(no subject)
Jul. 17th, 2006 01:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roadrunnertwiceLess than 24 hours* after I cracked open that Subversion book, I have a good grip on the daily-usage commands, understand how to manage things such that I'm not working at cross-purposes with the program, and know how to do at least two things that I decided were impossible when I was trying to learn CVS. In other words, I'm pretty much fully-equipped to start deploying it for my writing projects. Not fuckin' bad.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about: Subversion is what's known as a version control system. Think of it as a cross between a librarian and a functional time machine. Instead of "owning" the copies of the files that you're working on, you "check them out," making sure to go back and show them to the librarian every once in a while. In return for that minor inconvenience, you can go back and see what the files looked like at any point in their history. Deleted sections, reworked stanzas, intermediate files that you've gotten rid of completely... it can all be resurrected at the drop of a hat. And one of the big exciting things about Subversion in particular is that it can do this with any type of file, and do it just as efficiently as it does with plaintext.
(Actually, speaking of librarians, I think certain elite characters in the Thursday Next books could do basically the same thing with books in the great library—surf through the backstory and plot outline, swap in and out of previous revisions, access chests full of plot devices that got pruned somewhere along the way, interview dropped characters. Yes, this power could be yours. It's fuckin' sweet.)
So I'm going to keep using it as a command-line utility for a little while (one should only shave so many yaks in a given week), and then I'm going to check out the graphical front-ends available. What I'm hoping is that I can find one that works easily enough and transparently enough that I can (in good conscience) tell partially-computer-literate creative types to use it. We'll see if it's out there; version control has typically been the domain of hackers, and I'll be interested to see if anyone's ever tried to market it to the technically-disinclined.
_____
* ...and these were not particularly intensive hours.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about: Subversion is what's known as a version control system. Think of it as a cross between a librarian and a functional time machine. Instead of "owning" the copies of the files that you're working on, you "check them out," making sure to go back and show them to the librarian every once in a while. In return for that minor inconvenience, you can go back and see what the files looked like at any point in their history. Deleted sections, reworked stanzas, intermediate files that you've gotten rid of completely... it can all be resurrected at the drop of a hat. And one of the big exciting things about Subversion in particular is that it can do this with any type of file, and do it just as efficiently as it does with plaintext.
(Actually, speaking of librarians, I think certain elite characters in the Thursday Next books could do basically the same thing with books in the great library—surf through the backstory and plot outline, swap in and out of previous revisions, access chests full of plot devices that got pruned somewhere along the way, interview dropped characters. Yes, this power could be yours. It's fuckin' sweet.)
So I'm going to keep using it as a command-line utility for a little while (one should only shave so many yaks in a given week), and then I'm going to check out the graphical front-ends available. What I'm hoping is that I can find one that works easily enough and transparently enough that I can (in good conscience) tell partially-computer-literate creative types to use it. We'll see if it's out there; version control has typically been the domain of hackers, and I'll be interested to see if anyone's ever tried to market it to the technically-disinclined.
_____
* ...and these were not particularly intensive hours.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 09:00 am (UTC)I suppose there's always the option of turning this into a Project.
Things I would need to build a simplified Subversion client for Mac:
- Knowledge of Cocoa (cost of books, plus a bunch of free time to read and experiment)
- Knowledge of the SVN APIs (time, time, time...)
- A consistent system of metaphors capable of conveying complicated concepts like repositories, working copies, check-outs, and commits to technically-disinclined creative types--must inform thoroughly, while not making anything more complicated than it needs to be (inspiration, hard work, LOTS of testing on friends and strangers)
- A coherent interface that makes sense within the aforementioned system of metaphors (inspiration, hard work, time)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 04:10 pm (UTC)We're re-arranging space so that we have a den/studio and I'm setting up my 1980's secretary-style typewriter (read: monster of a machine) near the computer. That seems as close as I can get to this sort of program.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 08:14 pm (UTC)The great thing about using version control is that you don't HAVE to, per se, "draft." Just keep editing the same file and remember to commit every time you finish a significant editing session, and you'll get all the benefits of careful draft-sorting without having to actually bother.