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It's pretty shocking to change everything (document format, writing environment, collaboration tools) all at once. Start with reasonable source control, the best bacon-saving device you can get. Have everyone check existing docs (Word, HTML, whatever) into source control; Even though diffs are meaningless for the binary formats, the other benefits (versioning, collaboration, remote storage, tags, platform independence) are huge. It's the quickest way to put an end to the madness of emailed .doc files and accidental deletions.

If you've got a lot of Windows users, go with Subversion and get everyone to install the TortoiseSVN shell extension, which offers the most natural GUI for new (and experienced!) users of version control.

Once everyone's comfortable with SVN, you can then start migrating to text-based document formats in which the source control diffs mean something (LaTeX, XML, reStructured, etc.)

It's pretty shocking to change everything (document format, writing environment, collaboration tools) all at once. Start with reasonable source control, the best bacon-saving device you can get. Have everyone check existing docs (Word, HTML, whatever) into source control; Even though diffs are meaningless for the binary formats, the other benefits (versioning, collaboration, remote storage, tags, platform independence) are huge. It's the quickest way to put an end to the madness of emailed .doc files and accidental deletions.

If you've got a lot of Windows users, go with Subversion and get everyone to install the TortoiseSVN shell extension, which offers the most natural GUI for new (and experienced!) users of version control.

Once everyone's comfortable with SVN, you can then start migrating to text-based document formats in which the source control diffs mean something (LaTeX, XML, reStructured, etc.)

Subversion. http://subversion.tigris.org/

What you are describing is a source control system applied to documents instead of code. By design any files in the subversion repo are accessible via url. And you can restrict access using apache httpd access controls.

For example, here is a subversion repo: http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/

notice you only needed a browser to get to it. If you use TortoiseSVN as your client, you can grab a copy using Window Explorer as a file-friendly client.

Here's a screen shot of TortoiseSVN:
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Access via apache httpd is through web DAV, so you can put it in your network share list as well.

Subversion. http://subversion.tigris.org/

What you are describing is a source control system applied to documents instead of code. By design any files in the subversion repo are accessible via url. And you can restrict access using apache httpd access controls.

For example, here is a subversion repo: http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/

notice you only needed a browser to get to it. If you use TortoiseSVN as your client, you can grab a copy using Window Explorer as a file-friendly client.

Here's a screen shot of TortoiseSVN:
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Access via apache httpd is through web DAV, so you can put it in your network share list as well.

...there was a simple fix for that.

So install the AnkhSVN plugin to Visual Studio and demonstrate that the salesperson was lying through their teeth.

http://subversion.tigris.org/

If you are developing or writing text files, then use the command line version of svn everywhere for version control, and TortoiseSVN as a front end in Windows.

For comparing files and directories and merging, use
Beyond Compare.

Sadly there is no visual component to this. It's simply the framework. I'm still using Argo. http://argouml.tigris.org/

But it's a pain when distributing documents.

For short emails it works incredibly well, but if I want 10 people to get the latest version of a document, it's just not good enough. For that you just have to use a decent version-control/synchronisation system; the only problem is that they are viewed as too complex to use.

Fortunately, free software like Tortoise(SVN) are making it easier to use for even non-technical people.

• Knoppix, live linux boot CD ("rescue"), http://www.knoppix.org/
• Unix Rosetta Stone, table to convert linux vs bsd vs unix, http://bhami.com/rosetta.html
• GNU screen, switch between shells in one login, priceless via ssh, http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/
• GNU stow, simple package management for ANY posix system, http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
• vim, not vi (I depend on ^P and a real undo history, note emacs is not so great for sysadmins who need quick changes on dozens of architectures), http://www.vim.org
• sudo, especially when giving a group permission as a non-root user as in my /. post groups + sudo can allow installation rights , http://www.sudo.ws/
• wiki, which tells people how to do things without bugging the sysadmin, (any wiki is good, I use mediawiki), http://www.mediawiki.org/
• CVS/Subversion, note changes in important configuration files (cvs is for older Unixes that can't run svn), http://subversion.tigris.org/
• rdesktop, remotely log into windows Remote Desktop/Terminal Services, http://www.rdesktop.org/
• fail2ban, drop traffic to attacking IPs (ie, failed logins) for small intervals, http://fail2ban.sourceforge.net/

