Subversion : The next generation of version control systems

Subversion has been gaining popularity as a robust and easy-to-manage version system over the last few years but are there specific advantages for a project to use Subversion as a source code control system? This post briefly examines some of the benefits of using Subversion and brings together a collection of resources that can be used to understand, set-up and start using Subversion as a version control system.

What is Subversion?

Subversion is a version control system which maintains different versions of your documents and files, allowing you to get the latest versions or previous versions easily.

Some of the major advantages for using Subversion are:

1. It is open-source and thus is free.
   
2. Setting up Subversion and managing users is a simple affair.
3. Subversion is rated to handle binary files comparatively better to the widely used Concurrent Versions System. Thus, image files can be handled better.
4. Subversion can be integrated with Eclipse using a plug-in named Subclipse, which is useful for developers who like working from within an IDE.
5. An open-source client (TortoiseSVN) makes accessing and using Subversion from Windows systems easy. Tortoise operates as a windows-shell client and is integrated into the windows explorer.

Some strong testimonials and user experiences are given on this page. On a personal note, I have used Subversion in about 5 projects over the last two years have found it to be a very robust and easy to use source control system.

Using Subversion

Subversion is based on a client-server model, which means that a server process actually monitors and manages access to your files.

( Note: you can also run Subversion as a standalone program to store your personal files but if you choose to do so, you will not be able to access your files from other systems. This article is describing a scenario where you would want to access your files from multiple systems.)

To set up a subversion server, follow the steps outlined in this excellent post.

If you have installed the Subversion server successfully (with Apache), then install a client that will be used to access and modify the files managed by Subversion. To keep things simple, we will focus on setting up Tortoise SVN ( a Subversion client) and use it

To set up the subversion client (TortoiseSVN), follow the steps outlined in this post.

Once you have a server and client system setup, you can access Subversion, check out and check in files, as many times as you like.

Subversion / TortoiseSVN resources

1. Subversion Homepage
2. TortoiseSVN Homepage
3. Subclipse download page
   

Intelligent Lighting in Trains

On my way to work today, in the train, I couldn't help noticing the lights were on while the sun blazed in through the windows.Yeah..Yeah..Melbourne has underground stations..a grand total of 4 but do we need the lights on all the time? I think not. Making the lighting system intelligent is the key.

Power could be saved in such scenarios by fixing a light intensity meter in the engine compartment which would measure the strength of the light filtering into the train.
When the strength of the light would fall below a certain level, the intensity of the power lights increased in the passenger compartments.

Of course such a system will have to be calibrated to take into account temporary changes such as the sun going behind the clouds or another train blocking the sun while passing or we would have the lights coming on and off and passengers getting the Saturday Night Fever.

Foxmarks: A bookmark synching tool

While playing around with Mozilla's FireFox, I came across Foxmarks, one of the recommended Firefox add-ons. The main advantage of the tool, apart from the fact that it is free, is that it allows the synchronization of Firefox stored book marks on different machines. I find option to be a pretty useful feature in the consultancy world, where we move from one system to another and sometimes have to do so at a pretty quick notice. While exporting bookmarks and importing them is an option, it requires a third party medium to transport the bookmarks from one system to another. Foxmarks allows you to perform this operation using an intermediate server. The server also acts as a backup device for the storage of the bookmarks.

Two major advantages of Foxmarks are that the installation process is very light and that the tool is easy to use. Foxmarks has one main button "Synchronize now" which pretty much does what it says. It synchronizes the bookmarks on the local machine with a master copy, that is stored on the Foxmarks server. The master copy on the server is created when the user synchronizes for the very first time.Of course , you need to create a user id to use the service. After the first synchronization, the user has the option to synch the local copy with the server or vice-versa.

While the tool is pretty handy and efficient, it has a few annoyances. Why, for example do I need to manually install the tool on every computer before synchronizing my bookmarks. I feel that Foxmarks should offer to self-install, if a user logs into the Foxmarks account from a non-Foxmarks installed browser. Further, the tool does not allow the synchronization of selective folders. This feature would be handy and would definitely speed up the syncing process.

In the world of online bookmarking (delicious), I find Foxmarks to be an interesting and useful application for someone who is constantly on the move.

A camping experience and a message of Hope

This weekend, I was blessed to hear an amazing and inspiring message at OCF Caulfield's Annual July camp, held at Lyrebird camp site, located 300 kms south-east of Melbourne. The camp in itself was an exhilarating experience and it was one of the few instances in the year when I managed to keep myself away from a laptop for over 24 hours.

The camp offered excellent lodging facilities and it gave the perfect opportunity for a group of 35 odd young university students and one software guy to bond. Over the last three days, two nights, we all came one step closer to experiencing the magnificent love of Christ, the Lord.

The highlight of the camp, for me was the awe inspiring, immensely practical and throughly relevant message given by Pastor Ted Fabiyanic, from CityLife church, Hobsons Bay.

Pastor Ted spoke on the need and the importance of Hope in our lives. He explained how we were living in an imperfect world and were susceptible to the everyday frailties of life. Even if we believed that we are living according to God's will, misfortune will befall us at times. We may lose money in a business deal, fail an examination, lose a loved one and feel that we have been betrayed and cheated by God.

At such moments, it may not be possible to think clearly and understand God's plan but what we need to do is understand that God does not cause these events to give us pain but 'uses' them to remove our imperfections. HE uses them and give us a choice, a choice to choose and change our life for the better. The past is gone, the future is here.

Living in the past and dwelling on negative moments, bad choices, depressing events will only keep us in the past. What is required is to make a choice, to move forward in the right direction. We have several examples of successful people in our world, who have repeatedly failed before succeeding and when they did succeed, they succeeded big time.

Pastor Ted explained that God has forgotten and forgiven us for all our past mistakes and now only two people remembered them. We, ourselves and Satan.And by continuing to remember our mistakes, we were living in the past and refusing to move forward.

In our journey of life, God is a constant companion. HE is walking not behind or in front of us but alongside us. HE has given us the tools to succeed and to live in Hope and the most significant expression of this promise has been His son, Jesus Christ. God prepared Christ for His mission of giving Hope to the teeming millions. As a part of this mission preparation, Christ suffered on the cross physically and mentally but His worst moment of anguish and suffering came when God left Him alone and lonely on the cross for a moment. For that one instant that Christ was alone,He experienced utter hopelessness and despair.

The reason that God led Christ into this suffering was that He would know and understand the meaning of not having hope before He could become the fountain of Hope himself. After all, one cannot under stand the suffering and pain of another human being, unless one has experienced it first hand.

Pastor Ted used the life giving words of Psalm 23 to recite the promise of Hope that had been given to us by the LORD. He reiterated that God had a plan for us all (Jeremiah 29:11). To implement this plan and succeed in life, we are required to Act and not live in a world of wishful thinking. An important step towards achieving our goals is surround ourself with positive people and shun negativity. It is the will of God that our past doesn't define our future, if we choose it not too.

The choice is ours. We have to make it, starting now.