[OS X TeX] Re: Save date-time, not Print date

[David Watson]

On Jan 7, 2007, at 10:36 AM, Maarten Sneep wrote:

>
> On 7-jan-2007, at 17:17, George Gratzer wrote:
>
>> But why use TeX for version control? I assume all of you back up.  
>> I backup many times a day with Retrospect. It requires one click,  
>> and it happens in the background. If I want to know the source or  
>> the pdf file of my project on December 5, I get it with very  
>> little work, I just have to pick from the 4 or 5 backups of the day.
>>
>> Am I missing something?
>
> Yes (I hope so).
>
> I don't use TeX for version control. I use a package that reads the  
> string put into the file by the version control software (the  
> $Id: .... $ string you must have seen before). The version control  
> is done by cvs, completely outside of TeX. The side effect is that  
> the date string within the file is updated, and available for LaTeX.
>
> Version control is something different from frequent backups, as it  
> also helps to synchronise different computers, and does more than  
> simple backups can (branching, although I didn't use that).
>
> Maarten

I use svn (Subversion) for version control, and I was glad to see  
that svn support exists for LaTeX (macros/latex/contrib/svn @ CTAN).  
Version control is so much better than "backup" for my current  
project, and even though the setup may require a bit of a learning  
curve, when you see the results, you really can't go back to doing  
things the "old" way.

Thanks Maarten, I wouldn't have looked for this without your suggestion.

David

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