If you get to the point where you realize how vital souce control is to your project(s) then I'll assume that you're already bogged down with work and deadlines. In this case start small. Just get your data into CVS or Subversion (for teams put the repository on the LAN/web/Sourceforge/etc)

This first step will lead you to the next - increased communication in the team and good documentation. For documentation I've been please with the ReadySet project at Tigris.org. Start with the basics and work up from there. Bringing a whole team along for the ride is time consuming, challenging and in the end - absolutely necessary (make it part of their objectives if you can).

Continue from there

Role
I work 60-70% of my time as a member of the core consulting team here and the rest of the time on "IT" administration and management around the local office. I should note though that I am a software engineer first and fore most, but it so happens that in small businesses one must wear many hats. Last year I was also heavily involved in accounting activities and managed a marketing program.

Scale
I only have 30 workstations and 27 servers (only 2 are publicly accessible and 8 are in a RCF) to worry about presently:

Culture
It should be noted that my users are technically very competent, which is a totally different can of worms to you (I assume from your comments), but there are plenty of issues to guard against with too competent a user as well!:) The issues are just different.

Environment
Server OS: RHEL 3
Workstation OS: Fedora Core 4 and 2 MacOS X (those damn graphic designers/marketing folk!:)
VPN Server OS: NetBSD 3 (runs on an Alpha box)

Software Tools
SCM: Subversion http://subversion.tigris.org/
Issue Tracking: Trac, which integrates nicely with Subversion http://edgewall.com/trac/
Internal Documentation (for future growth): Trac's built-in wiki http://edgewall.com/trac/
Web Server: Apache, mod_python, mod_ssl, mod_dav, and all that good stuff http://apache.org/
Knowledge Base: OpenCyc (but looking for something better that is still open source)
Intranet Framework: Python 2.4/TurboGears/Apache/mod_python http://python.org/ and http://turbogears.org/
Authentication: Fedora Directory Server (LDAP)
Updates: Yum, up2date
Server Monitoring: Nagios http://www.nagios.org/
[Internal] Remote Access: ssh and Gnome/VNC for the rare visual task
[External] Remote Access (i.e. VPN): OpenVPN

Internal Tools
Fixed Asset Management: Rolled my own TurboGears Web/AJAX application that hooks into our accounting system (it took 3 days part-time).
Backups: Rolled own Python backup mechanisms including scripts
Deployment Tools: Using Python's autoinst http://autoinst.tigris.org/
Continous Integration: I have started using Bitten instead of using cron and shell scripts to launch Python distribution builds and tests on a nightly and "continuous" basis for immediate feedback - something I find invaluable.

Office Software
As mentioned in a previous posting using a good calendaring tool is a very good idea. My recommendation is the Calendar extension for the Mozilla suite of tools.

Role
I work 60-70% of my time as a member of the core consulting team here and the rest of the time on "IT" administration and management around the local office. I should note though that I am a software engineer first and fore most, but it so happens that in small businesses one must wear many hats. Last year I was also heavily involved in accounting activities and managed a marketing program.

Scale
I only have 30 workstations and 27 servers (only 2 are publicly accessible and 8 are in a RCF) to worry about presently:

Culture
It should be noted that my users are technically very competent, which is a totally different can of worms to you (I assume from your comments), but there are plenty of issues to guard against with too competent a user as well!:) The issues are just different.

