Web Management With Microsoft Visual Sourcesafe 5.0

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0 not Web Management
Review: (With all due respect for the other reviewers)

I do not agree with the majority of the assessments offered here, unless your only view point is that of the webmaster or web designer. There are plenty of books on the shelves of book stores and libraries, about Web page and site management, design, and building. Objectively, this book dose not appear to be for that purpose. The title does not suggest that the heart of the book is about Web management, but that Web Management is a casual example of using Vss.

The purpose of Vss is not to build web pages or sites. The primary functional purpose of Vss is to track the changes made to a file. The secondary purpose is that of a file manager, of a sort.

How one might use Vss to accomplish any task beyond file management and version tracking, is entirely up to each user of Vss. Any insight, from an outside party, should be viewed as a benefit to the reader. The subjective assessments of the authors' delivery has nothing to do with the material presented.

I have been looking to acquire this book or similar Vss application type renderings. However, this seems to be the only book available, in this regard. From the table of contents, one might imagine that this book might contain adequate information on the subject of Vss and maybe the pitfalls and difficulties with it.

I have installed Vss 5 & 6 and provide the administrative and technical support for 80+ engineers and 20+ programmers, who are working on high end, state of the art technology, real applications. I have found some pitfalls and problems with Vss that I need to remedy. Microsoft will not offer support to anyone without the added costly charge for their service.

It is my humble opinion, that the supplied documentation should include adequate information for the user to read. Then, and only then, if the user needs help, Support Services should be placed into the equation. At that point in time, the user should have no problem with the additional support service charges. However, the Vss information is scattered and sparsely located throughout any documentation that MS supplies with Vss. It would seem that this book might supply the additional needed information, at a fraction of the MS support cost.

If the critical accounts of the subject matter are accurate, then I am disappointed in the authors of this book. If I were a webmaster then I would be discouraged form purchasing this book. However, this book does appear to have the information that I am looking for. I have been unable to locate a copy of this book, in the library, book stores, and e-commerce sellers of this book.

If you have a copy of this book and are interested in selling it to me, then please drop a card or line to me at PB Box 12150, Portland, Oregon 97212-0150.

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0 not Web Management
Review: (With all due respect for the other reviewers)

I do not agree with the majority of the assessments offered here, unless your only view point is that of the webmaster or web designer. There are plenty of books on the shelves of book stores and libraries, about Web page and site management, design, and building. Objectively, this book dose not appear to be for that purpose. The title does not suggest that the heart of the book is about Web management, but that Web Management is a casual example of using Vss.

The purpose of Vss is not to build web pages or sites. The primary functional purpose of Vss is to track the changes made to a file. The secondary purpose is that of a file manager, of a sort.

How one might use Vss to accomplish any task beyond file management and version tracking, is entirely up to each user of Vss. Any insight, from an outside party, should be viewed as a benefit to the reader. The subjective assessments of the authors' delivery has nothing to do with the material presented.

I have been looking to acquire this book or similar Vss application type renderings. However, this seems to be the only book available, in this regard. From the table of contents, one might imagine that this book might contain adequate information on the subject of Vss and maybe the pitfalls and difficulties with it.

I have installed Vss 5 & 6 and provide the administrative and technical support for 80+ engineers and 20+ programmers, who are working on high end, state of the art technology, real applications. I have found some pitfalls and problems with Vss that I need to remedy. Microsoft will not offer support to anyone without the added costly charge for their service.

It is my humble opinion, that the supplied documentation should include adequate information for the user to read. Then, and only then, if the user needs help, Support Services should be placed into the equation. At that point in time, the user should have no problem with the additional support service charges. However, the Vss information is scattered and sparsely located throughout any documentation that MS supplies with Vss. It would seem that this book might supply the additional needed information, at a fraction of the MS support cost.

If the critical accounts of the subject matter are accurate, then I am disappointed in the authors of this book. If I were a webmaster then I would be discouraged form purchasing this book. However, this book does appear to have the information that I am looking for. I have been unable to locate a copy of this book, in the library, book stores, and e-commerce sellers of this book.

If you have a copy of this book and are interested in selling it to me, then please drop a card or line to me at PB Box 12150, Portland, Oregon 97212-0150.

