Subversion gets my vote.

Perforce is also pretty commonly used, and is free if you only want one or two people accessing the repository.

You could look at darcs, which is fully distributed (ie, each working copy acts as a repository, unlike the above two where there is a shared central repository and working copies don't store history themselves).

And yes, in my experience it's definitely worth using version control, even for small projects.

John B

Quote:Original post by ninmonkeys
[1] What advantages does using a code version system give you?

I'm wondering if it's worth using one for the small prototypes that I'm writing. Right now what I do is create a zip: project_vX.Y.Z.zip every once in a while.

You can maintain a 'history' of all files. It's nice to be able to make a change to the code without worrying about losing a working version. Assuming, you check in your files, after you make changes. Another advantage of SVN is easy backup. All you have to backup is the SVN directory.

Using a local SVN repository is very easy. It gets a little more complicated if you want to share it across a network. And tools like Tortoise SVN and TamTam SVN (http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/tamtamsvn/index.shtml) make it easy to manage the files.

I would recommend setting quite a few filters in SVN, so that built files (ie. exe, converted resource files, etc) are not checked in. Basically any file that is created by the compiler, or a conversion tool, doesn't need to be checked in.

Here's a tutorial on setting up a local SVN under Windows:
http://www.shokhirev.com/nikolai/programs/SVN/svn.html
There's a better tutorial somewhere, but I can't find it.

I've been using SVN for 3 or 4 months now, and couldn't imagine doing without it now, even though I am the only programmer on all of my projects. It adds very little time to the development process, but offers a bunch of advantages.

[Edited by - cdoty on June 14, 2008 11:32:05 PM]

Another vote for Subversion but as long as you are using version control I'm happy regardless of which one it is.

To me coding with version control is coding without fear. You'll never fear breaking, changing, forgetting or trying something with your code when using a version control system properly.

Yet another vote for Subversion.

I would vote for Perforce (the cross-platform P4V, specifically), since it's awesome and always super-fast and efficient, and has great tools, but the "free version" limitations inevitably hold you back eventually.

Quote:Original post by bombinator-dev
To me coding with version control is coding without fear.

Seconded, as well. You pretty much are guaranteed to have at least two copies of your code, as long as you stay sync'd with your repository. If the client hard disk dies, you still have the server code. If the server hard drive dies, you still have client code that you can submit to a newly-setup server.

Add that to all the other advantages that pinacolada first mentioned, and it's a no-brainer. Even for small projects. :)

And I'll add one more advantage: if and when you end up working for a team at a software company, you will have a foot in the door. Source control will already be second nature to you, and you won't have to hit the ground running (as fast).