Environment
Server OS: RHEL 3
Workstation OS: Fedora Core 4 and 2 MacOS X (those damn graphic designers/marketing folk!:)
VPN Server OS: NetBSD 3 (runs on an Alpha box)

Software Tools
SCM: Subversion http://subversion.tigris.org/
Issue Tracking: Trac, which integrates nicely with Subversion http://edgewall.com/trac/
Internal Documentation (for future growth): Trac's built-in wiki http://edgewall.com/trac/
Web Server: Apache, mod_python, mod_ssl, mod_dav, and all that good stuff http://apache.org/
Knowledge Base: OpenCyc (but looking for something better that is still open source)
Intranet Framework: Python 2.4/TurboGears/Apache/mod_python http://python.org/ and http://turbogears.org/
Authentication: Fedora Directory Server (LDAP)
Updates: Yum, up2date
Server Monitoring: Nagios http://www.nagios.org/
[Internal] Remote Access: ssh and Gnome/VNC for the rare visual task
[External] Remote Access (i.e. VPN): OpenVPN

Internal Tools
Fixed Asset Management: Rolled my own TurboGears Web/AJAX application that hooks into our accounting system (it took 3 days part-time).
Backups: Rolled own Python backup mechanisms including scripts
Deployment Tools: Using Python's autoinst http://autoinst.tigris.org/
Continous Integration: I have started using Bitten instead of using cron and shell scripts to launch Python distribution builds and tests on a nightly and "continuous" basis for immediate feedback - something I find invaluable.

Office Software
As mentioned in a previous posting using a good calendaring tool is a very good idea. My recommendation is the Calendar extension for the Mozilla suite of tools.

Allow me to solve your problems right now:

http://tortoisecvs.sourceforge.net/ (For CVS Servers)
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ (For Subversion servers)

Tortoise will tell your users everything they need to know about the files status right through Windows Explorer. Teaching them how to do checkins and tree updates is also quite easy, thanks to the customized right-click menu. Advanced options like diffing, merging, and branching are still available through the submenus, but your users should be able to get their work done without resorting to those. (At least, not until they're ready.)

Of course, the fact that these are graphics designers may complicate issues somewhat. If they're using a Mac, they won't be able to use Tortoise. In which case, my next recommendation falls on SmartCVS:

http://www.smartcvs.com/

SmartCVS is great for Macintoshes, although it does take slightly more training than Tortoise. The only problem you may run into, however, is that SmartCVS chokes on massive directories of files. I don't know if this problem has been fixed or not, but it was a serious problem for one of the source trees I worked on. (Think gigabytes of data spread across thousands of files.)

CVS/SVN are by no means perfect solutions, but I can't think of anything better off the top of my head. Hope this helps!

FogBugz is great. Sure, it's a commercial system that you have to pay for, but it is easy to install, simple to use, has a very clean user interface and even has a philosophy. Believe it or not, the last point is the most important. The folks behind FogBugz seem to work really hard to adhere to the KISS pricipal and produce a superior product.

If you compare them to workhorses like Bugzilla, Fogbugz seems very minimalistic, but it turns out to actually be more useful that way. The guy behind the folks behind Fogbugz, Joel Spolsky, has lots of interesting things to say about the design of Fogbugz that are just good reading for ANY CS/IT person to even if you don't buy his product.

Another product that I tried out was scarab, which was appealing since it was a Java J2EE application from the same folks who brough us subversion. From a CS point of view, scarab is an interesting example of how to use turbine. Unfortunately, scarab is hard to install and configure.

Although the version of scarab that I tested was still a beta product that might not be quite so hard to use out of the box any more, it is interesting to compare it to FogBugz. Scarab had the kitchen sink approach that is so configurable that it could be set up to be every bit as complicated as Bugzilla or as simple as FogBugz. However this flexibility made it a nightmare to configure and administer. While you could, conceivably set it up like FogBugz, it would be hard to make it work exactly the same way and wouldn't provide the same ease of use... just the same limitations with an added level of complexity.

