Directives

Chapter 18. Source Code Control

Managing source code in a team environment is a difficult job; doing so when many developers are involved and no source code tool is employed is almost impossible. Microsoft Visual SourceSafe is a tool that ships with the Enterprise Developer and Enterprise Architect editions of Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. There's some speculation that the tool was meant to remain an internal application and not be released to the general public. (By the way, Microsoft didn't create Visual SourceSafe; the company purchased it.) Although Help text exists for Visual SourceSafe, the program's general workings and the process of setting up Visual SourceSafe in a production environment aren't that well documented. In addition, Visual SourceSafe doesn't have the polish of most Microsoft applications it contains many functional and physical characteristics that fall far beneath the standards of Microsoft Windows applications. For instance, one of Visual SourceSafe's three components (Visual SourceSafe Administrator) doesn't even have a File menu! Also, many of the program's menu items weren't placed on the menus that make the most sense.

Note

The version of Visual SourceSafe that ships with Visual Studio .NET is 6.0c. This is a re-release, meaning it is the same Visual SourceSafe that shipped with Visual Basic 6. The only differences are some bug fixes, minor enhancements, and a modified installation program. If you're already familiar with Visual SourceSafe from working with previous editions of Visual Basic, you'll feel right at home with this "new" release.

 

The complexity of implementing Visual SourceSafe in a development environment, coupled with its nonstandard appearance and less-than-adequate documentation, prevent many people from successfully implementing and using Visual SourceSafe. Many people are discouraged from even trying. I've known a number of highly technical people who were unable to get Visual SourceSafe up and running one was a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer!

Nonetheless, Visual SourceSafe works, and if you take the time to implement it in your team environment, you'll be glad you did. Rather than offer directives that will help you create better code, my goal in this chapter is to teach you how to use a tool that will drastically reduce the amount of resources needed to manage a large product and a team of developers a tool that will easily handle situations almost impossible to deal with without some sort of integrated solution.