Source control is critical for tracking changes and managing development.
Often, the changes we make to our applications do not work out. We try something new in an experimental branch and either decide to change our minds or something about the project requirements renders it obsolete.
For Rails developers, git is the common practice for source control. Written by Linux Torvalt while workin on the Linux kernel. Practically, it tracks every change to every file (as long as it is being tracked) with a unique key (commit id).
In addition, it is possible to branch, merge and reverse any changes in a given code repository. Nifty stuff, and here are my favorite references whenever I need a quick refresher on which commands to use along with their options:
- http://gitready.com/
- http://progit.org/book/
- http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git
Git and source control are large enough topics for many posts, and I may (or not) return to writing more about this topic once I have developed a skill level beyond my current ‘proficiency’ level.