To summarize less is more... in quality and price this time ;)

FogBugz is great. Sure, it's a commercial system that you have to pay for, but it is easy to install, simple to use, has a very clean user interface and even has a philosophy. Believe it or not, the last point is the most important. The folks behind FogBugz seem to work really hard to adhere to the KISS pricipal and produce a superior product.

If you compare them to workhorses like Bugzilla, Fogbugz seems very minimalistic, but it turns out to actually be more useful that way. The guy behind the folks behind Fogbugz, Joel Spolsky, has lots of interesting things to say about the design of Fogbugz that are just good reading for ANY CS/IT person to even if you don't buy his product.

Another product that I tried out was scarab, which was appealing since it was a Java J2EE application from the same folks who brough us subversion. From a CS point of view, scarab is an interesting example of how to use turbine. Unfortunately, scarab is hard to install and configure.

Although the version of scarab that I tested was still a beta product that might not be quite so hard to use out of the box any more, it is interesting to compare it to FogBugz. Scarab had the kitchen sink approach that is so configurable that it could be set up to be every bit as complicated as Bugzilla or as simple as FogBugz. However this flexibility made it a nightmare to configure and administer. While you could, conceivably set it up like FogBugz, it would be hard to make it work exactly the same way and wouldn't provide the same ease of use... just the same limitations with an added level of complexity.

To summarize less is more... in quality and price this time ;)

Trac is a web-based software project management and bug/issue tracking system. It provides an interface to Subversion and an integrated wiki. It uses Apache and mod_python, but it's really easy to install if you follow the instructions.

You can see examples of it in use at PylonsHQ and the Django site, both of which are styled nicely. You can see a default install at PyDelicious.

And no, it's not only Python sites that use it. Those are just the ones off the top of my head. :)

we use trac with Subversion and generate documentation automatically with JavaDoc and phpDoc.

See also: Subversion

I'm involved with a project that is looking to develop an online community for technology oriented business customers.
Sell your idea to ebay, they might like you. (and the highest bidder wins!)


  If you could develop an online community to encourage collaboration and information sharing, what features would you want included?
That's easy, BitTorrent.


  How would you go about including features that are widely available in other places (weblogging, message boards, wiki) and generating buy-in from customers.
1) Visit homepages of said OSS
2) Get the sources
3) Right-Click Ctrl-V
4) Get headache integrating code from multiple projects^W4) Discover 'magical' missing libraries^W4) Consider rewriting everything with existing code as reference^W4) Give up^W4) ????
5) Profit!

propel, a pear package http://propel.tigris.org/ does exactly that.

The model is developed using ArgoUML. The output is a zipped XMI file that I convert to a EMF ecore model using the argo2ecore Eclipse plug-in. From there I generate the model and editor code using EMF. After that, I use the Elver plugin to generate the corresponding hibernate mappings.

So from the UML source, I can generate EMF model and edit code to serve the presentation and hibernate mappings for persistence to an RDBMS -- all using free software.

There are a couple of big challenges, namely distributed object persistence (including transactions). For this we're attempting to use the EMF SDO (Service Data Objects) implementation. Also implementing business behavior is a bit of a challenge since ideally we'd be able to mark certain EMF methods as "biz logic" such that the factory generates a stub for the client, and I could fill in real business logic for the server side.

function generate_table_assoc_list_view($tableName1, $tableName2, $targetViewForEdit, $pageSize, $pageNumber)

With Subversion, backing up /etc is trivial.
When stuff goes awry, it's nice to have a means of investigating/rolling back the boo-boo.
Yet another reason to eschew operating systems that hide the configuration data in a binary prison.

If you're doing PHP and considering either CVS or SVN I'd recommend :

• Eclipse
• Eclipse Webtools
• PHP Eclipse

CVS integration is built into the Eclipse platform. If you're going to use Subversion integrate in Eclipse with Subclipse.

When I'm working on a project where I have NO IS&T to support me I set up my own Subversion server on an Apache box (usually my own machine) download Eclipse, point it to the update sites for all the above and it's off to the races!

