Sane programmers don't write production code without the help of an editor and an interpreter or a compiler, yet the author has seen many software projects limping along without using a version control system. We can explain this contrast if we think in terms of the increased start-up costs and delayed gratification associated with adopting a VCS. We humans typically discount the future, and therefore implementing version control in a project appears to be a fight against human nature. It's true that you can't beat the productivity boost that compilers and editors provide, but four decades after punched-card programming in assembly language has gone out of fashion, we must now look elsewhere for our next efficiency gains. And if you or your project isn't using a VCS, adopting one might well be the single most important tooling improvement you can undertake.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Spinellis2005
%A Spinellis, Diomidis
%D 2005
%I Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
%J IEEE Software
%K Best-practices Configuration-Management Control-systems Data-mining Documentation History VCS Version-Control-System Writing assembly-language production-code programming punched-card-programming software-engineering version-control-systems
%N 5
%P 108--109
%R 10.1109/ms.2005.140
%T Version control systems
%U https://doi.org/10.1109%2Fms.2005.140
%V 22
%X Sane programmers don't write production code without the help of an editor and an interpreter or a compiler, yet the author has seen many software projects limping along without using a version control system. We can explain this contrast if we think in terms of the increased start-up costs and delayed gratification associated with adopting a VCS. We humans typically discount the future, and therefore implementing version control in a project appears to be a fight against human nature. It's true that you can't beat the productivity boost that compilers and editors provide, but four decades after punched-card programming in assembly language has gone out of fashion, we must now look elsewhere for our next efficiency gains. And if you or your project isn't using a VCS, adopting one might well be the single most important tooling improvement you can undertake.
@article{Spinellis2005,
abstract = {Sane programmers don't write production code without the help of an editor and an interpreter or a compiler, yet the author has seen many software projects limping along without using a version control system. We can explain this contrast if we think in terms of the increased start-up costs and delayed gratification associated with adopting a VCS. We humans typically discount the future, and therefore implementing version control in a project appears to be a fight against human nature. It's true that you can't beat the productivity boost that compilers and editors provide, but four decades after punched-card programming in assembly language has gone out of fashion, we must now look elsewhere for our next efficiency gains. And if you or your project isn't using a VCS, adopting one might well be the single most important tooling improvement you can undertake.},
added-at = {2020-08-31T02:41:15.000+0200},
author = {Spinellis, Diomidis},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/23518006c34e275278047767665bc75c5/gbschenkel},
doi = {10.1109/ms.2005.140},
interhash = {770c812295425755c2517525250c290c},
intrahash = {3518006c34e275278047767665bc75c5},
issn = {1937-4194},
journal = {IEEE Software},
keywords = {Best-practices Configuration-Management Control-systems Data-mining Documentation History VCS Version-Control-System Writing assembly-language production-code programming punched-card-programming software-engineering version-control-systems},
month = sep,
number = 5,
pages = {108--109},
publisher = {Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ({IEEE})},
timestamp = {2020-08-31T02:41:15.000+0200},
title = {Version control systems},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1109%2Fms.2005.140},
volume = 22,
year = 2005
}