Project management + Source Control

[jxjimmy]

we are using labview 8.5 and not well known source control in a team environment. I'm not sure if it is the souce control that I'm using or other searsons, but I had so much trouble using those combination. I want to know what others thought about project management and/or source control in general.

Thanks,

 - Jimmy

[Graziano]

Hi!
   In my opinion, Source control is mandatory, also if you work alone (at least for versioning code....).  If you work in a team, you have to take great care in merging code produced by other people, and you'll probably need some times to get used to.

   About LV 8.5, I have to say that I use LV 7.1 and an extern tool (tortoise + SVN), i.e. not integrated in IDE.  I use it because my colleagues (C programmers, mainly.) use it, and we use it for documentation too.  Is quite a versatile tool.  Best: it is free.

graziano

[mikeporter]

An important point to remember is taht you need to configure LV properly for it to work well with and SCC system. You need to set two configuration settings:

1. Treat read-only files as locked
2. Don't save automatic changes

Remember to set those and everything will work fine.

Mike...

PS: Despite the whineing you might encounter on another thread, I have used Subversion (also known as SVN) for years and wouldn't be without it. I works great.

[parthabe]

H Jimmy,

I hope that this thread will give you some useful ideas & suggestions.

[DFGray]

Since LabVIEW source is binary, it is virtually impossible to merge using a source code control system (newer versions of LabVIEW have a merge VI facility to help this).  This problem means you should modularize your development as much as possible to avoid having multiple people working on the same VI.

A convention we have used that may help.  If someone needs to check out a VI so they can save it with a few breakpoints for debugging, they do not lock it and simply revert it when finished.  If someone needs to check out a VI to edit it, they lock it.

Good luck!  Let us know if you run into problems.

[Graziano]

Hi!
   Actually, I've never merged, since I'm the only LabView guy on our development team

   I absolutely agree with the fact that SVN is a good tool, but I should confess that I didn't spend much time in evaluating many other tools (never tried MS tools), for this I rely on my colleagues' opinion.

   I can report that SVN is being used in a graphic studio for pictures versioning of course, they don't need to merge images   There's virtually no limit in SVN use...

graziano