If you're doing PHP and considering either CVS or SVN I'd recommend :

• Eclipse
• Eclipse Webtools
• PHP Eclipse

CVS integration is built into the Eclipse platform. If you're going to use Subversion integrate in Eclipse with Subclipse.

When I'm working on a project where I have NO IS&T to support me I set up my own Subversion server on an Apache box (usually my own machine) download Eclipse, point it to the update sites for all the above and it's off to the races!

Get a subversion over http (apache) server going and turn on web-dav auto-commit.

This way you can have full version control with a client like Tortoise SVN and read access to any file with any web browser.

The web-Dav auto versioning will allow you to write to any of your files with any web-dav client including windows explorer, internet explorer, ms visual studio, macromedia home site, cold fusion studio, many other development environments, microsoft office and lots more.

Subversion info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion_(software)

WebDAV info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV

Subversion: http://subversion.tigris.org/

Tortoise SVN: http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Get a subversion over http (apache) server going and turn on web-dav auto-commit.

This way you can have full version control with a client like Tortoise SVN and read access to any file with any web browser.

The web-Dav auto versioning will allow you to write to any of your files with any web-dav client including windows explorer, internet explorer, ms visual studio, macromedia home site, cold fusion studio, many other development environments, microsoft office and lots more.

Subversion info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion_(software)

WebDAV info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV

Subversion: http://subversion.tigris.org/

Tortoise SVN: http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

I run a small web dev firm that does a lot in the way of PHP and JS, like yourself. What we have found works the best for our core library is a copy of Subversion running on our server. This way we all know exactly what the latest version is, and more importantly we can see how it became the latest version (i.e. what changes were made). A lot of tools run with SVN nicely. For instance, Trac talks to a backend copy of SVN and couples it loosely with a wiki and a couple of other things. A lot of hosting providers will also run a copy of SVN for you, like http://networkredux.com/ (We just switched over to them).

Of course, a root level folder on the ftp server can also work.

It looks like you have two options, get a dedicated server from someone like EV1 Servers for $99/month or setup your own box on your broadband connection (assuming you have broadband). I use EV1 and I would recommend them if you want a dedicated server and are willing to do your own system administration.

As far as software I'd recommend Subversion for source countrol, Bugzilla for bug tracking, and MediaWiki for general documentation. I'm in the process of setting this up for my own projects right now.

Probably more due to the fact that Java apps tend to be big -- not because Java is "bloated", but because Java's OO-nature makes it easier to write large apps. I've written little command-line utilities that don't take appreciably longer to start than others written in C. Large apps like ArgoUML may take longer to start, but once you're in them you're there for a couple of hours, so an extra ten seconds or so on the front end really isn't going to make any difference.

Go to "Download" and select "I'm using an exotic platform" on the dropdown menu and it will give you the option to download the source code. It's not the most intuitive thing in the world, but it's there.

Direct link: svn://svn.audioscrobbler.net/player/trunk

You'll have to use subversion to download it.

ReadySET (open source)

"What problem does this project address?

Software development projects require a lot of "paperwork" in the form of requirements documents, design documents, test plans, schedules, checklists, release notes, etc. It seems that everyone creates the documents from a blank page, from the documents used on their last project, or from one of a handful of high-priced proprietary software engineering template libraries. For those of us who start from a blank page, it can be a lot of work and it is easy to forget important parts. That is not a very reliable basis for professional engineering projects."

my superiors wouldn't allow any sort of bugtracking or versioning software

Gah. A version control system, even if it is a weenie one like MS VSS, is one of the basic things separates amateur coding for fun from professional software development.

"Source control is like flossing - you don't have to floss *all* your teeth - just the ones you want to keep." - Dave Scofield, Borland

I had to write my own system

You shouldn't need to write anything - you just need to get the hardware and time to install subversion and bugzilla

1. set up subversion
2. check projects in/out
3. don't keep stuff on a public share

Subversion for source control. (The Eclipse development platform has plugins for PHP and Subversion.)

