[Bf-committers] Great tool for the coders that I use for all my work.

[Kiernan Holland]

This is a tool that has helped me out many times over in observing 
changes in source code.. And its shareware (the good kind, the kind you 
don't have to pay for unless you are a company): 

Its called CS-RCS, and there is another called WinMerge.. 
http://www.componentsoftware.com/products/rcs/
http://winmerge.sourceforge.net/

CS-RCS is a personal revision control system, like CVS, but 
works on any directory or file in windows. How I usually 
use it is to compare source code revisions and to maintain 
revisions, revert back to older releases, etc..  

If your right click on a directory, after having installed CS-RCS, 
it will give you the option to add the directory to CS-RCS.. Then you 
can copy another directory directly atop it and right click "Check In", 
that will update the revision system and allow you to compare by 
two methods the source, either by diffs or by a user friendly "strike thru" 
method, you can see what got taken out and what was added.. 
Of course it doesn't help much for source code that is moved around, 
but for minimal changes it can be helpful.. 

The Winmerge program I don't use often, but have used a few times, 
it will let you see what files changes between two directories and 
copy source from one to the other, or view the source differences.. 

I'm going to use CS-RCS to compare the source from two years ago to 
the source now, to see if there is something going on int he event 
handling structure.. And I thought you guys might want to know about 
this tool.. I know CVS can be good but I don't know if there exists a 
visual tool like this for viewing diffs.. I saw on the winmerge page there
is a 
CVS client, it seems. 

Anyhow, I've been using CS-RCS for a couple of years, and haven't lost 
a bit of source revision with it.. Its not as easy as winmerge to see
changes, but 
it does assign revision numbers to files dynamically.. If anything changes
it gets a 
new revision number.. And you can compare one revision with any other
revision 
to see what changed.. As well as give notes at each revision and codes for 
the revision. It would help out on your own end for seeing what changed
between your 
revisions and the revisions from CVS. It doesn't store the revision files
in the 
directory with the CVS stuff so it won't conflict,  it uses a local
directory structure 
that mirrors all driectories down from the main directory.. And will work
anywhere in 
the file structure, so if you need it for something, its always available. 



riseofthethorax@earthlink.net
http://www.bl3nder.com/