Question

Is there any reason to not use Time Machine over Subversion (on Mac)?

I’ve been using both Versions and Cornerstone trials. Neither can resolve merge issues. With svn 1.6, you have the impossible tree conflict. If you get that, forget it. I continually have tree conflicts and file conflicts but no way to do anything about them. My setup is probably the simplest possible: One trunk with tag branches using a file system. Since trying to use Subversion, I’ve lost so much time. Previously, I was using Time Machine and never had any issues. I’m the only developer. Is there any reason to not ditch Subversion and go back to Time Machine?

Would using a local http:// type of repository work any better than my file based system or will I still see non stop tree and file conflicts that lead to no where?

Please don’t point out the subversion redbook. Tree conflicts aren’t really covered.

Answer 1

Time Machine is not a source code revision control system. Here are just a handful of things subversion can do that Time Machine does not do:

• diffs between versions
• attach commit messages
• revert changes to a known good state
• branch/merge (yes this can even be useful for a single developer who wants to try an experiment on the codebase which may or may not work)
• ability to tag releases
• ability to introduce a 2nd developer to your project and share code