Version Control Tools: SVN

-

Someone once said: The past cannot be changed, forgotten, edited, or erased. It can only be accepted. But then programming came into being and it stated that "you can change your past, but only the code past". Meaning; what you have coded earlier you can change, edit and improve it. And for that you need to have something like revision history, from where you can get the idea of what you have done (coded) in the past. 

Questioning..

So how would you keep the history of your code? Would you make several copies after doing each and every change? Or will you opt for "control/command + z"? Obviously you don't go for such an inefficient way of controlling the version/history of your code while working on some large project.

Answering...


So here comes "version control systems". These systems/softwares are specially designed to help you in controlling the version of your project codes. They also enable you to share your code and collaborate with other programmers as well. 
We have already covered one of these version control systems that is Git - GitHub. Similarly there are other VCSs that you can use, svn or Subversion is one of them.

In 2000-2001 CollabNet in collaboration with Apache software Foundation, created svn. Subversion is centralized version control system. Which means that your repositories will be on the server in the center and all the users can access the source code from that repository. In this way, users could get the source code as in file from that repository on their local machine (computer). Then users can make changes into the source code and afterwards commit that change into the original centralized repository. 

If svn is view at an abstract level then it would look like:

Image Idea

Subversion vs Git...

The biggest difference between Subversion and Git is, that Git is a distributed version control system, while svn is a centralized version control system. In Git, users can have their local copies of repositories on their own machines, but In svn, users can only have the code from the centralized repository into their local machines.
And Git has GitHub as a third party site where things could be shared publicly plus svn could get code from GitHub repository. Being a Centralized version control system, svn is a little more secure, and you could use svn for your sensitive projects. Git is also secure though. The cool thing is that both svn and Git are open source. You can collaborate to the very source code of it. What else needed!

There are other version control systems (VCSs) like mercurial and CVS. Although CVS is not in very much use now a days, as svn was it's replacement.

Significance of VCSs...

VCSs help us:
  • to Keep track of our code
  • to find what cause bug in our code (enable us to debug the code)
  • to collaborate with open source community
  • to share our project with the world
  • to promote Team Work...

So, I hope you have understood the basic concept of version control systems and it's importance. Start using these tools ASAP as they will help you in keeping track of your code in a better and in an efficient way... 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Data Modeling

-
Image
source: https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data-modeling A wise person once said a picture is worth a thousand words . In real-world data is not just a few rows of excel sheet, yet it comprises several billion rows expanded through hundreds  of tables. A table is usually made up of rows and columns. Each table represents an Entity . Entity means an Object or thing. That Entity has several properties called Attributes . Those attributes represent the qualities or characteristics of the entity. Since there is more than one entity, so there should be a Relationship between those entities. If we look at the tables we cannot get a clear idea of the relationship between several tables/Entities. Hence, we need to represent the tables/data in the form of a picture or a flow graph. That flow graph or Entity-Relationship diagram is called a Data Model .  Data Modeling is a technique to represent how the tables are related to each other and to represent the structure of da
Read more

An Interview with Pakistani Data Scientist : Dr. Zeeshan Ul Hassan Usmani

-
Image
Dr. Zeeshan-ul-Hassan Usmani, the name known for Data Science, Predictify me, Eisenhower fellowship  and most importantly motivation for many of the students. He is the Author of book like  (C++) ++سی/سی ,  Bit Coin Block Chain aur Crypto Currency بٹ کوائن، بلاک چین اور کرپٹو کرنسی  and many other, you can visit them here . Today "Data Science Tales - A Tech blog by Bia Chaudhry," asked him some of the questions, as an interview and we are very glad that he gave his precious time to answer them. It was kinda "Remote Interview"... not the traditional one.. The Interview Question:  How can you describe " Dr. Zeeshan ul Hassan Usmani " ? ANSWER: I am a shameless idealist. We are all idealists at some stage of our lives but then it fades away and we live as a mediocre. I don’t want it to fade away. I remind myself almost every day that I need to make my today better than my yesterday, and the challenge is keep getting harder J . We onl
Read more

Relational Data Model

-
Image
In the previous blog post, we covered Data Modeling. We have seen that data modeling is really important before jumping into predictive modeling.  In this article, we will cover the Relational Data Model (RDM). Let's start from the very basics, relational means anything which is linked with some other thing. This link is called "Relationship". In RDM or RM there are major three types of relationship cardinalities (also called Multiplicities or Cardianalities): 1. One to one 2. One to many 3. Many to many We can understand these with the help of a few simple examples;  One to one: One department has one manager. One to many: One class has many students. Many to many: Many teachers can teach many students. Okay, so we have got an abstract overview of the term " Relational ", now the next thing is " Data ", data covers everything, anything... And finally, " Model " means something in the form of a template, design, a kind of blueprint.  To store
Read more

