omniVERSE wrote:

> "Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
> news:38838122.8ACABBF5@pacbell.net...
> >
> > "Jon A. Cruz" wrote:
> >
> > > And whenever you finish editing a .pov file and are at a stage that you
> might want
> > > to keep around, or just before you start doing strange experiments in it...
> > >
> > > ci -l myfile.pov
> > >
> > > the command
> > > rcsdiff myfile.pov
> > > will show you what has changed since your last check-in.
> > >
> > > the command
> > > rcslog myfile.pov
> > > will show you a history on that file.
> >
> > That sounds like an aweful lot of work when you can just hit the "save as"
> > button once in a while to save your work. Source control in a pov file is
> > almost pointless unless you have an image to go with it to compare the
> > visual output differences between the two files. <g>
> >
>
> That was my point though, I have done the File/Save as... routine many times
> before and get lot's of similar files that have to be deciphered at a later date
> to tell which is which.  Not easy to do, esp. when the rendered image alone
> isn't altogether simple to compare.  I may have deleted the good ones and kept
> the bad ones trying to go by the most recent date.
> Besides, there isn't a "Save as" button, would be a very good idea though.
>
> Bob

Well, actually when you check in a file (i.e. commit a revision to source control)
you are prompted to give the change a quick description. Browsing these later is a
bit simpler (gee, when was it that I switched to the clock variable..).

Another feature is that you can give any version of a file or set of files a label.
Handy for later when you want the version submitted to the IIRC, the updated
version for p.b.i, etc.

One thing that makes source control software better than using save-as is that all
the versions are stored in order. Unless you start branching (which you have the
option of if you really want to) it's quite easy to see how things fit together.
Another thing is that only the difference between versions are stored. That can
save quite a lot of space in the long run.


Another thing that is possible is for your editor to have hooks directly to RCS or
CVS or whatever. The current Windows POV-Ray does not, but emacs (which I'm using
primarily now) does. In addition to File-save, you just need a "Check in/out" item.

I guess maybe I should find out if any other POV-ers are using any kind of source
control, and then maybe do a quick set of pages on source-control for the
non-programmer. (Oh, BTW there are some GUI RCS & CVS tools in addition to
command-line ones)


--
"My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box" - W.A.Y.

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"Jon A. Cruz" wrote:
> 
> I guess maybe I should find out if any other POV-ers are using any kind of source
> control, and then maybe do a quick set of pages on source-control for the
> non-programmer. (Oh, BTW there are some GUI RCS & CVS tools in addition to
> command-line ones)

Especially CS-RCS for Windows, which is (for personal use) free.
http://www.componentsoftware.com/csrcs/

Markus

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