Subversion for SourceSafe Users

Question

I need to do some migration training for developers who have only ever used VSS. It has been a long time since I used VSS in any capacity, and I am worried that I will miss a lot of obvious things. What I want is a list of things you would like to know if you are going to upgrade to VSS. What would you mention if you were instructed to train someone in a new SVN user?

Answer 1

Subversion for VSS users is a good comparison that differs in SVN over VSS

Answer 2

One of the biggest differences is that between the copy-modify-merge model used by Subversion and the lock-modify-unlock model used in Visual SourceSafe.

The Subverson book has a pretty decent review of comparisons with some appreciation of each.

Answer 3

Most importantly, many VSSers are used to verify the file, and when it is edited, it remains locked, and usually VSS integration saves the file as read-only. It is clear that this differs from SVN only in editing, fixing and can be a merge method.

VSSer will not be familiar with terms such as branch and trunk; such functions are poorly handled by VSS.

SVN does not bundle files that can be used by many VSSERS. That is, at the VSS level, several "projects" (folder for reading) can contain the same file. Checking a file from one of these projects checks it for everyone and checks it for updates. If used, find an alternative

SVN does not create shadow folders. This is the folder that contains the current state of the project, as if someone had just completed the latest version. When registration is performed, the shadow folder is also updated.

Answer 4

The last time I saw VSS, it was sent with VC6.0, so I don’t know what it looks like today, but for me the shock was that I used my local copy of the sources and modified everything that I needed check first. In SVN, you check all sources all the time or you don’t have any sources at all. I think it's worth mentioning.