Tracking code & scripts

Ruby
1

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some advice on how every keeps track of their own
personal scripts and development. I have several scripts which I use for
various tasks and I regularly have to update them and make small changes
to them. At present I am using an Excel spreadsheet to track changes and
version upgrades but this is dirty.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

2

On 9 Nov 2010, at 15:14, Stuart C. wrote:

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some advice on how every keeps track of their own
personal scripts and development. I have several scripts which I use for
various tasks and I regularly have to update them and make small changes
to them. At present I am using an Excel spreadsheet to track changes and
version upgrades but this is dirty.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

http://git-scm.com/

Dave.

3

On 11/9/2010 9:14 AM, Stuart C. wrote:

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some advice on how every keeps track of their own
personal scripts and development. I have several scripts which I use for
various tasks and I regularly have to update them and make small changes
to them. At present I am using an Excel spreadsheet to track changes and
version upgrades but this is dirty.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

It sounds like you want a version control solution. A spreadsheet is
definitely lacking. I suggest you use Git:

http://git-scm.com/

It’s supported on a wide range of platforms, efficient, and relatively
easy to use for basic work. It also does not require that you set up
any kind of server, unlike another popular alternative named Subversion
(SVN). You can keep everything right in your workspace.

-Jeremy

4

On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 4:14 PM, Stuart C.
[email protected] wrote:

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some advice on how every keeps track of their own
personal scripts and development. I have several scripts which I use for
various tasks and I regularly have to update them and make small changes
to them. At present I am using an Excel spreadsheet to track changes and
version upgrades but this is dirty.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Use decent version control. Like Mercurial: mercurial.selenic.com

It wins over Git in three instances: 1) It is fast on non-Linux
systems, 2) it has a syntax that is not arcane, 3) it works very well
for a sole developer (you’ll only need “hq init”, “hg add”, “hg commit
-m ‘message’”, and “hg update [version]”).

–
Phillip G.

Though the folk I have met,
(Ah, how soon!) they forget
When I’ve moved on to some other place,
There may be one or two,
When I’ve played and passed through,
Who’ll remember my song or my face.

5

On 11/9/2010 11:26 AM, Phillip G. wrote:

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Use decent version control. Like Mercurial: mercurial.selenic.com

It wins over Git in three instances: 1) It is fast on non-Linux
systems, 2) it has a syntax that is not arcane, 3) it works very well
for a sole developer (you’ll only need “hq init”, “hg add”, “hg commit
-m ‘message’”, and “hg update [version]”).

Not to be too picky here, but point 3 is exactly equivalent to what you
would do with git in this instance. :slight_smile:

I haven’t personally used hg myself, but a GUI should help both git and
hg be easier for a novice user. For git on Windows there is
TortoiseGit:

http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/

I’m sure hg has an equivalent.

Regarding the performance, I’m fairly sure that for small projects such
as that proposed here the difference in negligible. Also, I don’t think
there are performance problems for git on anything except Windows.
Git on Windows has been improving at any rate.

In any case, there are some great options available. Give some a try,
and pick what fits best into your work flow.

-Jeremy