Yes! For the first time in my 15-year career I had experienced what it is like to not have source control, and I had hated it. I had lost a very difficult to write SQL statement in a project. It seemed almost impossible to rewrite the SQL for the second time. I believe it was two of us working in the same project that had caused this loss of code. I take the blame because I am the manager and I knew that source control was not implemented. I should have taken the time to take all of the projects and check them into the source control system.
There are a number of reasons to use source control systems and they include:
- More than one person can work on the same file and then merge the versions together as one file.
- Track changes to a build.
- Control what changes or features is included in a build.
- Safe guard against accidental code loss.
- Track coding efforts by developers
Types of Source Control – I have used each
- SVN – SubVersion – Free and Open Source
- GitHub – Limited Free Version – Social Coding www.github.com
- Microsoft Source Control $$$ Not Free, very robust
My experience should not have happened. In the past, I had always used a source control system, and ensured we had a working backup of the the source control system. I will be striving to initiate a source control system as soon as possible, so that I am not wasting time recreating code that should never been lost. Take the time and be a smart developer; use a source control system. If you do not know how to setup a source control system or how to choose a source control system; ask!