Work on single solution simultaneously on lan

dear all,

im a newbie to vs2008

is it possible that 4 people work on single asp.net solution or a windows forms application simultaneously over a LAN
i have a 100mbps connections with the router.

is it efficient? or slow?
do i need any other tools ?


please let me know

thanks

Its nothing to do with the speed of your connection its to do with file contention.

What happens when 2 people are editing documents?
What happens if you are working on a document and another developer deletes it? etc.

At my place of work we make use of a tool called Visual Source Safe which is like subversion but made by windows. It allows you to create versions, share files, check in and check out.

Think of it as a central repository for projects.

By using VSS it means that the files are in one location and can be downloaded to each machine to allow for alterations etc. It also ensures that one user cannot edit whilst someone else has the file.

Thanks a lot!

Look into a source control system like subversion.

even with a source control software, each developer will need the solution on their own workstation. source control won't fix these issues if all 4 of you are opening the same solution file that is on a network drive.

That why you won't have the solution on a network drive when using source control. You get your copy to a local drive and work with it. Nobody else touches that copy.

just making sure the OP knows that. Sounds like their current system is one solution on a network drive. So adding source control doesn't fix the issue that all of them are using the same solution.

so dear friends...

is there any other solution? besides source safe?

you could choose one of the other MANY version control software on the market.

Here are 7 open-source version control systems...

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/200...ontrol-systems/

Of course there are many other systems available.

Or are you not wanting to do version control?

just making sure the OP knows that. Sounds like their current system is one solution on a network drive. So adding source control doesn't fix the issue that all of them are using the same solution.

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No. You cannot "share" the files.

What if *I* am making changes to file A, at the same time you are? And then I save it to disk, then your save overwrites my changes? There's no way to do a merge.

This has been thought through for years... it's not feasible. Each person needs a "copy" to edit. The version control system will insure that only one person at a time gets to edit a file. When they are finished and check it back in, another person can edit it. Only way to go.

You can also "configure" the version control software to allow two people to work on same file at the same time, but then you will have to do some manual MERGING of the completed work. The system will try to do it for you, but can easily make a mistake.

No... if you want to have a team work on a project... you will need to get a networked Version Control system, and each developer will need to "check out" the project locally.

You might not like the answer, but it *is* the answer.

Source control. "source safe" is the name of one specific source control software...

Like others said, there's no other practical solution. May I ask why you are so much against a source control solution? It's really not that much work to set up. When I looked into subversion I had my first repository working and configured in less than a day (with permissions).


This depends on the version control software you are using. When I got my introduction into Source Safe I too was warned about the automatic merging and always merged my sources manually.

In the time that I have worked with subversion I've never seen it mess up an automatic merge. Subversion is pretty cautious about automatic merges and never tries something if it's not 100% sure it will be ok. You'll still have to merge manually in some situations - mostly when committing large changes. If you train yourself and your colleagues to commit small changes in more frequent intervals you can largely get around manual merges.

My discussion on that was brief... wasn't trying to give the guy all the details, just a brief introductory overview. My MAIN goal was to let him know, that what he WANTS to do (have one copy on network, with no version control) is NOT an option.

But I'm still not a fan of allowing the version control system to do the merging. At our company, we have it such that if one person is modifying a file, no one else can.