Question

I have a dev team that is split in mentality of using visual studio source control bindings. Half would like the integration and half would not. Is there a way to add a solution only binding setup so each team could use a different solution based on their preferences?

Answer 1

There is no painless solution to this problem. The reason being that Microsoft made the monumentally bad decision to embed source control information into .NET solution and project files.

Let’s say Dick wants to use the SCC plugin and Jane doesn’t. Dick adds a project to version control via the plugin and information like this will be written to the solution file:

GlobalSection(SourceCodeControl) = preSolution
    SccNumberOfProjects = 2
    SccLocalPath0 = .
    SccProjectUniqueName1 = someApp\\someApp.csproj
    SccLocalPath1 = someApp
EndGlobalSection

and some garbage like this will be added to the project(s) files:

<SccProjectName>SAK</SccProjectName>
<SccLocalPath>SAK</SccLocalPath>
<SccAuxPath>SAK</SccAuxPath>
<SccProvider>SAK</SccProvider>

In addition, some files will be strewn about the project folder tree (MSSCCPRJ.SCC files in the solution and project folders, a *.vssscc in the solution folder, and *.vspscc files in the project folders).

The extra files are not a problem as long as Dick doesn’t check them into source control (although the plugin is always going to want to check in those .vssscc and .vspscc files). However, the source control information that gets written to the solution and project files will always be an annoyance for Jane. Whenever she opens the solution, she will be nagged by this message:

and then this one:

Should she choose the option to “Permanently remove source control association bindings”, the source control information will be removed from the solution and project files and she will be happy again. However, Dick’s SCC plugin won’t work anymore and he’ll probably rebind the projects to source control and an office riot will ensue.

To sum it up, you can share .NET project between those who use the SCC plugin and those who don’t, but one or more parties are going to have to endure some annoyances because Microsoft decided to add source control information to .NET project files (such a bad decision, this wasn’t a problem in Visual Studio 6).