Pintos : Series : Part 1 : Installation

-
Image
PintOS is an Operating system, but this is not a complete OS. There are many kernel level functions implemented but we need to modify it to implement it correctly. So, if you are taking OS course or interested in Operating Systems then you can follow my PintOS Series. As installation of PintOS is the most important and tedious task, so we need to do it first! Actually I have learnt about the installation steps from various sites, I will share their links side by side. What I grasped from there, I will compose it into this post. I know you might be thinking if the installation steps are already available on-line, then why am I writing them for you? The reason for this is that, when I installed PintOS, I found a lot of problems initially but then it worked. So, what I understood from my experience and from the sites, I will share that. I believe that if learning is done through mutual cooperation,  then this will benefit everyone . So, let's learn together.... First Mist
Read more

Pintos : Series : Part3 : Project 1 : Alarm Clock

-
Image
The PintOS project has 27 test cases that we need to pass. In the first project we are just going for the five test cases related to alarm clock that are as under: alarm_multiple alarm_single alarm_simultaneous alarm_negative alarm_zero But before jumping into the code, let's first understand the basic structure of PintOS and how it runs. Consider the following diagram: Here QEMU is an emulator on which pintOS runs. Test cases are the processes that we run on the PintOS (Operating System). So we only need to modify the PintOS code, we are not allowed to make any change to the test cases code as this would be a cheating. When you open up the PintOS directory, in tests/threads/tests.c all the test cases are declared. And in the tests/threads/ directory you can observe files with the extension " .ck " and " .c ". So the " test_Name.c " files are the files in which test cases are defined, while " test_Name.ck " file
Read more

Applications of Data Engineering

-
Image
In a previous blog post about data engineering, we went through several many concepts related to data engineering such as data modeling, and then we went through different types of databases, for example, relational databases and we also got a glimpse of relational as well as NoSQL databases. And in today's blog post we will be writing about data engineer applications. Which are basically the use cases of data engineering 1st let's see what data engineering applications mean; so basically when we have data and we have engineered it then there are several things that we can do with that data and these things that we can do with processed data are the use cases of the data engineering. For example: If we have filled our containers with the data then it's not of any good use if it is not clean and well-formed. If your data is well-formed and if there are no logical mistakes, missing values, and garbage then we can easily perform the use cases and applications of data enginee
Read more

How to take notes in Freshman Year ?

-
Image
Yes, you have to take notes in the university class!  Before talking about the notetaking strategy, we will understand the importance of taking notes. Importance Of Taking Notes No doubt there are a few students who can produce good results without even taking notes in the class. But their number is least. Most of us need to make good notes in the class especially when we are in university. Notes are important because: They help us to keep track of what we have studied in the whole semester. Notes help us to prepare for the exams, in a very short time. We can refer to our notes for short quizzes in the eleventh hour. In addition to reading and listening, writing notes increases the ability to memorize the important concepts. It helps you to realize that you have done something in the class. Now that we have understood Why to take notes? Let's dig into the notetaking strategy  Notes taking Strategies One of my friends Ramlah Aamir Aziz used to take note
Read more

How to Become the Best Software Engineer

-
Image
The word "the best" is the 3rd form of Good. We use "the best" for the thing that is incomparable . So do you want to be "the best" ? if yes...then read below... Do you know who invented the wheel ? Probably not. But you are using this invention. There is hardly any machine that is not using "the wheel". The concept of machine is vague without the existence of wheel.  Again I am asking you the question... Do you know who invented the bulb? Probably yes. Obviously yes. His name was "Thomas Alva Edison" . Edison made many inventions and bulb is one of his best. "We" use bulb in our daily lives, without this invention our nights would be the same dark (physically). Pay attention to the word "We" in the above paragraph. so yes, my friends if you want to be the best software engineer, then you need or you should create/invent something that is for the whole mankind till the doomsday .
Read more

You-Tube Channel

-
Image
Welcome to Mainly The Software Engineering Blog You-tube channel. I started off this blog in 2018. Its main purpose is to provide information in an easy and in an appropriate way.  From challenges in your field to becoming the best software engineer; this blog covers each and almost everything related to engineering, technology and much more.. Now, the question is WHY ? this You tube channel?  so, the answer to this very question is that, "This is fun to read and watch a video along". If you want to LEARN in a way to become better then this Blog and Youtube channel is for You. You can like the corresponding facebook page and subscribe to this channel for more updates.... Thank you! Face-book page: https://www.facebook.com/seblog1312/
Read more