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recommendation: use a source code revision control tool for your LDRAW folder - Printable Version

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recommendation: use a source code revision control tool for your LDRAW folder - Steffen - 2011-08-04

As a followup to this post
http://forums.ldraw.org/showthread.php?tid=250&pid=250#pid250
, I'd like to recommend a thing which proves quite valuable for me during parts (and even model) authoring:
using a source code revision control software (SCM tool) for the LDRAW folder.

Such tools are for example:
* Perforce
* git
* hg
* svn
* cvs
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code_Management for more information)

I personally use and like Perforce;
note that for private use you are allowed to install a local server and client for yourself.

I put my LDRAW folder into that system the following way:

- install initial set of parts
- checkin into SCM
- install 1st update
- checkin into SCM
- install 2nd update
- checkin into SCM
...
- install update 2011-01
- checkin into SCM

Doing it this way gives you a full history of parts: For each and every file,
you can easily see by which update it has been touched, and which changes happened in it.

As I am also keeping all unofficial stuff in the MODELS folder (because the "real" contents of that folder
is not important for me), I'm also checking in that MODELS folder into the SCM tool.
(I'm using the MODELS folder and not UNOFFICIAL or similar, because older tools like L3P only work that way).

This allows me to go forward and backward with the changes which I do in the files.

So I this way got rid of having to keep manual backup files etc.:
the SCM tool does everything for me.

I'm just dropping this idea here in case somebody else also needs or likes it.

Play well -
Steffen


Re: recommendation: use a source code revision control tool for your LDRAW folder - Roland Melkert - 2011-08-05

This is a great idea, I already have a svn server running for my dev work anyway.

Maybe go even a step further and put up a (read-only) repository on ldraw.org, that would eliminate the need for 'normal' people having to install e.g. svn server.

They just get going using e.g. tortoise (a svn windows client that integrates into the explorer)


Re: recommendation: use a source code revision control tool for your LDRAW folder - Santeri Piippo - 2011-09-22

Hmm... have to say I never thought of doing this. Would be great as well for the part authoring process itself since I've lost a few parts-in-development earlier on because I accidentally deleted them and stupidly had no backups available.

-- aw darn, necrobumped it.