Today, 31 May 2009, I am still waiting for this book bought (paid) 2 months ago.
If your struggling to learn version control, GET THIS BOOK
I spent some time searching the internet trying to learn about version control. I should have bought this book earlier. By the end you'll feel pretty confident about version control.
This book will explain what branchs and tags are and how to use them, how a project should be layed out, how to share code among projects, and where to store vendor libraries. The book tells you not just the how, but more importantly the why. The descriptions are clear and easy to understand. I especially like the description of branches being like parallel universes.
This book taught me much about version control. Prior to this book I only had a vague idea or what version control was. Now, armed with this book, I'm transitioning our current repository from the uber-project layout to the layout the book describes. The repository is getting much less confusing.
A helpful, easy read
[Reviewed by XPSD member Andy de Torres]
As the guys behind the Pragmatic Starter Kit Series admit, these books cover basic stuff all developers should know. So it comes as no surprise that Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion is not a ground-breaking, earth shattering book. It's a good, thin, easy to read book that covers the basics of version control and how to work with Subversion. It spends fewer than 20 pages on the basics with the rest of the book covering syntax, setup, and best practices for Subversion. (Check out the CVS version of this book if you're using CVS.) An appendix of "recipes" (which could have been organized better) covers over 60 operations with a quick summary of the commands required for each and a pointer to the section of the book where it was covered. Some of the recipes are simple things that you tend to do from your IDE plug-in or TortoiseSVN or other client, but many are more involved. This is very helpful, because many tasks are infrequently performed, and you can spend a lot of time (in other books) searching for where a topic was covered.
I found the book very helpful in getting Subversion installed with Apache for HTTP-based use (through firewalls) in just a few minutes and also for local use on a USB flash drive (with file-based URLs) as well as for organizing my repository. When the time comes, I will refer back to their "recipes" for dealing with release issues. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone using or considering using Subversion.
Fantastic
This book had everything a non-expert would need to understand the basics of the version control system with Subversion.
The tone is very readable. And the use of graphics was good but could be better
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to build a strong foundation in source code versioning.
It really cuts to the chase so the reader can be doing real work in a matter of minutes. I expect to see updates to this book.
I would like the author to add a chapter or two aimed for web developers. Dreamweaver CS4 (the editor of choice for many web developers) has recently integrated a subversion client for a robust checkout and checkin. It would be nice to see a chapter on how to setup and configure a site in Dreamweaver cs4 with subversion as a version control system.
I would like to know what are the best practice of using subversion in web enviroment. How Apache, Dreamweaver and Subversion can talk to each other happily.
Thanks again for writing such a wonderful book and keep the good job.
An absolute gem
This is my favorite technical book. I read it cover to cover, which is unusual for me but this book was just that good -- comprehensive and quite easy to understand.
It helped me move from CVS to SVN smoothly and with confidence. I also find it to be a great reference to come back to for a refresher here and there.
This book is for Subversion what Ansel Adams' The Camera is for photography: The perfect first step and, for some, the last step they need.
