https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5 What is it and why is it important? en-us 2019-02-18 14:01:43 UTC 2023-05-17 21:26:14 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837196 Version Control is the practice of storing when changes are made, who by, and the new version number. This makes it much easier to see who is making changes to the document, as well as what changes were made to the document. ]]> 2019-02-27 11:59:44 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837196 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837252 Version control is a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later.

Version control is important for documents that undergo a lot of revision and redrafting and is particularly important for electronic documents because they can easily be changed by a number of different users. These changes may not be immediately apparent.]]> 2019-02-27 11:59:52 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837252 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837437 This is important because small changes can cause either errors with the software itself, or other programs / equipment that many be within the same environment. making sure that you can roll back a version, or move it forward to the latest version, can be important for smooth operations while the issues are resolved.

]]> 2019-02-27 12:00:35 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837437 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837495 In a version control system instead of just saving a document after your changes have been made you would commit it. This involves a save-like operation commanding the version control system to store this particular version and specifying a message stating the reason for their change or what it accomplishes. When another commit is made then the previous version would remain in history where its changes can be examined at a later time. Version control systems can therefore solve the problem of reviewing and retrieving previous changes and allow single files to be used rather than duplicated.]]> 2019-02-27 12:00:52 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837495 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837566 Version control - allows everyone to know what document is most recent.]]> 2019-02-27 12:01:03 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837566 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837676 Collaborators/collaboration]]> 2019-02-27 12:01:30 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837676 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837738 Correctly storing versions]]> 2019-02-27 12:01:48 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837738 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837788 Previous version restore]]> 2019-02-27 12:02:03 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837788 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837885 Understanding of what has changed previous]]> 2019-02-27 12:02:28 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837885 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837996 Backups ]]> 2019-02-27 12:02:50 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335837996 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335838248 Collaboration
Without a VCS in place, you're probably working together in a shared folder on the same set of files. Shouting through the office that you are currently working on file "xyz" and that, meanwhile, your teammates should keep their fingers off is not an acceptable workflow. It's extremely error-prone as you're essentially doing open-heart surgery all the time: sooner or later, someone will overwrite someone else's changes.

With a VCS, everybody on the team is able to work absolutely freely - on any file at any time. The VCS will later allow you to merge all the changes into a common version. There's no question where the latest version of a file or the whole project is. It's in a common, central place: your version control system.

Other benefits of using a VCS are even independent of working in a team or on your own.

Storing Versions (Properly)
Saving a version of your project after making changes is an essential habit. But without a VCS, this becomes tedious and confusing very quickly:

How much do you save? Only the changed files or the complete project? In the first case, you'll have a hard time viewing the complete project at any point in time - in the latter case, you'll have huge amounts of unnecessary data lying on your hard drive.
How do you name these versions? If you're a very organized person, you might be able to stick to an actually comprehensible naming scheme (if you're happy with "acme-inc-redesign-2013-11-12-v23"). However, as soon as it comes to variants (say, you need to prepare one version with the header area and one without it), chances are good you'll eventually lose track.
The most important question, however, is probably this one: How do you know what exactly is different in these versions? Very few people actually take the time to carefully document each important change and include this in a README file in the project folder.
A version control system acknowledges that there is only one project. Therefore, there's only the one version on your disk that you're currently working on. Everything else - all the past versions and variants - are neatly packed up inside the VCS. When you need it, you can request any version at any time and you'll have a snapshot of the complete project right at hand.

Restoring Previous Versions
Being able to restore older versions of a file (or even the whole project) effectively means one thing: you can't mess up! If the changes you've made lately prove to be garbage, you can simply undo them in a few clicks. Knowing this should make you a lot more relaxed when working on important bits of a project.

Understanding What Happened
Every time you save a new version of your project, your VCS requires you to provide a short description of what was changed. Additionally (if it's a code / text file), you can see what exactly was changed in the file's content. This helps you understand how your project evolved between versions.

Backup
A side-effect of using a distributed VCS like Git is that it can act as a backup; every team member has a full-blown version of the project on his disk - including the project's complete history. Should your beloved central server break down (and your backup drives fail), all you need for recovery is one of your teammates' local Git repository.]]> 2019-02-27 12:04:02 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335838248 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335838406 https://blog.learntoprogram.tv/version-control/]]> 2019-02-27 12:04:51 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335838406 https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335839020 2019-02-27 12:07:39 UTC https://padlet.com/jo_bowden/eksglblnw6s5/wish/335839020