Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Version Cue

Paul and I are already using a version assistive technology called CVS, or Concurrent Version Control. I haven't spent enough time learning about VersionCue, but it strikes me as a similar technology with Adobe's products in mind. Paul and I use CVS to make sure we don't step on each other's work.



CVS does a number of handy things: 1. It acts as a central repository for our collective work. 2. It keeps a history of the versions of each file in the collective work. 3. If Paul and I are editing the same file at different places, it merges the two different changes. 4. If Paul and I modify the same portion of the same file in incompatible ways, it lets us know that we have a conflict that we need to work out.



I don't plan to every work on a web project without it, because it keeps you safe with very little overhead. That said, it is a bit of a pain to set up if you aren't familiar with it and the command line.



Likewise, I am looking forward to using VersionCue. I am a little wary of it as it looks like a pretty proprietary solution. What if it goes the way of that mysterious "Publish and Subscribe. . ." or OpenDoc technology in Mac OS 7? Still I think the key sentence is:

Say good-bye to awkward file names like "brochure_1," "brochure_2," or even "brochure_final_final.psd."


Please, please Adobe, deliver us from nonversioning filesystem evil!

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