RE: How well does CVS handle other types of data?

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Thursday, July 12, 2001 at 11:38:21 (-0400), Peter Fox wrote: ]
> Subject: RE: How well does CVS handle other types of data?
>
> Sorry my "graphic people" are the same people who are writing Delphi code.

So, have someone put on a virtual "graphics people" hat!  What's the
problem here?  That should make things easier, not harder!!!!!

> IMHO the people who say "get your binaries out of my merging system" are
> looking very much as CVS as a tool to control parallel development of source
> code. CVS becomes a technique for applying patches to a development thread. 

Yes, that's exactly what a source code management tool is.  CVS is a
source code management tool that assists users in merging concurrent
changes to files, be they concurrent edits on the same branch, or
not-necessarily-temporally-related changes on separate branches.

A "commit" is literally the addition of a "delta" to a branch!  All CVS
does is keep track of branches and revision relationships in groups of
source files.  That's it.  That's all.  That's enough.

> IMHO the people who are saying "I need to put binaries in CVS" are looking
> at using CVS for managing a project. i.e. they want to be able to have a
> single repository that they have confidence stores all the items needed to
> produce a release.

I hate to say this again, but RTFM:

    What is CVS?
    ============
    
       CVS is a version control system.  Using it, you can record the
    history of your source files. [[....]]

    What is CVS not?
    ================
    
       CVS can do a lot of things for you, but it does not try to be
    everything for everyone.

    CVS is not a build system.

    CVS is not a substitute for management.

    CVS is not a substitute for developer communication.

    CVS does not have change control

    CVS is not an automated testing program

    CVS does not have a builtin process model

> CVS becomes not just a developers tool but also an
> essential part of the release mechanism. It allows the developers, build
> people, system testers and customers to agree what they are looking at. 

Yes of course.  CVS keeps track of branches and revision relationships
in groups of source files.

A "project" which produces products has many things more than just
source files, and many more tools than just a source code control tool.

It is the build system and the configuration management tools which give
project managers the ability to reliably reproduce products from known
sources.  All CVS does is keep track of the related source code
revisions necessary to produce such a reliable repeatable build.

> It is also a tool to enable developers to retrieve all the components that
> they need to be able to develop. Writing the development procedures and the
> like is just so much easier with a single repository.

Yes, CVS is that.  It is just _ONE_ tool though, of all those neccessary
to have in a project management toolbox.

-- 
                                                        Greg A. Woods

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