This post covers the procedure to setup a remote Git (a Distributed Version Control System) and a remote SVN (a Centralized Version Control System) repository. The changes are tracked, so it is easy to see who made what changes at any point of the project.

Each developer checks out part or all of the code, modifies existing or creates new code for their assigned tasks, tests their code, and then checks the code back into the repository. Since many company applications are developed and maintained by more than one developer, repositories enable developers to access the entire application while working on their individual coding tasks. With repositories, materials are checked in and out as needed, and older historical versions of the materials are available for rollback (or comparison) in the event that code changes introduce a bug in the program. Many companies also prefer to store project documentation like requirements, specifications, user guides, and project plans in their repositories. Repositories are programs that store and organize source code, executable code, images, attachments, and libraries for client and server-based applications.

Some companies used file servers to store source code, but again it could be difficult to keep source code synced if developers made local changes and forgot to update the main code on the file server. This was a problem if the files were stored locally and the computer hard drive failed, and it made it difficult to keep code in sync when other developers had local versions of code that may have changes that impacted other areas of a program. In the old days, developers used file system directories with customer naming conventions to organize their code and support files. By Mike Hubbartt, © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved.

Rising Mist for apple instal