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Subversion 1.4 Slips Onto The Web

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:37:54 +0000

The latest version of the popular alternative versioning system to CVS recently emerged with some new features.

The Subversion project has released a new iteration of their version control software. Subversion has been billed as an improvement to CVS, retaining most of that project’s features while adding other compelling ones.

Recently, Subversion’s 1.4 release arrived online. Several new features have been listed for the version control system:

• svnsync, a new repository mirroring tool

• Huge working-copy performance improvements

• Support for BerkeleyDB 4.4 and its “auto recovery” feature

• Size improvements to the binary delta algorithm

• A handful of new command switches

• Many improved APIs

• More than 40 new bugfixes

“Synsync provides the ability to replicate history from one repository to another,” according to the release notes. “The replication can happen all at once, or can be done incrementally through repeated ‘sync’ operations.”

“Because the tool uses the abstract network (RA) API, the source and destination repositories can be either local, remote, or any combination thereof.”

Developers working against a BerkeleyDB 4.4 back-end should see some improvement considering a problem in previous releases of Subversion. “Subversion 1.4 can now be compiled against BerkeleyDB 4.4, which has a new “auto-recovery” feature.”

“If a Subversion server process crashes and leaves the repository in an inconsistent state, the next process which attempts to access the repository will notice the problem, grab exclusive control of the repository, and automatically recover it.”

Since the crashed server processes could leave BerkeleyDB 4.4 “wedged,” the changes available in Subversion 1.4 should make those repositories “wedge-free” in theory. After all, few developers want to get a wedgie when they sit down to code.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Google Launches SourceForge Competitor

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:49:12 +0000

Even though Google said it is not competing with the SourceForge project hosting site, it’s difficult to view it otherwise considering Google’s features and other services that can complement it.

The Project Hosting section of Google Code debuted yesterday during Greg Stein’s talk at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. Stein works for Google as an open source engineer, and is known for his role as chairman of the Apache Software Foundation.

Before the announcement, NewsForge’s Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier and Stein talked about Project Hosting. Stein said in the report that Google just wanted to see what they can do with their infrastructure to provide an alternative service for hosting open source projects.

Google is taking care not to overtly stomp on SourceForge with Project Hosting, which will not have some features that are present at SourceForge and similar sites.

That’s a careful statement, in that Google doesn’t say whether or not it finds those particular features desirable. Stein goes on to tell Brockmeier that Google was able to “cut out a lot of heavy structure” in creating Project Hosting.

Google will disallow attempts to duplicate namespaces that already exist on SourceForge. This will prevent someone from placing code on Project Hosting and naming it after an established project on SourceForge.

Project Hosting has a couple of main features. One is the full-text search across projects using Google’s vaunted technology in that area. The other is version control. Google rebuilt the open source Subversion project to work with Google’s storage technology, called BigTable.

Stein also said Project Hosting will not include website hosting for projects, as SourceForge does. That doesn’t mean Google couldn’t suggest its Base or Pages services as options for developers. Not to mention Gmail and the newly updated Google Talk for communication, or Google Groups for discussions about a project.

ZDNet’s Google blogger Garett Rogers had guessed Stein would announce a SourceForge-like service with Subversion during his talk. He noted that while code search, as opposed to project search, isn’t available yet, it should be something Google unveils soon.

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IBM Wants To Eclipse Unix Developers

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:16:42 +0000

The command line is a wonderful thing, and a developer skilled in the ways of vi (or emacs if you must) can build great applications; IBM thinks developers can do even better with its Eclipse IDE.

For developers new to the ways of Unix, the command line editor can be at best daunting and at worst an obstacle to accomplishing one’s tasks. Freelancer Chris Herborth writing on IBM’s DeveloperWorks website thinks the multi-platform Eclipse IDE offers enough usefulness that developers who switch may never type :wq in vi again.

Eclipse runs on any Unix platform with a JRE version 1.4 or higher, and a SWT port. Herborth discussed the issue of bringing legacy code into Eclipse. He summarized how moving to the IDE can be an option for doing so:

Bringing a complex set of legacy code into a modern IDE like Eclipse doesn’t necessarily require a huge amount of effort or retooling, if you can take advantage of an existing build process. Using Ant as an adaptor between the Eclipse IDE and your existing build process probably won’t take you much time. It also gives you access to all of the existing capabilities.

