Skip to main content

Using VSS - Visual Source Safe

VSS : Visual Source Safe

The visual source safe should be used to host all the softcopy material of the project. Even though you do not use it as a configuration management tool, it’s use just as a storage device is also very advantageous for the project. Use of VSS allows you to revert back to the older versions of the files easily. Also as every body has it’s code at one place taking the backup becomes very easy.

Here are a few points to be remembered when using VSS:

1. From Tools menu options sub menu:

In local files tab: Compare files by: Content

Replace writable files: Ask

Set date/time on local files: Current

2. If the vss is used for storing the files developed on unix platforms, the files are in binary format. ( Refer UseVSSforUnix.doc)

Then in Tools->options->File Types

Extensions of those files should be written in Binary Files field.

e.g. Binary Files : *.cpp,*.h

This feature should be set by loging in as administrator with all other users logged off.

This will let VSS know that the files with above extensions are in binay format. But in case of binay files you can not use the diff utility of the VSS.

This is very important because if binary file is added to VSS, then the ctrl M characters get added to file with file getting converted to ASCII format.

3. To create a new folder in VSS, go to File menu and choose option Create Project…

4. Many a times the response time of the VSS is slow, and thus in a hurry we end up dragging some file or folder into another folder. In this case the VSS asks whether you wish to share it, thus you should read the messages from VSS carefully.

5. You can mention the refresh time of VSS from Tools->options menu. The VSS will then refresh automatically after that duration. Sometimes when you try to check out a document, you get a message of document already checked out. This is just because some one else checked out the document but the VSS is yet to be refreshed. In that case use F5 to refresh the VSS.

6. The files in VSS should be properly labelled, especially the code. Before making some major design changes, or integrating some module which is going to affect the overall working and off-course before the intermediate deliveries.

7. You can easily find out the checked out files form View->Serach>status search menu. (DO not forget to press ctrl+q to cancel the search ).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explain Polymorphism and Flavors of Polymorphism...

Polymorphism is the ability of different objects to react in an individual manner to the same message. This notion was imported from natural languages. For example, the verb "to close" means different things when applied to different objects. Closing a door, closing a bank account, or closing a program's window are all different actions; their exact meaning is determined by the object on which the action is performed. Most object-oriented languages implement polymorphism only in the form of virtual functions. But C++ has two more mechanisms of static (meaning: compile-time) polymorphism: Operator overloading. Applying the += operator to integers or string objects, for example, is interpreted by each of these objects in an individual manner. Obviously, the underlying implementation of += differs in every type. Yet, intuitively, we can predict what results are. Templates. A vector of integers, for example, reacts differently from a vector of string objects when it receives
17 comments
Read more

Explain using static class member ..

A class member declared static is a single instance of that member shared by all instances of this class (that's why it is sometimes termed a class variable, as opposed to object variable). This feature has many uses: for instance, in order to create a file lock, one can use a static bool class member. An object trying to access this file has to check first whether the static (i.e., shared) flag is false. If it is, the object turns the flag on and processes the file safely, since other objects will now find that the flag is now on, and hence -- they cannot access the file. When the object processing the file is done, it has to turn off the flag, enabling another object to access it. How is a static member created? class fileProc { FILE *p; static bool isLocked; //only a declaration; see definition below... public: bool isLocked () const {return isLocked; } }; //somewhere outside the class definition: bool fileProc::isLocked; //definition; initialized to 'false' by defau
9 comments
Read more

the Differences Between static_cast and reinterpret_cast

The operators static_cast and reinterpret_cast are similar: they both convert an object to an object of a different type. However, they aren't interchangeable. Static_cast uses the type information available at compile time to perform the conversion, making the necessary adjustments between the source and target types. Thus, its operation is relatively safe. On the other hand, reinterpret_cast simply reinterprets the bit pattern of a given object without changing its binary representation. To show the difference between the two, let's look at the following example: int n = 9; double d = static_cast < double > (n); In this example, we convert an int to a double. The binary representation of these types is very different. In order to convert the int 9 to a double, static_cast needs to properly pad the additional bytes of d. As expected, the result of the conversion is 9.0. Now let's see how reinterpret_cast behaves in this context: int n = 9; double d = reinterp
2 comments
Read more