Version Control Services

What's the problem?

You have a complex body of source code used in your research. You may develop it alone, or with students or other researchers. Editing the code isn't a problem, but keeping track of what changed when (and why) is getting to be difficult.

Why should I care?

Most engineering students and faculty have trouble consistently tracking the changes they make to source code, and keeping different versions of that code separated, especially if more than one person is involved in code development. They email each other updated files, and hope that everyone involved keeps track of the latest versions, and that nobody made conflicting changes to that file on their own. When a bug appears that wasn't present in earlier versions of the code, it's difficult to track what changed in the code during that period.

What's your solution?

Put the project's source code into a revision control system, and have all the developers use it to check in their changes plus checking out the latest code base.

Your users could check out code from the revision control system as well, or it can automatically create zip files of the most recent version of the code for easier download and distribution. If you'd like easily-read overviews of who made what changes at what time, if you'd like to maintain a Wiki of tips or other documentation, or if you need a simple ticketing system to ensure that reported bugs are tracked and fixed, then you can tie a software configuration management website to the revision control system.

Where can I find more information?

Contact Mike Renfro (renfro@tntech.edu, 372-3601, Clement Hall 314), or see this example site.