Servage Magazine

Version control is an important part of your business and code development process. It enables developers to work independently in isolated areas, implementing and testing new features, without disturbing other developers, or touching the precious live environemnt with customers. After succesfull testing version control systems allow you to submit code to the live environment, making it available for your customers. In the worst case scenario you can also roll-back code, if something unexpected happens. Alltogether version control is a tool used to enchace the development experience and quality of your product, by giving developers an agile work environment, but keeping the live systems safe.

Beanstalk is a web-based code-hosting service, which provides you with a very nice webinterface to manage your code and accounts. You can deploy code to GitHub and Subversion servers, and works well on it’s own for smaller projects. Your code is backed up, developers can discuss changes, your can easily deploy to multiple platforms. For larger projects you can integrate other platforms, for ticketing, support etc. I will get back to this in another article soon.

Versions is an example of a cool app (for Mac, but there are similar for Windows) which allows you to easily integrate with a version control system, specifically using Subversion. The developers say the following to newbie versioning users: “Don’t panic. Versions makes Subversion easy. Even if you’re new to version control systems altogether. Commit your work, stay up to date, and easily track changes to your files. All from Versions’ pleasant, true to the Mac interface.”

Coda is an example of a cool code editor app which allows your to not only efficiently manage end edit code, but also integrates with Subversion servers. Coda is often referenced as one of the best code editors for Mac with a low price-tag. There’s also a plugin directory with lots fo addons for Coda, created by other developers. It is also possible to install custom syntax highlighting, which makes Coda usable with any kind of programming language.