Please, use a version control system, even if your work alone.
Currently, in my team, we are looking for a new junior web developer.
Each time it is the same process.
1. Read the CV.
2. First call to see if the person will be ok FOR the role.
3. Second call with technical questions.
In these technical questions, one is : “Have your ever used a source versioning control system ?”
Easy, isn’t it ?
You’d be surprised with the responses we had :
1. No never used before.
2. Yes I’ve used Eclipse/Tortoise
3. What is it ?
4. No, never because I worked alone or because we were a small team
Come on, how can you imagine working on a project, even small and own project, without a version control system ?
Saving your code, diff capabilities, branches, tags, reverts, history …. can you code without this ?
To hard or you don’t have any server for that ?
Have a look at GitHub
You don’t need one, you work alone ?
So, you never make mistake, you’ve never modified a file and seen a hidden bug 1 week later, never copied and pasted a part of code in a text editor just in case it doesn’t work, never renamed a folder with the word ‘works/ok/test’ ?
If you can say yes to one or more of the behaviours above, you should take half a day to put your project under a version control system and learn how to use it.
If you want to learn more about version control system, smashing magazine made a presentation of 7 version control systems, just take a look.
At work, migration is in progress from CVS to SVN, and for my personal projects, I use Git on GitHub, very easy and very cheap.
What about you ? Do you use one ? Which one and why ?
3 Comments
Spyou on September 25th, 2008
To be honest I really depend on it 
But it’s amazing to saw some developers, really junior or not, saying they never used any version control. They are supposed to have experiences (in jobs or as intern), and when I see people having working for 2 or 3 years in different companies, and still never used it once, it’s really scary.
NBGit, a Git plugin for Netbeans | Not Geekly Correct on October 1st, 2008
[...] PostsPlease, use a version control system, even if your work alone.How do you like to work ?How to search on a MediaWiki (Wikipedia) with Ruby On RailsNetBeans 6.5 [...]
Richard Harrison on September 25th, 2008
I totally agree with you: it’s an essential skill for any developer to have.
I think a large part of it is a lack of education and developer maturity. I remember coding for years without version control (one my own, and in a small team) and the first time someone suggested it I was like, “Nah man, I don’t need that, it’s overkill!”. As you mature as a developer and you run into the problems that it solves, then you start to appreciate it (and eventually depend on it!).
That might be why junior developers are more prone to not having any exposure to it?