sheepofblue

Xcode recognizes three version control systems, Perforce, Subversion and CVS. This book is not Mac specific but starting with Leopard Subversion (svn) is part of the standard install. CVS was the old standard and is still installed with the developer package. However it is apparent that the future is Subversion. Perforce is a commercial package.

OK so with that Subversion (svs from here on) is a version control package that is Mac native and likely the version control system of the future.

The book starts with a shocker. It is FREE. I still recommend buying it as the $$ goes to the developers and it is a well written book that will be useful as a reference.

Chapter 1 is a how to install and is mostly unnecessary to a Leopard Mac user. One exception being that it lists the component names. This is a command line program For those that are not terminal literate this is easy. The programs live at /usr/bin and are all on your path. For those that dread the command line only the server part need be run with the command line the rest can be done via menu in Xcode.

The second chapter is general version control theory at a high level but still useful without wasting half the book. This chapter contained my only gripe on the book. They state svn is the replacement to cvs that overcomes the cvs limitations without listing them. If you are being critical please say WHY!

Chapter 3 is a intro to svn chapter that is 3/4 of a start point.

Chapter 4 is branching which would get most users running if an admin was in charge of the server.

Chapters 5 & 6 are server operation and setup.

Chapter 7 is mostly about properties and is useful to a user. This is one feature I did not 100% get my head around but could be the killer feature of subversion (if not it is networking).

Chapter 8 is Developer info and can be skipped by most people.

Chapter 9 is a Complete Reference and would make the book a standard feature of your desktop.

The copy I have is the first edition which covers v1.0 with 1.4.4 being standard on Leopard. I skimmed the online book and did not see any big changes. Most changes are in the underlying database which should not affect the user at all.

Overall this book is very readable and clear. The contents are fantastic and I can see me using this to set up a subversion server for my own projects. You could also use it to control binary data (something that cvs does poorly) but mostly this is a code monkey tool. Also the book covers networked and local server setup with many networking options. My uses will likely just be the base server locally accessable rather than tying it into Apache. I have come to expect O'Reilly books to be excellant (with an occasional stinker) and this exceeded even that expectation.

A definite four hooves up

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A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way