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I am using c# express and would like to use a free version control system. Please share your recommendations.

skaffman
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dotnet-practitioner
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6 Answers6

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Visual Studio Express is crippled in the sense that it cant load any plugins or addons.

Just go with TortoiseSVN. Works easy enough.

leppie
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    why should he use svn? Why not a distributed VCS? – Johannes Rudolph Nov 02 '09 at 17:22
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    Because it is hard, and SVN takes a few clicks. – leppie Nov 02 '09 at 17:48
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    Most people do not need a distributed VCS and most distributed VCS solutions require command-line interfaces or other knowledge on how to configure them. I have not found one as simple to set up as SVN. – Tim Nov 02 '09 at 17:51
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    I found all the setup inherent to a svn repository was way too much. Mercurial (e.g. the TortoiseHG installation) is a one click operation. – Johannes Rudolph Nov 02 '09 at 17:57
  • @leppie how is setting up a subversion server easier that using Mercurial or Git? – Ramon Sep 02 '12 at 22:40
  • @Ramon: At this stage I would change my answer to Git ;p There is good enough integration in VS to make it painless ;p – leppie Sep 03 '12 at 04:25
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It seems to me you are new to Version Control. If you haven't used source control before, I recommend looking at a distributed version control system (DVCS) directly. My choice was Mercurial, because it has excellent documentation, a clean and consistent interface, works well on all major platforms (using it on Windows, Linux and MacOSX) and a great support for PlugIns (several are officially redistributed, such as mq) that let you do very advanced stuff. There are great GUIs available (TortoiseHG, but also standalone). There is a nice introduction to Mercurial here, but the it's also useful for the general conept.

Popular DVCS include: Mercurial, Git and Bazaar but in the end it doesn't matter which tool you choose There is lots of information here on SO about comparisons.

The best IDE PlugIn is don't use one. I think IDE integration is not necessary when working with a DVCS. When working in a centralized system, it is reasonable for the purpose of automatic check out on edit, rename support etc.. However, I like keeping things seperate. I don't want my IDE cluttered up. I don't see any benefits in using a plugin compared to a standalone solution (that I keep running on a second monitor). To support renaming, a good DVCS has built in heuristics to find and track renames automatically.

I am fine with TortoiseHG and the command line for more complicated tasks.

Johannes Rudolph
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Don't use your IDE for version control. Get to know your version control system itself. Which one you should use depends on your requirements. My personal favourite at the moment is Mercurial.

Ramon
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Since 2012 you can use TFS (Team Foundation Studio) 2012 Express with Visual Studio 2012 Express editions for free.

ghord
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Subversion along with AnkhSVN plugin for VStudio and TortoiseSVN plugin for the windows explorer.

It tracks folders as well as files and keeps history on renames. Those are really useful for refactoring your code.

Edit: forget about AnkhSVn in VisualStudio Express because it can't load plugins.

Marcel Gosselin
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Personally, I hate the tortoise type clients, mainly because Explorer frustrates the hell out of me and isn't a good file-system browser at all..

I choose an unorthodox approach and install NetBeans and use the "favorites" tab to add locations for versioned file systems I wish to manage.

I use this approach for Visual Stuido.

My prior tool was WinCVS.

Brett Ryan
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