Source code management is a field in which versioning plays a large part, but it is by no means limited to it. Most every type of file can be versioned, that is to say that changes can be noted by a VCS in anything from a jpeg to a word document. The project doesn’t even have to be a team one; individuals can work on a solo project. Subversion in this context is just used to allow a user to experiment with whatever work they are doing freely. As long as they frequently commit their changes a graphic designer can retrieve older versions quickly should they decide the version of the PSD image they were working on an hour ago looked better.

Of course since Subversion’s release around 2004 there have been programs that attempt to improve upon it, in the same way that it improved upon CVS. Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, has had a hand in the creation of an alternative in ‘git’. While Subversion proclaimed it was “CVS done right”, fixing many of the problems of CVS, Torvalds boldly responded that there ‘is no way to do CVS right’. The flaws from his perception then lie in who gets to commit their changes, and the inter-office politics related to how this is decided. To this end git focuses on branching much more. Every user gets their own branch, from which they work on and commit to, effectively a local version of the project. When they have made significant changes then they may commit to the server’s remote copy. At times this seems a bit more complex than an office project needs to be, but it is well suited for things like the Linux kernel, for which it is currently used. It also introduced advanced features like cryptography that wouldn’t ordinarily be used.

By now Subversion is available for most all operating systems, and there exists a wide variety of programs to interact with it. Its previous incarnation as a command-line program is rarely used, because of the wealth of options that exist. Since it is most frequently used to handle source code from various programming languages, plug-ins that allow users to commit their changes and update their local copy are becoming increasingly common in integrated development environments. TortoiseSVN is an excellent piece of software for Windows that lets users control their Subversion projects easily and quickly. It integrates itself into the right-click menu, providing users with the ability to create a project locally or import from a remote machine for example a LAN or Internet.

Subversion is an excellent example of a version control system doing one thing right. It allows users the confidence of knowing that whatever they do (or however badly they mess up) none of their work is lost. This allows individuals tomake huge revisions and changes without worrying about losing elements along the way. The simple control it gives users is reliable and lasting, as a subversion project is a kind of archive that keeps track of the journey on every step of the way.

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