Now that we're getting bigger and sharing more code on this site, I'd like to find something better than putting random files in discussion responses. Has anyone had enough experience with the various code repositories out there to recommend one that would work for our purposes? Most of the ones I've seen require you to use gnarly *nix command-line software tracking tools like QVC and git, which are too complicated for our purposes. Anything simple with a web interface that will just let us upload code and track versions, etc?

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Full disclosure: I'm on the Sourceforge advisory board. Maybe I should eat some of our own dog food on this one ;-)

Memo to self: learn CVS and write a DIY drones newbie tutorial.

-c
Half an hour of thrashing and I'm no closer to making this work. The stuff you need just to upload a file to Sourceforge!! SSH clients and encryption keys. CVS client, along with Python. Reading pages and pages of documentation about import modules and floss$ commands. Having to translate everything from the native UNIX.

I feel like I'm installing Linux. There's no way we can expect the average user here to do this, rather than just posting a file in a forum.

There must be an easier way!
I agree with Curt Olson: cvs is easy to use, and I'd avoid to dump into the same repo different projects. Different projects means different developers, different languages, different platforms, different tools.

IMHO different developers is the biggest issue: developing software in a collaborative effort may become a mess without proper management and communication. Quoting cvs manual: Chapter 11. Multiple developers
When more than one person works on a software project things often get complicated.


Regarding different projects, I'm about to migrate from cvs to svn at work for the same reason, hoping that svn will help us manage eterogeneous firmware projects in the same repository.

I admit that svn requires more effort to become familiar with, even on the client side.
Sourceforget has an SVN feature. CVS never really worked. They've made it harder to manage & they'll be making it harder in the future because everything they try gets broken into. It's a free version of a commercial collab suite, so of course it's going to be unreliable & hard to use.
Google Code seems to be a very easy to use code repository. At least for windows, there is a client called TortoiseSVN that integrates all the functionality you need right into windows explorer. No need for any command line stuff.

I suppose TortoiseSVN will work with any SVN, but Google Code's simple, straight-forward setup seems to complement it well for keeping everything accessible to those of us who don't code for a living.
Why don't we just have a single page where we link directly to the code that is in the discussions? It simpler, less space is taken, and life is good.
Assembla.com is an easy way to go. I use TortoiseSVN on windows too. Integrates with the Windows File Explorer and is super easy to use.

I would also suggest something like Trac for basic task management and a wiki.

Assembla can host all of this for us for free.

http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/diydrones
http://www.assembla.com/spaces/diydrones/trac_subversion_tool

Google Code is also a viable option.
I found this some weeks ago. I hope it could help.
Attachments:
Hi Chris,

I think that you could create a google code project to store code by platform.

arduino
nxt
...
etc

cheers
you may like to take a look at
https://launchpad.net/+tour/index
Chris I've worked with many revision control systems. I highly recommend svn. It works on all platforms, and does indeed work from the command line for people like me. However there are many free and easy to use gui clients for it as well.

Some examples include tortiseSVN, which integrates with windows file explorer, or SmartSVN which is a java thick client.

For the web there are may web based clients that will front your repository like SVNServe.

SVN is also full of all the features you will need as things grow, like merging, branching, tagging, releases, etc.

I understand what you are looking for, SVN is accessible to the average person. Sourceforge is a great example, I use it from the web, from the command line, and from SmartSVN.... in fact you can just use sourceforge to host the repository.... diydrones would still be the home page for the project etc...

I use smartSVN as a standalone client it works great, Intellij, and even eclipse has svn integrated right in...

I recommend staying away from CVS... it was a good tool years back... but it had shortcomings... SVN works really well
Thanks, Aristotle. I have a svn repository set up on SourceForge (I'm actually on their advisory board) but have only uploaded the current ArduPilot beta.

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