I have a complex Visual Studio solution working with the data from a database. The database will be modified according to the new business rules, for this reason a new database will be created.
The user needs to work for some years with the old database too. The requirement is to create a new version of the application. Handling the two databases with the same application would be too complex and would create only problems to the users (and to us). The two versions of the application will be installed on the same PCs.
No new funktion will be added to the old version of the application, only bug fixing. Actually I do not see any reason to create a branch. I just want to have on the hand the code of the old version if any bug has to be fixed (any way actually it is a very stable version, without issues since 6 months)
I am just thinking simply to clone the solution folder and create a new product version for the new version. Of course I will take care of all paths and references in the new folder, while the solution consist of many projects and assemblies (more than twenty).
Has this way any drawback or shall I go in any case with a version controlling (svn)? In the past with visual studio 5/6 I was used to clone the project folder for each new major release and it had always worked. Now I have less confidence to do the same with Visual Studio 2010.
Actually I use svn only as backup/recovery system.
Thank you for replying.