There are tons of good bug trackers out there. I like Mantis.

Subversion for source control. (The Eclipse development platform has plugins for PHP and Subversion.)

There are tons of good bug trackers out there. I like Mantis.

Check out websvn for another method to RSS a Subversion repository.

A lot of people have already mentioned the PyDev plugin for Eclipse. You may also like to know about TruStudio (another Eclipse-based IDE) which supports Python and PHP amongst other "scripting languages", and perhaps something like Stani's Python Editor. I've got all three, plus a couple of other generic editors like Vim, Notepad++, NewEdit, JEdit, also PythonWin (which comes with ActivePython, but you can get it separately for vanilla Python.org).

I haven't tried Subversion yet but do plan to but for a front end, unless you go all CLI, the GUI has a long way to go to catch up with Microsoft's VSS.

If you havent tried it, then how can you comment on it? Use TortoiseSVN as a GUI and it is excellent. Integrates with windows explorer, so every explorer window is completely aware of the subversion status of your files. Personally since most of my latest development involves eclipse I am using some SVN plugins for eclipse which are also excellent.

Use software revision control. CVS, VSS, whatever, use one.

VSS! Please, for the love of all that is pure and holy, not VSS! Use something that won't destroy label/tag history simply by a user having their system time incorrect. Use something that won't corrupt your data when the network hickups. Use something that isn't open to corruption the moment a user gets infected with a virus. Use something that supports proper release branching. But please, not VSS!

(A good alternative is Subversion.) -Malloc

http://subversion.tigris.org/

While we're adding stories of old systems, here's mine. My first motherboard and CPU when I left home was a K6-2 266MHz (with the 66MHz bus). For a while it served as the family server and I've recently resurrected it as a file server. It has a RAID 1 mirror using two oldish hard drives (80G+60G), 192M of ram, a 100Base-T network card, and runs Debian GNU/Linux. It serves my home directory from the RAID-1 volume via NFS (after a few drive crashes over the years, I want my data safe), a Cyrus IMAP store for my email, and I've recently setup Subversion and Trac on it to store my little software projects. The system has pretty light load almost all the time, has long uptimes, and runs pretty well overall. In fact, it runs better than the family server using a 3Ware RAID card and 4x 120G drives setup in a RAID 5 volume, with a slightly faster processor (K6-III 400MHz). Copying a lot of data over the network sends its system load pretty high. I think I'll avoid RAID-5 in the future for performance reasons, opting for RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 instead.

I agree.

We use Subversion (see http://subversion.tigris.org/) with srvany (see http://www.iopus.com/guides/srvany.htm) at work on a Windows server and TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) on the clients and it works very well for code *and* documents. I would use SVN version 1.2 as it handles binary files better by being able to lock files.

We find "svn:ignore" useful (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/svn-book.html# svn-ch-7-sect-2.3.3)
And "svn:needs-lock" (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanc ed.locking.html)

I agree.

We use Subversion (see http://subversion.tigris.org/) with srvany (see http://www.iopus.com/guides/srvany.htm) at work on a Windows server and TortoiseSVN (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/) on the clients and it works very well for code *and* documents. I would use SVN version 1.2 as it handles binary files better by being able to lock files.

We find "svn:ignore" useful (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.1/svn-book.html# svn-ch-7-sect-2.3.3)
And "svn:needs-lock" (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.advanc ed.locking.html)

If you want version control with cvs/svn under windows, I really recommend tortoisecvs/tortoisesvn. These handy clients integrate with the file manager, and are very user-friendly. It has been a while since I used it though.

http://www.tortoisecvs.org/
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

``we spent too much time on simple tasks like making sure everyone had the same copy of a file, the same update project schedule, etc.''

That sounds like nothing a version control system couldn't take care of. I don't know about other systems, but I have good experiences with Subversion, and I am told there are Windows clients for it.

Creole and Propel.

Subversion has had full DAV auto versioning since version 1.2.