The author takes the developer through the process of bringing over existing code into Eclipse. The GUI-based interface lets the developer choose the import source and bring in selected files.

Eclipse supports importing code from CVS repositories, but plugins for Subversion and Perforce exist too.

Once the code has been imported, developers can begin enjoying Eclipse’s features, like code completion and syntax highlighting. Eclipse enjoys support from numerous developers, and IBM placed Eclipse into the open source world with the 2001 creation of the Eclipse Foundation. The project looks secure for the future.

Bonus! Enjoy this classic bit of vi humor before you leave.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

SVN Gets Props For Web Development

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 20:05:57 +0000

A Swiss developer has found the Subversion source control system a welcome integration into his team’s web development efforts.

Maarten Manders discussed the situation facing his web development group. Manders found they needed to implement version control, but considered the venerable CVS inadequate for their needs.

Instead, Manders chose Subversion (SVN) for his group’s needs. He cited a few features other web development teams may find attractive about SVN: atomic transactions, Apache piggybacking, and more convenient branching/tagging. Subversion details more of those features on its website.

With SVN came an assortment of quirks Manders had to address in order to make SVN part of the web development efforts. To overcome them, Manders listed what they would need for SVN:

• A public webserver with the live webspace
• A testing webserver with at least one webspace (working copy) for each developer
• A MySQL server with two databases
• A SVN server
• Some discipline

It’s a familiar setup for web development, one that I have worked in previously but with a brand-name version control system instead of SVN. The setup also kept developers from accessing the live server when moving code from development into production, an important security consideration.

With Manders’ implementation, all the developers work in their distinct working directory on the testing webserver. Code comes from one of the MySQL installations set up as a development database. Changes get committed to SVN, and once the web application’s revisions have been completed, the updated app can be rolled out to production.

Some things belong in SVN, and others don’t. Manders covered the dos and don’ts in his post:

Of course, your code belongs into version control. So do database schemata, templates and graphics. What you shouldn’t put in, is:

• User data – user uploaded files and stuff don’t belong there.
• Database data – don’t confuse revision control with a backup!
• Cached data – it’s temporary data.
• Configuration files – they’re to be created manually.

Don’t even think about putting configuration files into revision control. First of all, they tend to get overwritten and, for example, change your live server’s database. Second, passwords don’t belong into revision control! Instead, you should add default config files with changed filenames, like database.conf.default.

Branching off from the main “trunk” of working code should happen with projects requiring their own versioning, projects that take longer than others to complete, and projects with multiple developers, according to Manders.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Weather Forecast For Google: Summer of Code

Chris Richardson — Tue, 31 May 2005 19:47:59 +0000

Google’s embrace of the open source computing community is growing stronger and stronger. If you are a code junkie and would like to make some extra cash, Google may have just the thing for you.

In order to facilitate the open source movement’s growth, Google has launched the Summer of Code initiative, which aims to introduce open source development to coders and students. By using this program, Google is promising students they will return to school with open source development experience and some extra cash in their pockets.

A description provided by Google gives an indication of the program:

This Summer, don’t let your programming skills lie fallow…Use them for the greater good of Open Source Software and computer science! Google will provide a $4500 award to each student who successfully completes an open source project by the end of the Summer.

In order to assist coders who lack open source experience, Google is promising to team up novice coders with the following participating establishments:

The Python Software Foundation (ideas)
The Perl Foundation (submission guidelines & ideas)
The Apache Software Foundation
Ubuntu Linux (ideas)
The Mono Project (ideas)
The Gnome Foundation (ideas)
The Wine Project (ideas)
The Subversion Project (ideas)

As indicated by Google, those who complete an open source project will be rewarded $4500. The deadline to sign-up for the Summer of Code program is June 24. For more information, please read Google’s FAQ. If you are considering becoming a mentor, Google also has information to assist you: Mentoring Organization FAQ.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.