How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately?

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+5 Q:

How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately?

According to Wikipedia (the table at the page bottom), the earliest known version control systems were CVS and TeamWare both known from year 1990.

How can it be? Software development has been here from at most 1960's and I honestly can't imagine working with codebase without version control.

How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately compared to software development?

+4 A:

For one, I know of RCS, which was first released in 1982, which was a successor to Source Code Control System released in 1972.

Even more, Wikipedia has a page dedicated to History of software configuration management, where an earlies VCS system dates back to late 1950s.

Anton Gogolev 2010-04-01 07:18:33

The 50's had configuration management, but not version control.

Dean J 2010-04-01 13:10:11

+3 A:

That's just wrong... SCCS, 1972

Steven Schlansker 2010-04-01 07:19:40

Wikipedia inaccurate? That's unpossible!

Paolo 2010-04-01 07:21:56

@Paolo: In fact there're tons of inaccuracies in Wikipedia. This is offset by the fact that *anyone* can fix them.

sharptooth 2010-04-01 07:30:44

And Bitkeeper, which is based on SCCS, still uses "SCCS" directories

Pascal Thivent 2010-04-01 08:31:57

+2 A:

There is a paragraph about VCS history in mercurial book: http://hgbook.red-bean.com/read/how-did-we-get-here.html

Last paragraph - A short history of revision control

empi 2010-04-01 07:57:05

+1 A:

Users of DEC's VMS operating system didn't need source code control - they had a versioned file system way back in the 70's.

anon 2010-04-01 08:02:16

+6 A:

When I started as COBOL programmer in 1982, we had a cabinet all along one wall containing the printed source of every program in our system (thousands of them).

When you wanted to edit a program you removed the listing from the cabinet. So you now had that program checked out. When you'd finished changing the program, you printed a new listing and put it back in the cabinet. Checked in.

Paul Mitchell 2010-04-01 12:25:25

What did you do with the original version?

sharptooth 2010-04-01 13:06:36

+1 A:

Yeah, it dates to the early 70's. As a warning, Computer Associates Harvest product is the direct descendant of the original, and boy, does it suck.

I've added Harvest to the Version Control Systems box, and added that box to the Harvest page. Harvest dates to 1970 (in-house) and 1977 (commercially).

Also added SCCS (1972) and RCS (1982).

Since:

there are still projects that work without version control
punchcards were still around in the early 70's
punchcards are, by nature, not going to fit in source control

My bet is prior to Harvest and SCCS, you're not going to find anything older.

Dean J 2010-04-01 12:28:52

Punchcards were still around in the mid-80s, when I worked with them. One of my strangest programming tasks was to write a card punch simulator for the IBM PC, to replace the big, clunky electromechanical machines.

anon 2010-04-01 12:38:53

Did you do source control with them? :-)

Dean J 2010-04-01 13:11:21

svn checkout = take punch card out of the file. svn checkin = put punch card back in the file. svn diff = stack the punchcards together and hold up to the light :)

Cowan 2010-04-01 21:27:45

Mercifully, there is no SVN equivalent of "drop the card deck on the floor".

anon 2010-04-02 00:13:32

I'm assuming a drive crash would be similar to the building catching fire.

Dean J 2010-04-02 13:06:15

ansaurus

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How could it happen that version control software emerged so lately?

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