Why you should come to the Subversion Talk

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

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CAOSters,
As you may have read, I am hosting a talk on version control and Subversion.  You may have read the announcement and thought, â€Ã...“That sounds boring.  I’m glad I’m not in senior projects yet.â€Ã,  Well, I am here to tell you that you should come anyway.  Here is why.

1. Employers use version control systems.
For projects with more than one person working on them a version control system is essential.  Some employers use Subversion, some use CVS, some probably use custom systems, but they all have similar semantics.  Knowing these semantics before you enter industry will give you leg up on your fellow graduates.

2. Your programming assignments will only get more complicated.
As you progress through your education in CS, the programming assignments you encounter will become more difficult.  When things get complicated it is easy make catastrophic errors.  Using a version control system (even on individual projects) can be a life-saver if you make a mistake that you need to roll back.  These systems can even allow you to turn in a â€Ã...“last known goodâ€Ã, copy of an assignment if you run out of time.  

3. Work with confidence.
When I was a tutor, I would sometimes encounter students who would shy away from making improvements to their programs because they were afraid that any change would cause their program to work worst than it did already.  If you are a confident user of a version control system, then you should never be afraid to make drastic changes to a program because you can always undo these changes if necessary.

R. Andrew Lamonica

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[Justin Camerer]

I can't wait!

[William Grim]

I second Andy's promotion of subversion.  It's a great revision contol system and goes with all three points he mentioned.

Another thing that he only implied but I think deserves attention with subversion or any good revision control system is that it allows you to collaborate on code with anywhere between 2 people to literally hundreds of people at a time.  Can you imagine trying to merge changes into the main source branch manually (not that it doesn't have to be done sometimes anyway)?  Yikes!

[Ross Mead]

**jumps in a fit of joy and glee**

... I...

... CAN'T...

... WAIT...

... :-)

[Geoff Schreiber]

Does anyone have any experience with Vault as an alternative to VSS as well?