announcement of Versions.app - over a year ago - more than a little exciting. Promising an elegant and truly OS X interface to work with Subversion, it's taken a long time to come to fruition - however the betas to date do appear to deliver.

After having used Versions on a daily basis since its debut 2 weeks ago, it's certainly showing a great deal of promise - and makes version control far friendlier. As others have noted, the application not only makes working with existing repositories easy, but also has quick links to Subversion web-service Beanstalk, allowing you to easily create a new online repository and add it to Versions.

Pricing for Versions will be set 'when version 1.0 ships', and currently all (free-to-use) betas expire on July 1st.

Filed under: Developer, Windows, Commercial, Freeware, Open Source

Dev Chair : Version control for beginners


Put up your hand if you do not consider yourself a software developer but know what 'version control', 'CVS', or 'Subversion' is.

Good, you guys can stop reading now and come back for the next post.

The rest of you may want to stick around and find out why version control software may be something you need but do not know it exists.

Why would you need Version Control?
You may think that version control software is only for 'proper' or hardcore developers. But let's say you host your own blog on a web host. There are many files to maintain for the blog system, let alone the configuration files, the style/template files, the plug-in files, etc. Wouldn't it nice if you can take a snapshot of the whole system every time your blog is in a semi-satisfying state? Or may be you are a Linux user, you probably have a bunch of shell scripts that you use and tinker with everyday. Wouldn't be cool if you can go back to the copy of a script you have last Tuesday at 1:09 AM before you decided (erroneously) that half of the script was junk? How about you are a writer and want to take a snapshot of your novel? Sure you can save multiple copies of your file but if you have spent some time renaming files on your hard disk and append "1", "2", or "old" to the file name, then you are prime candidate for a version control system.

If you're still reading, hopefully I have convinced you the virtue of storing critical and often changed files on a version control system.

Read more →

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse