Perforce compared to Team Foundation Server

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Perforce compared to Team Foundation Server

How does Perforce compare to Team Foundation Server (TFS). Here at work, we have used Perforce (Which I like very much btw) exclusively. On the other hand, I'm sorry I have never used TFS. I'm interested in TFS though, however I cannot make a judgement call as to the difference.

What are the advantages of using each over the other?

Hmm. I've joined stackoverflow just because of your question.

I have never used Perforce, though I have heard nice things about it, and therefore I'm not qualified to compare the two, or to really answer your question. However, I have used TFS source control (currently) and Subversion (in the past) and while I really liked the power+simplicity of the latter, I have developed a distaste for the former.

Here are a couple of places that talk about some of the negative aspects and frustrations of TFS source control:

http://www.nearinfinity.com/blogs/joe_ferner/why_i_dislike_tfs_-_team_found.html

_ttp://goingagile.blogspot.com/2008/04/evaluating-source-control-systems.html (new user, I can only post one hyperlink)

Of course, TFS is more than just source control, and the work items, reporting and project tracking features are nice.

2010-08-20 06:34:44

This really does not address his question. And, much of Joe Ferner's rant on the linked website is frankly incorrect, and represents the opinions of somebody that doesn't seem to know how to use TFS.

Robaticus 2010-08-20 14:24:27

Agreed on the first part. I might agree with the second part if there didn't already exist source control tools that are easy to use, logical, sensible and do what you expect them to do, and that can be adopted quickly and with little effort. TFS source control on the other hand, has a variety of strange, unexpected and problematic behaviours, and really ugly "features" like workspaces. I mean, we're talking about stuff that has been solved well already by others but in TFS become tortuous. And torturous even. I shouldn't have to take a course to understand the thing. But of course YMMV.

2010-08-20 17:19:11

We moved from StarTeam to TFS more than a year ago, and never looked back. I'm not sure why you think workspaces are torturous. The only really ugly behavior is the way it treats renames, deletes, and moves. I personally like everything else about TFS. And if you really want torturous, try the StarTeam programming model (API). It will make your brain melt when compared to the TFS API.

Robaticus 2010-08-20 18:25:45

@Robaticus, I can do many "renames" in a day, as I tend to rename classes when I refactor code.

Ian Ringrose 2010-10-26 15:17:45

The danger with renames happens when you rename a file, then try to add a file that has the original name. You have to be very careful about merging order. It can get very ugly if you're not careful.

Robaticus 2010-10-26 15:30:51

+1 A:

Here is Perforce's competitive analysis document (with testing results) for TFS:

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/comparisons/perforce_mstfs.pdf

(I couldn't find, but would like to compare, the corresponding document published by Microsoft- if anyone has it.)

james creasy 2010-08-20 17:56:50

ansaurus

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Perforce compared to Team Foundation Server

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