Is there a method / system / program to keep track of different stages and changes in writing the code for a project?

Question

forgive me, but I don't know the technical term to know what to search for.

I am trying to find a way to keep track of changes in my code during the development of my program. something that would allow me to go back to a section of code that I deleted. I am not talking about "undo". But rather a way that would let me keep track or be able to retrieve a section of my code that I deleted but now want it back.

Is there such a way. If there is, then what is this whole system/procedure called? Is there something that integrates with visual studio 2010?

Many thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Every source control does that, you know ;)

YOu have a legal VIsual Studio 2010? Try Team System.

Answer 2

It's called Revision Control.

Answer 3

you could use

SVN or GIT

but for local use, I would prefer SVN. its free and its easy. For visual studio there are a few SVN client plugins (like VisualSVN). But, I would suggest TortoiseSVN as the client.

To be clear, SVN is the server, TortoiseSVN is the client. (Both are free open source tools)

Answer 4

I'm not familiar with Visual Studio, but generally there are two approaches to implementing this:

1) Source/Revision control - But the problem is that it is very low-granularity, you usually commit a file when it is ready, but lose any interim changes. There are a lot of solutions compatible with visual studio.

2) A local history that tracks multiple versions between commits. Eclipse has this built in, not sure how to access it in VS.

3) A very granular log of all your development activities so you can examine and revert past changes. Not familiar with a commercial version of this. I once developed something like this for Eclipse.

Answer 5

Please read this thread here at SO: Keeping track of changes I make by copying project folders.

Answer 6

subversion has a lot of mind share these days, but it's very old-school, first-gen tech. Distributed revision control is gaining a lot of momentum and I'd highly recommend that you become familiar with it if you're going to be a code monkey professional. Look up mercurial (also referred to as hg) or bazaar. If nothing else, perforce - a professional, commercial revision control tool - is free for up to two users. It works very well, as long as you keep your branching craziness to a minimum.

Answer 7

The term you are looking for is Source Control. Modern source control's provide all the functionality you described plus much more.

Team Foundation Server seamlessly integrates into VS2010 and is very useful. Read through Source Control for Visual Studio to get up to speed.