RE: Multiple Developers working in one Workspace/Sandbox

[Wiest, Damian]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark E. Hamilton [mailto:address@hidden 
> Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 10:34 AM
> To: Brouwer, Marcel
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Multiple Developers working in one Workspace/Sandbox
> 
> 
> Brouwer, Marcel wrote:
> > There are many reasons why CVS is designed to work with local 
> > workspaces.
> > 
> > But the only thing I want is:
> > One workspace for a group of developers. (So they see the 
> latest version without continues commits and updates.)
> > The user who is committing is logged within the version (or history)
> > 
> > So, no local copies, just versions of files and see who has 
> done the 
> > commit. Is there a way to do this with CVS?!?
> 
> If what you want is a checked-out version of the head of some branch, 
> that stays up-do-date every time someone does a commit, this will do 
> what you want:
> 
> http://ximbiot.com/cvs/manual/cvs-1.11.21/cvs_18.html#SEC177
> 
> If what you want is a static copy of some version available to users, 
> simply tag the version and then check out the code from that tag 
> wherever you want it.
> 
> If what you want is a single sandbox where everybody works, 
> however, you 
> are going to have significant problems with that. CVS is 
> intended to fix 
> those problems (and does it relatively well.) There's no good 
> reason to 
> work that way, so don't do it.
> 
> -- 
> ----------------
> Mark E. Hamilton
> Orion International Technologies, Inc.
> Sandia National Laboratory, NM.
> 505-844-7666

I agree that having multiple developers share one CVS sandbox is a bad idea,
but I understand there are times where it just has to be done.  I believe
that if you ensure everyone is in the same group and everyone's umask is set
properly, then you just need to ensure that the group permissions are set
properly.  Expect to have people routinely complain about not being able to
read or write files in the sandbox.

Why do you want to have people share a single area?  Is it a matter of some
developers not understanding how CVS works and then blaming the tool for
their problems?  I know from experience that rather than insisting on the
developer in question improve their skills, management will sometimes
dictate that people use a shared area.

-Damian