Source control system for lazy people?

Question

I've used CVS and SVN. The problem I run into with both of them is that you have to explicitly perform all of the add/delete/update/move etc. operations using a tool that remembers those actions so that they can be committed. Tools like TortoiseSVN make life easier, but not as easy as I would like. IDE integration is nice, too, but I don't like be bound to do everything in an IDE. My problem is that I'll accidentally make updates or rename folders without using the appropriate tools, then my source gets messed up.

Is there a simple source control tool that will let me work however I want in a folder structure, and allow me to sync everything when I'm done?

I realize that this would make some features of traditional source control impossible, but I'd be fine with that.

Answer 1

Dropbox is a nice versioned source control-style app that requires a little setup and zero maintenance. Reverting to old versions isn't as efficient as the usual source control, and it tracks all your changes (you can't choose whether to commit).

Basically, you create a Dropbox folder on your computer, and everything you save is automatically synchronized. It's pretty fast (it reacts in minutes, not hours), and you get a gig or two of space.

So, you get less control, but it's super easy. I personally use it for my Password Safe database and my "to-do" list, so I can access them from any computer.

Answer 2

Even though you've had some issues in the past with SVN. I still think its the way to go. VisualSVN server provides a simple interface for setting everything up and there are a ton of free or low cost tools to use.

Answer 3

While this does not answer the question itself I'd strongly recommend training yourself in using the version control system of your choice for everything. Once using the VC system became a habit there isn't much risk in messing up your source folder accidentally anymore (of course, the human factor still remains) and you get much better logs when explicitly working version-controlled than any tool doing automatic change-tracking. On Windows, TortoiseSVN is a really nice tool that makes it quite easy to not overlook the VC system.

(to give an analogy of training one self in using a VC system: if you manage to get yourself trained using touch-typing you don't know anymore how you managed to live without it. Happened to me several years ago when I decided that I should learn it at least to be able of judging the system. I really don't understand how I typed before.)

As for the renaming issue you might want to look into git. It can cope with renames / moves without using the VC system itself.

Answer 4

Newer distributed source control systems like GIT, Bazaar, and Mercurial (aka: Hg) all tend to be better at detecting broad changes done in the file system such as moving directories, renaming files and even replacing large chunks of the file system.

From my reading, Bazaar and Mercurial were essentially built from the ground up to handle this sort of free-form editing specifically because of how explicit SVN required you to be.