Re: Large help projects and version control software

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>]

While I've only managed small departments, I've documented
version control and workflow software too, so ...

The check-out procedure serves several purposes. Yes,
it puts a copy of the doc on the local machine. But
it also locks the file so that only the person that
checked out a file can check it in. That safeguard
is there to protect your team from itself. It alerts
the rest of the team that someone is working on that
file so that they won't. What you're protecting against
is two people making changes to the same file and losing
one person's changes when the two new versions are saved
one atop the other.

Yes, you can override the checkout lock. But you should
only use this for "emergencies" -- for example, when
someone goes on vacation and forgets to unlock their
files. But when you do override a lock be sure that the
locker has checked in the most recent version, or again,
you'll have lost work.

IMO, the larger the team, the more important to follow
an appropriate process.

HTH
-Sue Gallagher


At 09:07 AM 8/19/02 -0700, Steven Brown wrote: