Archive for September, 2009

I’m not usually the type to favour proprietary software over open-source, but in this one special case – i’m convinced; nor am i the type to make a whore of myself by advertising but i’m so excited about this product that i’ll do it… Just this once .

Now, the cynics out there will say that i’m only advertising this product to get something out of it – and i’ll make no bones about it, i am subscribed to the affiliate plan, but my intentions are (almost) pure on this one.

After toiling for hours yesterday trying to get a SCM (Source Code Management) system up and running, i was getting impatient and aggravated. I tried installing Trac… Finally got it working thanks to the pre-compiled Bitnami stack, but i found it to be way to complex for my pea brain to handle…

So next i moved onto Redmine. After a couple of hours of trying to figure out which sadistic, incredibly sardonic intellectual created Ruby and the configurations associated with it, i gave up and tried the pre-compiled Bitnami stack for Redmine. That kinda worked too, and Redmine does seem like a better option than Trac, but it’s still far too “out-there” for me to handle. I couldn’t get Subversion working with Redmine, and i won’t be unfair about it – i didn’t put in too much effort… I realised something in the middle of all this:

WHAT IF MY COMPUTER GETS STOLEN??!

Before i go any further, a little explanation is in order… I work on a Vista machine (only because Mac’s are too damn expensive and Adobe hasn’t yet brought out a product line for Linux – they make me so sad) and i run a virtual instance of Linux Mint via VirtualBox – which is the most amazing piece of software ever, by the way!

Now, i have a LAMPP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP & Python) stack running in my Linux installation that’s connected to my Vista machine using an ingenius methodology devised by Simon Holywell (you can check it out here). I also have a Subversion server running in there, which i use to manage my source-code. I’m extremely paranoid about losing files and i’m one a “glass-half-empty” kinda guy, so i try and plan for the worst at all times. So my big realization was that – no matter how much i backed up, managed my code, etc – i would one day manage to fuck that all up somehow . Maybe i’d be walking past my computer with a glass of coke, trip over my own feet and fry everything, or i’d be wrestling a midget (for some reason) and i’d fling him across the room – destroying everything… or it could just stolen. The point being that nothing is safe. This brainfart motivated me to find some sort of hosted Subversion server or something of that ilk.

ENTER ASSEMBLA FTW!

After googling more vigourously that a stalker looking for an address, looking at every piece of software available as a hosted service, I came across Assembla. From the outset i was quite impressed – for one, their website actually looked decent, very much unlike most of the other sites i saw. I’m more of a teach-me-visually sort of guy, and they had nice introductory videos which i liked very much.

Also, i’ve got Jewish blood so the Jew (however small) in me looked feverishly for a Free Trial link – and i found one! They offer free trials of their service for a month. While browsing through their service offerings, i was highly impressed by the level of professionalism they has put into their site, and the really great service they offer.

The 5 things i was looking for were:

• Integration with Subversion
• Ticketing system
• Speed of site
• Security of information
• Collaboration tools

Assembla has all of them, and it’s all put together really well! This kind of service is ideal for all developers who care about managing their source-code, keeping track of important steps in the SDLC (Systems Development Lifecycle) and protecting themselves from… well… life … as the Latins said: non semper erit aestas (it cannot always be summer) which roughly translates to SHIT HAPPENS.

I read a book the other day called Managing Software Development with Trac and Subversion (David Murphy) from PacktPub. I’m paraphrasing here, but David said something about how developing software without source-control is like rock-climbing without safety harnesses. You might make it to the top of the mountain once or twice (or even a few times) but you will inevitably – at some stage – fall. Even if you don’t use Assembla, i’d recommend checking out the aforementioned SCMs and try them out for yourselves, or at the very least – use Subversion!