| This training aid and reference manual assists casual users, software developers, and SourceSafe administrators in installing, configuring, and maintaining SourceSafe in a variety of development environments. A broad spectrum of topics are covered, from the basics of installation and maintenance, to more advanced features such as reporting, to very advanced features like automation. The book starts with the basics of installation and configuration and goes on to explain the theory behind SourceSafe. Thorough coverage includes using SourceSafe as a standalone tool and how to integrate it into other Microsoft products such as Visual Studio, Microsoft Office, and SQL Server. Common problems and their solutions are discussed for all of these environments. Also included are several advanced chapters: for developers, how to manipulate source code control features via Automation or the command-line interface, and for administrators, how to optimally test and maintain SourceSafe data and security models. Numerous software and batch file examples, included in the body text and available for download, illustrate key points and provide a good starting point for anyone looking to customize and optimize their SourceSafe platform.
The story behind SourceSafe seems almost clichéd: "A couple of guys invent a product, work on it for a few years, and sell it off to a big software company." In 1991, Brian Harry, Kenny Felder and Larry Iversen left their jobs with DaVinci Systems and set out to develop a source code control system different from all of the others. While at DaVinci, Kenny and Brian had developed a source code control system, code-named "Yoda," for internal use by the company. Convinced that a similar product could be a commercial success, they left DaVinci and set out to develop that commercial product from scratch, based upon what they had learned in their first attempt. Kenny Felder's wife, Joyce, came up with the cool name of "SourceSafe" and displayed the "patience of a saint," according to Kenny, as the developers spent the next two- plus years operating One Tree Software out of Kenny and Joyce's living room. The result: One Tree Software shipped SourceSafe, the first and, for many years, the only project-oriented version control system. SourceSafe versions appeared for DOS, OS/2, UNIX, Mac, Windows and Windows NT.
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