Source Code Control Systems in Web Development Source Code Control Systems in Web Development asp.net asp.net

Source Code Control Systems in Web Development


Do not use Source Safe! It's not only bad for source control it's just bad for the world.

I use Subversion with Tortoise. I love it. Rather easy to get up and running. Branching/Merging can still be a nightmare though.

Visual SVN is good too.


If you havent had a single sourcecontrolsystem so far, I rather doubt you can see the improvements of GIT etc.

Start simple and with a lot of support: use Subversion as Server and Tortoise as Client.

Its a easy setup and easy to use.


Subversion is especially suitable for web development because of the 'differencing' algorithm it uses for binary files. Web development isn't just about code. Binary resources come into play a lot (images, PDFs, etc).

Subversion tracks the differences between files and records those. Contrast that with CVS, which essentially stores another copy of the binary file, and the benefit becomes apparent as your binary resources and check-ins increase.

I use the TortoiseSVN plug-in, which is decent enough for me. As you specifically tag asp .net, you might want to look into VisualSVN, which does a great job in mitigating the biggest problem in version control - a colleague forgetting to add a file to the repository.

I also used Visual Sourcesafe back in the day. Don't know if it's still the same now, but its exclusive checkout per user was a complete nightmare in a team of multiple devs. Constantly had to remind people to check stuff back in or, alternatively, convince a friendly admin to log me in under their credentials whenever someone was out of office.