RE: version control software (AD for PRC)
There've been a few people post about the way their company has wrapped a unix or other outside 'change control tool'. I think these are interesting and I admire the technicality that goes into that approach. And I appreciate their sharing it, here. But it stimulates in me a rather wild and uncontrollable desire to express my differences in opinion and approach. It's different when I do it, because this is what I do -- and I have a product to sell. Thus: AD WARNING: Following is a blatant PRC brag and sales pitch thinly disguised as a technical discussion of its approach. (But I will stick with the main technical differences ... unless you want more, then e.mail me!) PRC is a complete software configuration management tool -- including change control / version control -- developed in and for the U2 environment. Besides the obvious -- that it is a finished / supported product -- PRC differs in some basic ways from other mainstream approaches. * PRC is written in and for the U2 environment. * PRC is project-centric, as opposed to file-centric (or item-centric) meaning the versioning is not so much against a specific file (program) (although that detail is kept) but rather the collection of bits and pieces of whatever (program, subroutine, process, paragraph, dictionary, Voc entry, whatever) that comprise the change. * Backward regress-able versions of all changed items are stored -- in their entirety. (And self-managed.) No delta records, to apply in order to 'rebuild' ... you can pull up an old copy and look at it. Or view it against the current version with changes highlighted. * There are tools and utilities so that the programmer -- not from a management perspective but from a head-down/ coders / convenience perspective -- WANTS and LIKES what PRC is doing. This is key, along with ... * Our #1 mission in the development of PRC was that there not be any 'extra' task or step that must be remembered or could be (accidentally or otherwise) forgotten. With PRC you just work as usual -- the software is checked out, reviewed against permissions, backed up and so forth AS YOU GO. No extra steps or checking required. * There are clearances and procedures that can be put into place to handle any emergency or exception without violating audit requirements. * PRC supports he whole SCM /SDLC process from the problem report, through management of the projects (in terms of assigning, scheduling, estimating, tracking progress), the change control piece, test management, deployment and provides a single repository for auditing and reporting. I'll stop now. Reluctantly. :) Susan Joslyn SJ+ Systems Associates, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] PRC(r) Real software configuration management for U2. Message: 2 Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 09:53:22 - From: Brian Leach [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: version control software To: 'U2 Users Discussion List' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Jeff, We use a two pronged attack - I don't think I can share it (sorry) but here is what it does - none of it should be too difficult to emulate: First we have some BASIC routines that stamp our programs with a string in the format: ADGVERDATA='Version=x;' ADGVERDATA:= 'VerDate=xx;' ADGVERDATA:='VerHist=xx' etc. The format of the string means that we can search both source and object code for version stamps (being a variable assignment not a comment they get compiled into the object code string table). We have some simple subroutines that return this version information which we can use e.g. from I-Descriptors to list the versions and from setup routines to check versions; and we have wrappers around our installation routines and checks in the routine we use for any global cataloging to ensure that we don't accidentally catalog an older routine over a newer version. Secondly, we use RCS for delta-ing (we could use CVS but RCS was a simpler option for interfacing). To allow it to handle non-source items (eg dictionaries and parameter records) we wrapper the RCS routines (ci and co) through some routines that essentially maintain an index of the UniVerse location (ACCOUNT DICT FILE LEVEL ITEM) to a numbered UNIX file. These allow allow us to things like accept select lists, so the whole thing is command line driven and very flexible. The routines maintain an index between our version stamps (which are 3 level major.minor.build) and the RCS version (which is 2 level major.minor) so we can search on either. We also apply tags in the index rather than using RCS tags, which are a bit flaky. The routines use the index to copy the item to a type 19 file using sequentially assigned IDs, then commit the copy to RCS. The same index is used to retrieve the item again, and optionally copy the item back to its original location OR to a new location (another reason for using the index). As most of our applications are client/server or Web based, we
RE: version control software (AD for PRC)
Susan Joslyn wrote: AD WARNING: Following is a blatant PRC brag and sales pitch thinly disguised as a technical discussion of its approach. (But I will stick with the main technical differences ... unless you want more, then e.mail me!) He he... nvm the bad disguised shameless ad, your product looks cool, last year we had the pleasure of being educated a bit in SB+ by Susan's sister, and she also told us some good things about PRC :-) If I have an 8 user developer machine running linux + uv 10.1 and a 75 user production machine running linux + uv 10.1 will PRC then be able to deploy from the test machine to the production machine ?? If its project oriented, can you use it to keep track on status for a project like time used etc etc. ?? and when a project is finished can you write out all source code nicely on paper and also make a report on all the changes ?? We could seriously use a product like that! best regards from deepfreezing denmark Claus Derlien Frie Funktionærer - faglig organisation og tværfaglig a-kasse - www.f-f.dk *** Denne email og alle filer vedlagt som bilag kan indeholde fortroligt materiale, der kun er beregnet for adressaten, og maa ikke udleveres eller kopieres til uvedkommende. Har De ved en fejltagelse modtaget denne email, bedes De venligst omgaaende meddele os dette pr. telefon : 6313 8550. Paa forhaand tak. *** This email and any files transmitted with it may contain confidential information intended for the addressee(s) only. The information is not to be surrendered or copied to unauthorised persons. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone: +45 6313 8550. Thank you. *** -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: version control software