Rating:
Summary: lots of info, but often painfully cliche and trite
Review: As the author Steve notes above, the book is indeed more thanjust for web developers. Anyone who has tried to use VSS and found itdaunting will find lots of help and hidden gems in the book.

There's even a (usually) insightful ongoing scenario painted throughout the book where features are described in terms of their impact on a fictional company and 2 antagonistic protagonists. The infighting between them, and the solutions offered by using VSS to quiet that, are often helpful. They're sometimes stretched, though. And to be honest you'll have to suffer through frequent and painfully trite cliches throughout the book. On the subject of "pin"ning a file, it offers: "You pin the version at a mutually agreeable point, and go on to make your DaVinci-esque changes to the file. In order to stab a pin into a defenseless file you must ..."

That sort of cliche is bad enough, and it occurs too often. Even worse, the section on "sharing" files ends: "Remember, sharing is a healthy experience, and hopefully, if you set a good example, you can set aright today's skewed values."

Oy, how distracting! That added no value at all. How the editors let these sort of things get by is beyond me. Since the book was authored by 2 gentleman, maybe one was more prone to this in some sections than others.

And I will say that out of the notes I took from the book, the ratio of useful tips outpaced the "drivel alarms" by 8 to 1, so if you're not daunted by separating the wheat from the chaff, I'd still recommend it. Particularly as there are no other 3rd party books on VSS (as of now).

I do feel, though, that the "web" focus seems sometimes muddled. If you're a web application developer, as opposed to a web *site* (html) developer, you may find some aspects of the book wanting. While the running scenario does respect programmers' unique needs with its inclusion of "jeff, the programmer" and his butting heads with others (both quite realistic), the coverage of features sometimes leaves the distinction poorly defined.

For instance, it discusses the choice of using a temporary working directory to hold only a few files being worked on briefly versus the "programmer's" setup with a directory structure that would keep most of the project files checked out "quasi-permanently".

That sort of distinction between approaches is helpful, but the discussion concludes with the notion that the former is more suitable for the non-programmer in the example because "the web development cycle is much shorter than that of a program".

So what of the web programmer? They're left to carefully considering approaches raised to decide if he/she should approach them as offered for the "programmer" or "web developer". In some cases, one is more suitable than the other.

Perhaps the May 97 publication date (with its likely authoring in the months before) has dated the book with respect to its treatment of these unique needs of the web application developer, and the likelihood that this is a major camp in the user community.

Or maybe the intention was there but the authors really didn't understand those unique needs well enough (they're each described as freelance designers, so theirs may be a second hand perspective of web application developers).

I hope that an update to the book may address these needs. I have a list of suggestions to offer, if the authors are interested.

Rating:
Summary: Was hoping for more in-depth information regarding SourceSaf
Review: I should have added to the last review that part of the challenge is that the very "web" features of VSS 5 are also rather paultry and focused more on "html coders" and "web site management" as it regards "site maps" and "link verification". The product itself (and its doc, which led me to this book) are both wanting with respect to web application developer features as well as suggestions on how to use the product from that perspective. Given that, one can perhaps further forgive the authors, but its a notion that today's web developers should consider in evaluating the book.

It will likely still be valuable to most, especially those new to VSS, but it seems it could be much more so with just a few refinements and elaborations.

Rating:
Summary: SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BOOK ON VSS
Review: I truly wish that someone would write a book on how to successfully implement version and file control with Visual SourceSafe. There are NO books about it anywhere. Please, if you have any knowledge of VSS, write a book, a primer or even a flyer. This book is not helpful at all.

Rating:
Summary: SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BOOK ON VSS
Review: I truly wish that someone would write a book on how to successfully implement version and file control with Visual SourceSafe. There are NO books about it anywhere. Please, if you have any knowledge of VSS, write a book, a primer or even a flyer. This book is not helpful at all.

Rating:
Summary: Was hoping for more in-depth information regarding SourceSaf
Review: I was looking for a book to help to programatically integrate SourceSafe with Microsoft apps. ie. VB. This book is essentially a book that tells you you need to use source safe on a large web development project. Not what I needed.