Professional Visual Studio® 2008

Chapter 7. Source Control

Many different methodologies for building software applications exist, and though the theories about team structure, work allocation, design, and testing often differ, one point that they agree on is that there should be a single repository for all source code for an application. Source control is the process of storing source code (referred to as checking code in) and accessing it again (referred to as checking code out) for editing. When we refer to source code, we mean any resources, configuration files, code files, or even documentation that is required to build and deploy the application.

Source code repositories also vary in structure and interface. Basic repositories provide a limited interface through which files can be checked in and out. The storage mechanism can be as simple as a file share, and no history may be available. Yet this repository still has the advantage that all developers working on a project can access the same file, with no risk of changes being overwritten or lost. Most sophisticated repositories not only provide a rich interface for checking in and out, such as merging and other resolution options, but can also be used from within Visual Studio to manage the source code. Other functionality that a source control repository can provide includes versioning of files, branching, and remote access.

Most organizations start using a source control repository to provide a mechanism for sharing source code between participants in ...