A true story

What "revolution"? A long-term open source enthusiast describes his conversion.

Source code has been available for decades, long before the so-called "open source revolution" started. I have found value in using and writing open source software since I first began experimenting with open source solutions to critical business problems. It's easy to become paranoid about backups after the first important loss of work to a system failure. For me it happened while in college, and I flunked the project. The next stage of paranoia comes when one groks that the precious latest backups will frequently have a much lesser value than the backups of previous working versions. Such a revelation will motivate most programmers to implement some sort of version control and backup strategy. At the next stage, one realizes that the contents of the version control database are the real source, and that what any given source directory contains is just a partial image of the whole thing.

My early primitive attempts at version control (file renaming, directory cloning) eventually led to the installation of a commercial version control package: Microsoft Delta. Delta was not an ambitious package. It lacked many features that other packages advertised, and its documentation was lacking in many places. But I had received my copy for free by raving about Microsoft in a local newspaper, so I decided to give it a shot. Delta served my version control needs flawlessly for years until, unexpectedly, Microsoft decided to drop the software.

"What the heck," I thought. "The software works fine, so why not continue to use it unsupported?" But 1995 arrived, and with it Windows 95. Delta simply would not cooperate with the new 32-bit OS. As the product had been discontinued, the only support option provided was a free upgrade to SourceSafe, which Microsoft had recently acquired. My initial evaluation of SourceSafe left me wary of a version control system that would store my source code in an undocumented, proprietary binary format. I queried the Net (CompuServe at that time) and found out about the many problems people were having with SourceSafe. I decided to pass on this system and evaluate other commercial options.

Good version control comes third in a software developer's toolbox only because a compiler that produces correct output, and libraries that do what they should, are things one simply can't live without. After ruling out SourceSafe, I bought and evaluated the two most recognized and touted version control packages under US$1000. To my surprise, both packages were difficult to use and, worse, they failed to perform routine tasks on their first day of use. The advertised ability to import my Delta files didn't work either. Tech support acknowledged the problems, but the only solution offered was to wait for the next release "due out in a couple of months." That was unacceptable.

At the obvious signs of hyperventilation, I decided to stop breathing for a while. I realized I would inevitably lose my Delta database and, with it, all the whys and hows of every version of my software. I decided that the next version control package I used would have to rely on a database format that was standard, well documented, and humanly auditable (plain text). Then I remembered RCS, "Revision Control System," the version control system bundled with every version of Unix. I found a Windows implementation of RCS on the Net in no time, and all the tests I performed ran fine. RCS was open source, and I could use it for my needs at no charge.

RCS's only weakness was its lack of network consciousness; this eventually led me to CVS, the Concurrent Versioning System. CVS is open source software, it is licensed under the GNUGeneral Public License and has Cyclic Software as its official maintainer. CVS is very network conscious, it supports collaborative (no locks) check-ins and check-outs and branching, and is the primary version control package used for open source projects all over the Net. Most importantly, CVS uses the RCS file format, an open specification of version control databases held in plain text.

I've used CVS for my version control needs for years, and it has always performed flawlessly. The free upgrades have simplified the installation and made important performance improvements. More than once I've queried the CVS source code to see how things really work; it helped me implement my Java RCS library (open source), which I wrote in order to guarantee that I would never lose my version control information again.

Individual developers may have reasons of their own to resist open source, but sometimes it is the best solution to a business need. I'm still paranoid about version control, so I plan to release my RCS library as open source.

Originally written for In Publishing LLC
Copyright © 1999 Inprise Corp.