October, 2002

Welcome new subscribers. Our feature article describes a key CM benefit: Graphical Versioning.

Topic Index:

• New Product Name
• Reader Comments
• CM Concept: Graphical Versioning
• New Release Highlights
• SnapshotCM Tips & Tricks
• Coming Soon
• Subscriptions

New Product Name

We are in the process of renaming TrueCM to SnapshotCM. The name change reflects the key distinction and advantage of the product over the competition. The rename is also prompted by a claim that the TrueCM name might be confused with a competitor's trademarked name. I guess this means we are getting some press - the competition has noticed!

Along with the product name change, this newsletter is also renamed to SnapshotCM News.

Reader Comments

The Upside Down Versioning article from the last issue generated some significant reader mail. Comments ranged from "So what's the big deal," to "why did you use the terms static and dynamic" to describe project versioning?

Apparently significant confusion remains about the distinction in approach I was trying to get across (i.e. what is different between static versioning and dynamic versioning) and the implications of the different approaches. Since the article was published, I've realized that a better term for static is already in use in the product -- the term snapshot. Thus, the contrast is between snapshot versions and dynamic versions. I'll try to revisit this topic in a future newsletter in greater depth, but for now, let me try two quick definitions:

Dynamic Versioning

A method for accessing a project version by selecting from a pool of versioned files and directories using run-time evaluated rules. A project version doesn't exist--it is evaluated on demand--and is affected by changes to either the rules or to the pool of versions.

Snapshot Versioning

A method for maintaining a project version as a list of file and directory versions. A database object represents the complete state of a project version, so it can be directly operated upon (copied, branched, frozen, modified, etc.). Only explicit changes to a version will affect that version.

It is worth noting that all dynamic versioning systems provide symbolic tags to remember specific project versions because the dynamic mechanism simply is not well suited to the task!

CM Concept: Graphical Versioning

Project Focus

Graphical versioning raises the level at which you interact with your project by allowing you to operate directly upon project versions. Rather than creating a project version by setting tags on all files and directories, or branching by manipulating all files and directories, or merging by manipulating all files and directories, the project-level focus dramatically increases productivity in two ways: It eliminates errors caused by manipulating individual files for project-level operations; and it allows you to focus on your project rather than how to use your CM tool.

Graphical View

SnapshotCM's graphical view of your project versions illustrates that a picture is truly worth a thousand words. No longer is your project merely a collection of files and directories and versions and tags and "magic" incantations. With SnapshotCM, your project is a clear and understood collection of project versions (called snapshots) and their relationships. By visually displaying your project and enabling direct interaction with the project snapshots, SnapshotCM increases understanding, simplifies project-level operations, and increases developer and administration productivity.

Project Snapshots and Relationships: Project browser showing top-level project snapshot. The blue color indicates frozen snapshots, the red outline indicates selected status, and the directed arcs indicate relationships. For example, both Patch and Current snapshots have the R1.00 snapshot as their baseline project revision.

Graphical Manipulation

Not only can you see and understand your project snapshots and the relationship between those snapshots graphically, you can manipulate them graphically as well. Want to create a new project branch, create and freeze a copy of an existing project version, add a version relationship, compare two project versions? Do all of these graphically. And because of the Snapshot Technology, the performance clearly beats any dynamic system.

Improve Understanding and Communication

The graphical view and direct manipulation of project snapshots means that everyone on a project can understand what is happening with the project, easily and quickly. And specialized tool gurus are no longer needed to do branching and tagging and to creating dynamic rule sets. Get measurable, team-wide productivity with SnapshotCM -- a great investment.

Your feedback and suggestions on this article are encouraged. Simply reply to this message, or send to support@truebluesoftware.com.

New Release Highlights - TrueCM 1.44 (July, 2002)

Several significant new features continue to enhance TrueCM's capability. The highlights:

• Significant usability improvement to the Workspace Browser, including a restructuring of the item selection model, moving the tool bar icons into the separator bar and adding additional icons.
• You can now specify a start up workspace and directory on the GUI command-line.
• Files with an unknown status will now display a ? icon until you explicitly do a check out or check in.
• When overwriting a file with unknown status, the original will be saved as *.bak.
• Put locally deleted files into the recycle bin (on Windows).
• Detailed list of changes.

Register for an evaluation version here. Existing customers may go directly to the normal download location to obtain the latest release.

SnapshotCM Tips & Tricks

We'd like to make this a regular feature, and your suggestions will help make it so. Send your SnapshotCM Tips and Tricks to support@truebluesoftware.com for inclusion in a future newsletter.

• You can check in a file by dragging it from the workspace view to the snapshot view in the Workspace Browser. You can check out by dragging the other direction as well.
• You can copy a snapshot to another project by using sscopy -rollback. Be careful as the target snapshot content is replaced.
• wremove -U can be used to unlink (remove without recording a delete in the history) a file from a snapshot. Especially useful when splitting a project in two.

Coming Soon

In the coming weeks, we expect to unveil a new web site with improved content, and release the next version of the newly named SnapshotCM product. Stay tuned for details.

Newsletter Subscriptions

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