VisualSVN

Edit: This post was written when AnkhSVN 1.x was the current version. In the meantime, AnkhSVN was updated to 2.x and much improved. I use it in production on a system where I don't have VisualSVN and it works extremely well now.

So, another item to mark "completed" in my always too long ToDo-List: Purchase a License of VisualSVN. Now, what took me so long? The existance of a good alternative - AnkhSVN.

Why did I switch? Because i was a bit unhappy with the overall stability of Ankh, since it has some problems actually tracking Solution changes. VisualSVN is "just" a TortoiseSVN Frontend, which means it leaves all the "heavy lifting" to a third-party tool that a) is installed on most Workstations anyway and b) that's been tested and used by such a wide audience, it's really rock-solid.

Now, AnkhSVN is certainly not a bad product, and the people behind it are serious about what they are doing, but having long-deleted files still in my SVN or getting the "Please Cleanup your solution" message get's annoying after some time, but my biggest gripe is the property window. It's nice that there is a nice window with Radio Buttons asking me which property I want to add. Unfortunately, there is no way to manually enter a property.

So, yes, VisualSVN is "just" a $49 TortoiseSVN Frontend (A frontend for a frontend, so to speak), but it's neat Visual Studio integration really makes it worth the money for me. Their free VisualSVN Server is pure gold by the way, I absolutely love it 🙂