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I want to upload a class-diagram to a public repository on GitHub.
Is there any tool which is considered to be a convention for this purpose?
Currently, I am using Google Docs, from which I can export a PDF.
Someone has suggested for me to use https://www.draw.io/, from which I can export an XML (which would be a lot more suitable for version control, since it is pure text), but I don't know whether or not this tool is "well accepted" across the community.
All versions control systems work with text files. PDF is not a text file. Forget it. It is the same as putting exe files under version control. VCSs work with source files, don't forget this.
All diagrams editors has inner representations of diagrams in some sort of text file. Eclipse UML editors use XML. So, the versions control systems can easily take these files and work with them.
The problem comes when you have conflicts. You will have to resolve them reading and understanding the inner language of the diagram representation. It could be very difficult.
So, it is possible, but try to minimize the conflicts.
Myself, I'd be perfectly happy with Git or Mercurial, but I'm tying to identify a version control system which all our Windows admins could use for sharing script code, meeting the following requirements:
distributed, i.e. we want a central repository where users can clone or fork from
GUI on Windows (bonus points for Explorer integration like the TortoiseCVS forks)
Windows-friendly installation (e.g. msysgit's OpenSSH or PuTTY configuration disqualifies it)
easy to understand, i.e. the end users probably do not know or use terms like trunk, branch, and tag, and ideally would never need to
integrates with popular text/code editors like Notepad++ (this is not a must-have, but would be a real plus)
Maybe I'm asking too much, but there must be some usable VCS out there to fit the bill!
Some thinking
I can't see any strong reasons in your use-case for DVCS (i.e. reasons for cloning-merging instead of personal "shelves")
Friendly installation: for admins (even Windows-admins must have brain and easy understand "OpenSSH or PuTTY configuration")?
Ideas
You can see at Smart* products from Syntevo (Full-size GUI, not pure shell-extensions /but have shell-extension also/). Beware - Java! SmartGit have human-brain-friendly config, early versions also have support for Mercurial
For editors with SCM-integration I can suggest EditPlus (not free, but reasonable good price) - support from a box for basic Subversion commands (in a main menu), latest build have added support for TortoiseGit. But - with the help of UserTools virtually any (CLI?) command can be added to EditPlus interface and executed in EditPlus editor-window
I'm not aware of any non-IDE editors on windows other than maybe Emacs and UltraEdit that have version control support. Otherwise, Mercurial really does fill the bill. It's distributed, it has TortoiseHg, it has several options for windows installers (including admin and non-admin installs), and at least when using TortoiseHg, it's relatively easy to understand.
No VCS in the world is going to completely insulate users from its own concepts, but if you don't use branches and tags, the issue isn't going to come up (personally I'd recommend at least learning about tags -- they're easier to work with than raw rev spec hashes). Were you to find some other VCS that isn't one of these mainstream choices, I'd be interested in knowing about it, but chances are you'd also find it was one or more of a) expensive, b) has a vanishingly small community, and c) no sites like sourceforge, google code, or bitbucket to host your projects.
Now for one major alternative: If your users are primarily editing documents, then possibly you want a CMS of some sort, for which you have options ranging from the likes of Drupal, Joomla, and Magnolia, to something simpler like a Wiki. MediaWiki with some syntax hilighting plugins might be just the thing for single-file scripts. This is a centralized solution without any real editor integration however, so I'm not sure it's the workflow you're looking for. There are some wikis based on DVCS's (mostly git) but I find they tend to be the worst of both worlds.
the company I work for have started to use Mercurial as our version control software, with NetBeans becoming the editor of choice for most developers.
Up until now we've been using WinMerge and KDiff3as our Mercurial merge tool, but have decided that we don't like it.
Now one of the things we've noticed about NetBeans is that it has a very nice diff tool built into it, so was hoping that there might be some way of using this as the Mercurial merge tool?
Can anyone let me know if this is possible, and if so, how?
(Or, are there any other windows diff/merge tools that are as good as the NetBeans diff tool?)
Cheers
I am not sure about using the NetBeans diff tool but as for other merge tools that will work well with Mercurial, I would recommend Perforce's Merge tool which I have heard is somewhat similar to the Netbeans one.
Another good one is DiffMerge.
As near as I can tell, there is no way to call Netbean's diff/merge tool from the command line, which is necessary to use it from Mercurial.
FWIW: I use Beyond Compare 3 for all of my diff / merge activities, even though I use Netbeans as a primary editor, and it does have Mercurial integration.
Functionally, I find the Beyond Compare interface to be a little easier, and it comes with a number of other features that I didn't think I needed, but have since grown completely dependent on, such as performing text diffs on entire folders, image diffs, and pushing changes between files that are being diffed.
I'm looking for an alternative version control software to TortoiseSVN/ Subversion. Only interested in those with a GUI and an easy installation process, though if multiple installations are needed (Such as vault, which needs both a client, server, and lots of other stuff), please give some installation instructions with your answer.
I'm a one man shop as of right now.
Use Mercurial and TortoiseHg.
Just as matter of interest why is it that you dont want to use subversion?
If you dont want to look after the subversion server and repos, you can always put them in places like assembla, or similar(i only used them and pretty happy wit the service and the value) , that for a small fee will look after all that and the integration with trac, etc.
And the integration tools with most IDEs are pretty good.
Other option is git, tho integration with windows is not great and this is something that you seem to be very interested in.
