Storing code in Version control

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Storing code in Version control

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OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 1

Stewart "Arturius" Campbell (9/12/2014)
tom.w.brannon (9/12/2014)
I had no idea what VCS meant. Closest I could find in a search was Veritas Cluster Server. Guessed wrong.
In Steve's QotD of 5 September, viz: Central Repository, the acronym was explained... 😉

I can't remember that far back.

Tom

saravanan.a 88885 Ten Centuries Points: 1003 More actions · Answer 2

saravanan.a 88885

Ten Centuries

Points: 1003

September 12, 2014 at 11:46 pm

#1745225

Good one.

Hany Helmy SSChampion Points: 13921 More actions · Answer 3

tom.w.brannon (9/12/2014)
I had no idea what VCS meant. Closest I could find in a search was Veritas Cluster Server. Guessed wrong.

+1

Thanks & Best Regards,
Hany Helmy
SQL Server Database Consultant

Hany Helmy SSChampion Points: 13921 More actions · Answer 4

stephen.long.1 (9/12/2014)
Thanks for the easy question, Steve, good one. Of course, it's probably only easy if you've actually used VCS in the past (which I have)

True, that`s why it was not easy @ all 2 me as I never used this b4 🙂

Thanks & Best Regards,
Hany Helmy
SQL Server Database Consultant

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 5

Quite a neat question. If people read the title (or even just the tag) the won't be fooled by the acronym. I would have thought it would be shocking if people thought a Version Control system didn't store source (as well as whatever else it might need to store - for example for some languages object code is needed too), but seeing that only 75% of people ot this right so far surely doesn't mean that 25% were not bright enough to look at the title when they didn't recognise the acronym?

stephen.long.1 (9/12/2014)
Thanks for the easy question, Steve, good one. Of course, it's probably only easy if you've actually used VCS in the past (which I have, and I don't mean Veritas Cluster Servers!).:-)

It's a fairly common and strongly held view amongs deveopment managers, operations managers, and IT managers that anyone who creates software objects such as database schemas or stored procedures or triggers or view definitions or code in any programming or design language and doesn't hold his/her work in a some sort of repository that allows versioning to be tracked needs to be educated and is unemployable if she/he can't accept that essential education. It should be unusual for anyone with a significant amount of database experience not to have used something which provides VCS functionality, although there are (or at least used to be) some outfits who won't provide their employess with access to any such thing. Although not all tools that provide VCS functionality are called VCS, the acronym shouldn't be a barrier - the title makes it clear what it means.

Dave Anderson and I wrote a rather strange VCS back in the early 70s; it used paper tape as its main storage medium, but could back up to disc files; it was probably the first VCS to successfully handle merging of multiple modifications occurring in parallel to a single chunk of code and did it in a rather bizarre manner; it didn't escape outside the projects group I managed at the time (thank heaven! It would have destroyed my reputation if it had got out) - and it kept on changing its name from DAMAD to DAMAT and vice versa, depending on which of us had last updated it (DAMA stood for "Don't Ask Me Ask" and you can probaly guess what the final D or T stood for). It was awful to use. We never called it a VCS (the term hadn't yet been adopted in the software world, as far as I know, but if we'd hear the term we would probably have called it that).

The one I most enjoyed using (CADES - Computer Aided Design and Evaluation System) dates from the same era, was far more ambitions and far more rationally designed and built, but wasn't at that time able to do what my team needed it to be able to do. It wasn't ever, as far as I know, called a VCS, it was initially called an Engineering Repository System and then became the basis for (British) government funded research in Integrated Process Suport Environments (IPSE) and was the first real PCE (Process Control Engine) - from which you can probably see that the thing was not just a software/script repository but rather a lot more as well. Having used that made me despise just about every VCS I was subsequently introduced to.

Tom