quote:Original post by fredizzimo
It depends on which CVS system you are using.

There is pretty much only one version control system called CVS. Which uses the optimistic model.

I get a feeling you are using the term CVS to refer to version control systems in general.

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It also prevents you from editing files accidently. It basically gives you additional protection, and that''s why I think it''s an important part of a CVS system.

For binary files I agree with you, but for plain text/source code a locking system is more trouble than it''s worth.

Read http://svnbook.red-bean.com/html-chunk/ch02s02.html for a discussion of the various models.

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AnkhSVN - A Visual Studio .NET Addin for the Subversion version control system.
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quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
I thought CVS or Subversion were only storing "deltas" of files, just the "patches" and modified parts, not the complete files (except for first commit).

They are not required to. At least Subversion(and presumably also CVS) you can choose whether to store a delta or fulltext on a revision by revision basis. IE, you could store fulltexts of frequently checked out revisions, and deltas for the rest.

Also, the latest revision is generally stored as fulltext in both CVS and Subversion.

quote:Original post by fredizzimo
Hm.. I''m pretty sure you can configure cvs with required checkouts and filelocks. But I''m not 100% sure as I have never actually used cvs. I have used other version control systems though.

CVS "watches" can give you a notification if someone else edits a file(assuming they use the "cvs edit" command). This is a far cry from a lock-modify-unlock model, though.
Most people use the copy-modify-merge model. Subversion will have a locking model some day, but not in 1.0: http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/notes/locking-plan.txt

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For binary files I agree with you, but for plain text/source code a locking system is more trouble than it''s worth.

I don''t agree...

You say this after reading that link I gave you?

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But I guess it depends on how the project is strucutred, how many people works on it, what tasks the people are assigned and so on.

Well, of course, but I have heard lots of anecdotal evidence that the Subversion/CVS model works well even in large environments.

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AnkhSVN - A Visual Studio .NET Addin for the Subversion version control system.
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