On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 11:18 PM, stefano franchi <stefano.fran...@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear all, > > I have decided to take the plunge and start to use a revision > control system for all or almost all my projects from here on. > I tried several times to start using SVN for my documents and projects, but always had to back down since, well, it's too much overhead. Unless you're doing something fancy and need advanced features of SVN or GIT, I could suggest a simpler solution.
At the moment I use SpiderOak [1], which is similar to Dropbox but much more flexible. You can imitate revision control systems by letting SpiderOak automatically backup a given file or the files from a given folder (this removes the overhead of manually performing the commit / push). SpiderOak keeps all historical versions (only the diffs), so they're easily available if anything goes unexpectedly, under the 2GB limit of free storage. For major changes I also keep a change.log file, which I edit and save at the same time as the main file; this way I keep a log of major modifications, and let SpiderOak take care of backing up most (and minor) modifications automatically. [1] http://alternativeto.net/software/spideroak/about This is probably a matter of habit, but it seems to be working for me so far. It's also easier to setup and understand than most RCS. Additionally you can also set up the sync features, to automatically fetch on a different system (it's cross-platform) the latest versions of your files. This again removes the overhead of manually checking out / pulling from the SVN / GIT server. But then, for collaboration, this is probably not the answer (although you could investigate the sharing features of SpiderOak). Cheers Liviu > However, I have no experience with any of the many options available > (i.e. RCS, SVN, Git?, etc.). In other words, I must learn how to use > the system *and* learn how to use it from within LyX: I am a totally > blank slate, in other words, unhampered by previous knowledge. I > wonder if anyone could offer feedback on the systems they use? > > I will use it only for LyX (and LaTeX), for individual or very > small-team projects (<5 people). My preferences are the ease to > integration with Lyx and easy repository maintenance (the criteria may > be contradictory, of course). I took a look at the wiki pages and the > instructions on the help docs, but neither was very helpful at my > stage (of ignorance). They all assume you have already decided which > system to use, and provide instructions on how to use them from LyX. > > On the other hand, all the non-LyX sources of information I found are > targeted at coders, typically working in large teams, with elaborate > technical discussions of several complex use cases that seem not > applicable for document-based repositories with individual- or small > team access. I may be wrong, of course. > > Any suggestions is very welcome. > > Cheers, > > Stefano > -- Do you know how to read? http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader Do you know how to write? http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail
