Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

I make branches for when something changes radically, and I want head to stay the same for a while.

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

I use subversion with Tortise . Elite Frontier will provide SVN hosting to FIRST teams for free (they already host 116 and 1418).

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

I used cvs (including scripts written on top of cvs) for many, many years. We did not use branches very often. More than 95% of our stuff was done on the mainline. Branching is best used when you need to do isolated development with version control while the mainline goes through several revisions.

If you use TortoiseCVS check the User's Guide, it's simple. If you use a flavor of regular cvs look for "cvs update -j branchname". This means "join the branch to the mainline". Here is some documentation on Branching and Merging.

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

Be sure to read the section Merging from a branch several times. I missed that part the first time I merged a branch and it caused me grief later on.

We ended up with only one branch, when I completely rewrote our PID framework. I worked off the PID branch while everyone else worked from head.

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

We used a dedicated laptop running Debian Linux (stable) as the server. I used cvsd to chroot the cvs pserver process. Each team member had a unique login and a trivial password^*. I used viewcvs (now renamed to viewvc) as a web interface to let anyone without cvs knowledge browse the repository. We stored all kinds of stuff in the repository, not just our code. For example, we stored all the rules and updates and other documentation, our team roster, even photos of the robot.

We do not have internet access at our build, but do have an internal wireless lan. When we were at our build location, the cvs laptop is there. When we aren't building, it's at my house accessible over our dsl connection. The laptop ran a dns server such that when it was at our build location, you could use the same address as when you were accessing it over the internet.

The commit philosophy we used was such that you should commit after testing when a test platform was availible, but if a test platform wasn't availible commit once you were happy and the code compiled.

For our programming directory, we stored all the .c, .h, .lkr, .lib, .mcp, all the text readmes, and the .hex file. We wanted to have a complete history of the hex file so we could pull up exactly the program we used for each match, without worrying about library changes or other things like that.

Right now we have a tag for the state it was after ship, and for after each fix-it window. We'll also have a tag for the code as it was in the robot for each match so that the drive team can easily request an old version. Depending on whether significant changes get implemented between matches, we may end up branching.

^{*We'll probably be switching to a more secure form of authentication next year, I just wanted to get something that worked easily out of the box}

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

Thaks for the links. For some reason I was finding it difficult to locate CVS documentation. :)

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

The source files & headers (*.c, *.h), libraries (*.lib), the makefile, any additional scripts, the doxygen configuration, and any documentation sources (*.dox).

API-type documentation is generated by doxygen and uploaded to a server. Anyone with doxygen can generate their own edition.


I try to commit when I have a working version, at the end of a meeting, or when we need to sync systems during a meeting.

I use Subversion inside of Eclipse via Subclipse. Occasionally I have to do more advanced stuff using TortoiseSVN.

That's what we're here for. ;)

(A warning about SVN, it doesn't have tagging/branching in the same way that CVS does. What happens is that it copies the files to a new directory in your repository. So if you placed your sources in the root of the repo, you can't really branch/tag.)

Re: How do you manage code changes?
 

That is what we do for the most part. The merge is made much easier by
using a contextual diff tool that visually shows which files are different, and
helps us merge the files.