Version your development!

Why?

Everyone has probably heard about Subversion. It allows you to track your project (project versions) and manipulate those versions. When big project is involved, lots of companies put their code to version control. Why? Because it safeguards the code from falling apart when 2 or more developers are working on the same file (that is Subversions primary goal). But none of developers I know uses Subversion for developing small projects on local machine.

Couple of times I did some programming, and I added or changed something and my program just stopped working. Than I would click undo button like crazy but I lost my previous working version. But of course, every problem can be solved, and I solved it every time, but I lost a few hours doing so. Back then I would kill for Subversion.

Time to put in some action!

If you had similar problem or you want to have safer future, put your code under version control.

Necessary programs:
1. Apache (I use XAMPP)
2. Subversion
3. TortoiseSVN

I won't explain installation of those 3 components, it would be a waste of time, because there are already references on the internet.

You can follow installation process from TortoiseSVN user guide (Chapter 3. Setting up a server).

When you have a new project on your hand, you only have to add new repository, and your newly created folder for your project put under control with Import to that repository and then SVN Checkout. I recommend you also read Chapter 4 and 5 from guide to get you started.

I recommended TortoiseSVN because it is really simple to maintain your code rather than typing in command line.

Review steps...

1. Install Subversion, TortoiseSVN and XAMPP (or anything you'd like)
2. Adjust all three to work together (read user guide)
3. Create your initial repository and decide on the structure (also read guide)
4. Start versioning!