Jeff, We use a two pronged attack - I don't think I can share it (sorry) but here is what it does - none of it should be too difficult to emulate: First we have some BASIC routines that stamp our programs with a string in the format: ADGVERDATA='Version=x;' ADGVERDATA:= 'VerDate=xx;' ADGVERDATA:='VerHist=xx' etc. The format of the string means that we can search both source and object code for version stamps (being a variable assignment not a comment they get compiled into the object code string table). We have some simple subroutines that return this version information which we can use e.g. from I-Descriptors to list the versions and from setup routines to check versions; and we have wrappers around our installation routines and checks in the routine we use for any global cataloging to ensure that we don't accidentally catalog an older routine over a newer version. Secondly, we use RCS for delta-ing (we could use CVS but RCS was a simpler option for interfacing). To allow it to handle non-source items (eg dictionaries and parameter records) we wrapper the RCS routines (ci and co) through some routines that essentially maintain an index of the UniVerse location (ACCOUNT DICT FILE LEVEL ITEM) to a numbered UNIX file. These allow allow us to things like accept select lists, so the whole thing is command line driven and very flexible. The routines maintain an index between our version stamps (which are 3 level major.minor.build) and the RCS version (which is 2 level major.minor) so we can search on either. We also apply tags in the index rather than using RCS tags, which are a bit flaky. The routines use the index to copy the item to a type 19 file using sequentially assigned IDs, then commit the copy to RCS. The same index is used to retrieve the item again, and optionally copy the item back to its original location OR to a new location (another reason for using the index). As most of our applications are client/server or Web based, we then apply CVS to our whole development environment, including the RCS repository. Hope this helps, Brian Leach -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jeff Steinmetz Sent: 19 February 2004 02:20 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: version control software I am looking for a version control application for U2 software development. Ideally it would have a check-out/check-in function, ability to track changes, migration dates, etc Does anyone have any suggestions? Jeff Steinmetz Vice President, Store Systems Guitar Center, Inc 5795 Lindero Canyon Road Westlake Village, CA 91362 818-735-8800 ext 2248 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users This email was checked by MessageLabs SkyScan before entering Microgen. This email was checked on leaving Microgen for viruses, similar malicious code and inappropriate content by MessageLabs SkyScan. DISCLAIMER This email and any attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any other person, use it for any purpose, or store or copy the information. In the event of any technical difficulty with this email, please contact the sender or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Microgen Information Management Solutions http://www.microgen.co.uk -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
RE: version control software
I am looking for a version control application for U2 software development. Ideally it would have a check-out/check-in function, ability to track changes, migration dates, etc Hi Jeff, Have you looked at CVS? It's available for a variety of platforms and should handle what you're looking for. It's available at http://www.cvshome.org/ Larry Hiscock Western Computer Services http://www.wcs-corp.com -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
UNCLASSIFIED RE: version control software
Jeff, Someone in Oz - maybe PRISM www.pri.com.au IIRC - does a U2 integration with Microsoft Source Safe. And someone on this list has created and sells a U2-specifi product. Check the list archives. HTH Mike -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jeff Steinmetz Sent: Thursday, 19 February 2004 3:20 p.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: version control software I am looking for a version control application for U2 software development. Ideally it would have a check-out/check-in function, ability to track changes, migration dates, etc Does anyone have any suggestions? Jeff Steinmetz Vice President, Store Systems Guitar Center, Inc 5795 Lindero Canyon Road Westlake Village, CA 91362 818-735-8800 ext 2248 [EMAIL PROTECTED] The information contained in this Internet Email message is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged information, but not necessarily the official views or opinions of the New Zealand Defence Force. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, copy or distribute this message or the information in it. If you have received this message in error, please Email or telephone the sender immediately. -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
Re: version control software
Jeff, You can also look at Susan Josyln's offering: http://sjplus.com/sjphomepage.html - Charles Barouch [EMAIL PROTECTED] Larry Hiscock wrote: I am looking for a version control application for U2 software development. Ideally it would have a check-out/check-in function, ability to track changes, migration dates, etc -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
