TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
It's necessary if you are archiving the entire history of the project, as
well as the doc files being backed up in more than one place. We use Source
Safe, and I'm one of three lone writers (one per product). It helps prevent
people from making changes who shouldn't (not that they would purposely, but
accidents happen), and labeling and pinning allow us to know what was
changed when. Anytime someone wants to know what code and/or help files
looked like for a particular build or release, they can view it using VSS.
In my experience developers are about as infatuated with Source Safe as TW's
are with Framemaker :). If you've ever lost files due to PC crashes, or
somebody mucking about where they shouldn't, you probably know that backup
and archiving is essential. Source Safe is a good tool for this.
MTC
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Clements [mailto:bclements -at- fpix -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 10:33 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: lone writer and Source Safe
Yes, developers are frequently infatuated with SourcSafe. It's easy and
reliable and will avoid versioning problems if used correctly. But if you're
the only person working on these files, it's really not necessary...unless
I'm missing something about why they feel it's necessary.
-----Original Message-----
From: Alison Tartt [mailto:akt -at- att -dot- net]
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2000 6:17 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: lone writer and Source Safe
I'm the lone writer at a small software company, and I'm currently working
on the print manual and online help for a new product. I'm doing all the
documentation in Frame and will create the HTML help with WWP. I'm the only
one in the company who uses these tools. All my files are in various
directories stored on Server A, which is backed up every night. In writing
the new documentation, I often pull from my older material for definitions,
concepts, etc.
A couple of members of the development team want me to work through Visual
Source Safe, which is on Server B (also backed up every night). The
rationale is that "everything will be in one place." I've resisted the idea
because it seems inconvenient (my files will reside on different servers)
and a bit unnecessary (because no one will be making changes to my material
except me). But I don't want to seem like an inflexible member of the team.
