Ch ch changes ...



  • I am working with a Change Management system that is (and this is not the WTF) layered over VSS. The system provides domain specific Check In/Check Out functionality, flexible Access Controls and an event system that fires off scripts to process data files such as comparing remote versions to the centrally contained version. In general it works OK but I have had my frustrations with it due to the stupidity of some particular design decisions.

    Today I discovered a whole new level of stupidities that really did make me go WTF?!?!?!


    In the previous version the functions the event system performed (and a lot of the UI) was run through VBScript files. Although I disagree with the choice of language, the system was flexible and the scripts themselves were stored in VSS and you were free to edit them to suit local conditions. The kicker was in the event system where the list of events and the targets the events applied to were kept in VSS in a proprietary binary file format. So it made configuration of a large number of events a huge pain. Yes I could have decoded the file format - If that was the sort of thing I wanted to do as an unpaid hobby.


    Roll on the newest version of the program. I had heard good things about the event system getting a massive re-write and there were lots of improvements. So today I sat down and poked through the new system to see how I could map across a clients setup from the old to new versions. And this is where I started go .. ".. they didn't do that did they?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?"


    The good news is that in the new system, the list of events is now contained in a raw XML file, and I know exactly where it is in VSS, so I can edit it to my hearts content.


    The bad news is that all of the lovely VBScript files that I despised have now been rolled into a .Net obfuscated DLL file (and I tried .Net Reflector on it to no avail). So I can no longer edit/change/debug the standard scripts to suit my clients custom setup.


    Who the hell thinks this stuff up? It seems like very little common sense has ever been applied to their design.

    /rant



  • @OzPeter said:

    In general it works OK but I have had my frustrations with it due to the stupidity of some particular design decisions.

    Such as "leveraging" VSS in ANY capacity.

    @OzPeter said:

    And this is where I started go .. ".. they didn't do that did they?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?"

    Unlike the time everyone else said that upon hearing of the VSS dependency.

    @OzPeter said:

    Who the hell thinks this stuff up? It seems like very little common sense has ever been applied to their design.

    Probably the same person who thought of using the VSS installation cd for anything other than a coaster.



  • @clively said:

    Probably the same person who thought of using the VSS installation cd for anything other than a coaster

    VSS is not the issue here and it does work well in its role - so ripping into it for unspecified reasons is a bit anti MS-fanboi-ish.

    The issue is that the numnuts whose code I use could have screwed it no matter what source control system was being used - CVS, Subversion, or whatever $FAV_SCS you have



  • @OzPeter said:

    so ripping into it for unspecified reasons is a bit anti MS-fanboi-ish.
     

    Actually, even Microsoft knows better than to actually use VSS.



  • @superjer said:

    Actually, even Microsoft knows better than to actually use VSS.

    Yeah, so do I now...



  • @OzPeter said:

    I can no longer edit/change/debug the standard scripts to suit my clients custom setup.

    But are you even supposed to do that?

    I can't edit Photoshop, and that's okay. Or am I misjudging your situation?



  • @dhromed said:

    @OzPeter said:

    I can no longer edit/change/debug the standard scripts to suit my clients custom setup.

    But are you even supposed to do that?

    I can't edit Photoshop, and that's okay. Or am I misjudging your situation?

    Some people need a tool that's almost exactly like another existing one, but with a few modifications to support their workflow. Some people work around their tools, some people modify them. In this case, OzPeter added his value (and kept his paycheck coming) but modifying an existing 3rd party tool.

    Of course, as I've learned at my company (and I didn't make the decisions leading up to this); never rely on a 3rd party vendor to not completely change everything out from under you if you have to do anything outside the scope of what they consider normal use of the product. As in, if you have to do some sort of customization to suit your workflow, expect your methods to disappear in a few versions.

    (Cue "open source!" geeks in 3, 2, 1...)



  • @dhromed said:

    But are you even supposed to do that?

    I can't edit Photoshop, and that's okay. Or am I misjudging your situation?

    I've extended Photoshop hundreds of times. I've even added a very simple source (or more accurately image) versioning system to it. Sometimes a plugin model is sufficient, sometimes a system which modifies an app's documents outside of the app works, other times, source code to the app is a reasonable approach. It really just depends.



  • @OzPeter said:

    @clively said:
    Probably the same person who thought of using the VSS installation cd for anything other than a coaster

    VSS is not the issue here and it does work well in its role - so ripping into it for unspecified reasons is a bit anti MS-fanboi-ish.

    The issue is that the numnuts whose code I use could have screwed it no matter what source control system was being used - CVS, Subversion, or whatever $FAV_SCS you have

    Believe me - as a former (forced) user of VSS, I can safely say that there's more than just the "unspecified reasons" for VSS sucking. There are hundreds of reasons why it sucks, and why I happily paid hundreds of dollars to use [i]anything else[/i] (upgraded to Seapine's SCM system).

    VSS is utter crap. It doesn't work well in [i]any[/i] role. TFS absolutely blows it out of the water (and TFS is what VSS should have been in the first place if you ask me).


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