I tried the new Visual Studio 2005 Team System + VSS2005, no Team
Foundation Server. Some questions pop into my head:
1. WITHOUT TFS, can VSS2005 integrated with VS2005? What I like is the
VS6 kind of integration: when I modify a source file in VisualStudio,
VS found out it's readonly and controled by VSS, then pop up a dialog
for me to check out from VSS. It seems like even with TFS, the
integration between VSS and VS is not the same. From some webcasts, I
can see, in order to use VSS in VS, we have to use it under the "Visual
Source Safe" folder under "Team Project", check in & out from there not
immediatly when we modifing the source code files.
But anyways, after installed the VS2005TeamSystem and VSS2005, I could
not find any place to checkout the file from VisualStudio, I have tried
the "Tool" menu, pop-up menus from "Solution" window, no luck. When I
modify a source code file, and want to save it or build it, VS just
gives me options of "Save As", "Overwrite", "Cancel" ect, no way to
check out the file from inside the VS.
2. Besides Class Diagram, do we have any other UML like diagrams
integrated with code? like Sequence diagram, status charts. In my
opinion, the purpose of these diagrams is providing a visualized view
for the code, which VS2005 is doing one diagram for this purpose, but
most importantly, the view is not just one Aspect. Class diagram is
just "static" view, we need dynamic views like sequence diagram,
activity diagram and status chart. The "static" view is just a start
for understanding the code, then usaully developer shall immediatly
drill down to the code. But with multiple dynamic views, developer can
get idea of the system in a very good understanding without looking
into the code. Take a look Borland Together:
http://www.borland.com/us/products/together/index.html
It provides similar "Hot Sync" with code and diagrams, which don't need
explicitly "round-trips", and it provides not just one diagrams, and
other diagrams integrated with code also, not like Rational Rose or
other CASE tools, just for documentation.
3. Without TFS, can VSS2005 create multiple "workspaces"? I could not
find it from the VSS GUI. Is "Sharing" function in VSS GUI doing the
same thing? But it looks different, especially when trying to share
with recursive folders.
4. Some other functions which I think it is very necessary for a source
control system, I don't think current VSS has it. Please let me know if
I was wrong.
The ability to search "Hijacked" files (Overwirte without checkout)?
The ability to search "new added" files, which are not added into
source control. They may distribute in 100 folders of the 20 projects.
VSS seems no way to find any new files not in source control but in
working local directories.
How good it manage the labels? If in one folder, I have 5 files labeled
as "A", 3 files labeled as "B". In some cases, like analyzing the
previouse build, I want only get the files with label "B". Or, the
files, which labeled "B", previously labeled "A", I want get all the
files versions, which labeled "A". Again, they are 100 files
distribute in 100 folders of the 20 projects, I don't want to check out
them one by one, just tell the root folder: Give me all the files with
label "A", and the version must to "A" not to any later ones. It will
give me every file I need with right version. no extra files.
