I would like to use version control but I don't want to continuously commit several times an hour. Is there a version control system that records everything while you program so you don't have to commit, but still lets you go back to a previous state of your code?
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Dropbox can do it. It records every change that you make.
David
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In that case Sugar Sync would be my preferred client. But note that these software do not allow comparisons, branching, tagging so you have to go through a tedious process to perform them manually. Also notice the free versions of the software might have a limited number of days which it keeps previous revisions. I should add that, SugarSync only keeps last 5 revisions (free version) whereas I could remember Dropbox keeping A LOT more than that. So Dropbox clearly wins in keeping revisions. – Ranhiru Jude Cooray Feb 26 '11 at 01:59
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@ranhiru Branching, tagging is not invisible and not what the OP asked for. – Clint Feb 26 '11 at 02:06
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You can do something like this if you're using the ZFS filesystem.
However, from a version-control point of view, I really don't think it's a good idea to store every changes. The size of you repository will become huge really fast.
And FYI, you don't have to commit several times an hour, I rarely do more than 4-5 commits a day.
krtek
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2+1 - I can easily do more than 4 or 5 commits a day, but one of the advantages of TortoiseSVN and KDESVN is that really isn't a chore. Apart from having closer to a thousand commits a day, one issue with the automatic approach is that most of those commits would be meaningless (so I hit CTRL-S a lot - doesn't mean I've reached a significant point) and with no commit comments to find the particular commit I'm looking for... – Steve314 Feb 26 '11 at 02:05
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I might commit 4 or 5 times an hour: write a test, write a class, fix the text, commit the changes. TDD has a pretty short cycle when you get rolling. – duffymo Feb 26 '11 at 02:08
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1I usually wait to do test and pass it before committing ;) But anyway, even 4-5 commit an hour isn't too painfull to want an automatic system – krtek Feb 26 '11 at 02:10
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Some operating systems make mounting WebDAV shares into the filesystem very easy; you could configure an SVN server to export WebDAV, mount the export into your filesystem, and get to work.
Don't forget to configure your editor to store temporary files or backup files somewhere other than your source tree or current working directory. Otherwise you'll have a ton of useless files cluttering up your source control system, making it harder to use in the future.
But finding which version to revert to can be pretty difficult without check in comments or changesets linking related changes together; it might not be worth the effort of configuring the entire system if it is too difficult to use to undo specific changes.
