On my work machine, I do not have the permissions to install anything, and astoundingly, there are not any version control software packages set up. I am using VS2008, and was hoping to work around depending on SourceSafe. I've talked to the network admin, and all I could get was "We don't have any version control set up." Are there any good ways of going about this, or do I have to just bite the bullet?
views:
113answers:
7
+1
Q:
Are there any good version control programs for a Windows box that do not have to be installed?
+7
A:
The real way of going about this is to make the case to management (your management, not IT administration) that source control is a vital component to any software development effort.
Adam Robinson
2010-06-14 13:51:16
I'm in a temporary six month contract, and battling the bureaucracy looks like it will be too slow in this context, sadly.
CaffeineZombie
2010-06-14 13:55:09
Development w/o VCS can't work and an developer creating some applications to be run on other machines should be trustworthy enough to run software on his own box ... else something is clearly wrong in the relation between the company and the workers...
johannes
2010-06-14 13:56:08
@johannes: He did say it's a temp contract though, maybe the permanent workforce have more permissions but just don't care about source control. Being a contractor seem to often mean that you have to tell yourself "shut up and think of the money", when as a perm you might have argued with management.
ho1
2010-06-14 14:07:17
I think it's a shame this is the highest-voted answer - it's not answering the question. I understand that this is the "righteous" thing to do, but sometimes people just need solutions, and this isn't a solution.
Skilldrick
2010-06-14 14:08:47
Sometimes temporary hacks are not just enough... having no vcs in today's world is a joke.
apoorv020
2010-06-14 14:14:55
I agree that not having VCS is more than a problem, but since I am not tied to the company, I don't feel it necessary to make it my crusade. Sometimes the temp hacks are vital if for nothing else than adhering to personal standards.
CaffeineZombie
2010-06-14 14:19:15
-1 for answering the wrong question. There are cases where you have access to a PC and have no file system privileges (because of admin-nazis, security policies, etc) and having a USB-stick or web-based-only implementation is necessary.
Evan Plaice
2010-06-14 16:56:30
Thank you, that will do! I didn't come across this question when I was searching, but it is exactly what I was looking for.
CaffeineZombie
2010-06-14 14:08:28
A:
I used http://subversion.apache.org/ for a long time and I don't recall it needing to be installed. Just extracted and set a .bat file in my startup. I think the one by collab was what I used before.
BuildStarted
2010-06-14 13:54:20
A:
I'm in exactly this situation and so in the end I just zip up all the files in the project whenever I would normally have checked it in and then put a new zip on a network drive and rename them to the current date + time + a comment of what's been done. That together with WinMerge or some other diff tool sort of works.
But TFS will be setup any moment now I'm sure (maybe even before the contract finishes :)).
ho1
2010-06-14 14:00:00
That isn't a terrible plain either. Best of luck to you, and hopefully the next spot will be more flexible (or better structured).
CaffeineZombie
2010-06-14 14:11:00
A:
I think people are approaching this the wrong way. You should try VS add-ins. A quick search yielded several free SVN add-ins. You probably have some for others as well.
apoorv020
2010-06-14 14:16:50