(I m not afiliated with assembla, just a happy customer so far)
I'd be interested in why you don't like SVN, but some alternatives that I have some experienve with and are free (atleast for one man shops):
CVS
Vault
Perforce
I like Perforce when in an environment with a lot of users (but then it starts costing serious money), but for my personal (one man) stuff, I use SVN - it's much easier to administer.
I second Bazaar -- I've recently been part of converting two teams to using it and it's been quite easy. (Think of it being like git, but able to work in the same way you're used to doing with svn, plus able to work on Windows.) Two people in my office are using TortiseBZR on Windows with good success. It's easy to set up a server too -- I had it done in less than 30 minutes and able to work with others. (The easiest/quickest way to do a server is over SFTP, but you can do it all on your machine too, if you'd like.)
I use GIT on windows with TortoiseGIT and i'm loving it! .
Git Extenions looks like a better way of using Git in Windows than the alternatives. It even comes with a Visual Studio plugin.
VisualSVN integrates directly into Visual Studio if you are working on the .net Framework. The developers of Stack Overflow used it!
PS: Its not free
I'm trying to implement a version control system, but as most of us know designers don't feel comfortable with version control systems. I'm looking for a solution mostly for our designers using Photoshop, Flash and other design tools.
It's not a big deal to use a version control system, like VSS 2005, with our frontend and backend coders, but we have some serious problems with our designers. They mostly refuse to use version control systems, and they are right at some points, mostly on productivity level. They mostly work on more than one file, and on more than one application like Photoshop and Flash.
I don't know if version controlling is the right answer or not. Maybe we have to implement a backup system, but there has to be a versioning system, I think. I and our designers are very tired of doing the same thing or going back to the previous designs over and over again.
It would be wonderful to know how digital agencies overcome this problem. If version controlling is the answer, please share your tips on how to make designers comfortable with version controlling.
EDIT 1: Maybe it would be great to have a solution like Dropbox, as it doesn't disturb you with check-ins/check-outs. All you have to do is to open up a file, work on it and save it, the rest is handled by Dropbox.
EDIT 2: We are on Windows, so no chance to implement anything other than Windows support :(
Thanks...
I haven't actually ever done this with graphic designers, but is it possible that Subversion's WebDAV support might work for them? You can mount a WebDAV share as a drive under Mac OS X and Windows XP & Vista, I believe. Each save becomes a new revision in the repository.
And as for your second, hidden question: Yes, you do need to implement a backup system. At least if you value your data.
Adobe has it's own version control, Version Cue, which is bundled with the Creative Suite package. http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/versioncue/sdk_overview/ Apparently, Eclipse can plug into this. I haven't tried it extensively, but I know it integrates nicely into the file dialog in Creative Suite.
NOTE: Version Cue has been discontinued by adobe after the release of CS5:
http://www.adobe.com/products/adobedrive/
Adobe Version Cue maybe?
You might want to try subversion because there are plugins for windows explorer and max OS X finder. integration with the filesystem has been a big help for me on projects where non-developers had to work with source control. This includes projects that have had designers.
Another key thing that helped was having a good directory structure for the files the designers and other non-developers worked with.
I just came accross ConceptShare and it's pretty great...it's not automated version control but you could use it for that and it's a great way to collect and document feedback.
You can try Subversion (installed on a local or remote server) plus Adobe Creative Suite plug-in that would face the designers - Pixelnovel Timeline
It's compact, has previews of all versions (submitted via the plug-in), works for Photoshop, Illustrator & InDesign.
If developers also use Subversion, everything (code & design) can be kept in one place.
Instead of trying to integrate a version control system with lots of applications on different operating systems, you might want to have a look at copy-on-write file systems such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3cow. That way your designers won't even notice a difference; all they will have to do is save their work to a network share on a linux/samba server using ext3cow.
I'm both a designer and coder. I usually version control code (text data) with git, and simply use "save as" with a version name for graphics (binary data). And I run Apple's Time Machine on top of all that, for safety.
To me, version control on graphic files would just be a burden. I'd have to roll back to see changes, and you wouldn't even get one of the great features of version control: see the changes you did in a specific commit just by looking at diffs. The log feature is nice though, to see how you progressed in time, and notes, but to me personally it's not worth it.
Take a look at Perforce - it has a plugin and tools that allow you to use it from within designer tools such as Photoshop, its also super fast and integrates well with Visual Studio - runs on Windows as well as Linux
What I did once was create a "Snapshot" shortcut on the desktop that added and committed everything from a specific directory.
If every designer commits to their own branch (trivial with a DVCS but easy with SVN too) there will be no conflicts, and the cross-branch merging can be done at intervals by someone who isn't afraid of it.
I've been having my eyes on GridIron's Flow for a while now. It looks like a competent version control suite that has some neat asset management features such as visualization on graphics between versions and relationships between different assets. Flow has support for handling files for adobe photoshop, illustrator, flash etc. However as of now (early january) GridIron hasn't released Flow yet other than having to announce the beta program.
Most digital agencies that I know of that mainly do web development use Subversion for version control. To avoid conflicts on image files an artist will lock the files he or she will work on. That way, another artist won't do the mistake of overwriting changes. This requires some coordination among artists and devs so that noone steps on anyone shoes. Also, if someone forgets to unlock, there is the possibility to break locks.
If you're into distributed version control you might want to take a look at Mercurial as it has good support for Windows and has some neat cheat sheets. The Ruby kids are using git but is rather lacking in Windows.
Before using version control with artists, at least make sure they know the basics of version control and let them fool around with it in a sandbox. Also make sure they've set up some basic rules of conduct when collaborating with each other and interacting through version control (i.e. ways to make sure they don't destroy each others works or step on each others toes).