SourceOffSite 4.2 First Impressions

[adiroot]

I wanted to share my first impressions of SourceOffSite 4.2 client side.

Firstly, the compliments: it's fast and it works. I really like the fact that it looks like VSS. Congrats to the designers for keeping it simple.

The gripes:
No folder compare. While I can plug in my own app (or the source gear one), VSS pops up a window that can be used to perform further source control operations. The VSS option is great for checking in/out multiple files. I consider this an important feature and hope to see it in SOS 5.

Some shortcut keys do not mimic VSS. Why not? Everything else is near identical. I'm used to hitting ctrl-o to check out. As a VSS compatible program, there's no sense in not using the same shortcuts. In SOS ctrl-u means check in; in VSS it means undo check out. Luckily, there is a confirmation dialog for undo check out.

SOS does not correctly integrate with CodeWright. I know CodeWright is an old IDE with no future (tyvm Borland), but it does feature source safe integration and it does work 100% with VSS. Working with SOS causes CW to occasionally crash when doing source control operations.

[lbauer]

Thanks for your feedback. SOS 4.2 has been out for some time and we're making a number of changes with SOS 5, which will be out in a few weeks.

it's fast and it works.

SOS 5 should be even faster, especially when there are many files in a folder.

I really like the fact that it looks like VSS

This will be changing to allow a new level of interoperability in SOS 5.0. The Client has a whole new look and added functionality:
http://sourcegear.com/newsletter/SG03/sos.html

No folder compare

As far as I know SOS 4.2 includes SourceGear's Diff/Merge tool, which does compare projects. However source control operations are not available in Diff/Merge, either in 4.2 or Vault 5.0. SOS 5.0 will ship with the latest version of SGDM.

http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/

Some shortcut keys do not mimic VSSThe

That's true-- I'm not sure why, as that code was written several years ago. Our hot-keys have not changed much in the SOS 5.0 GUI client.

SOS does not correctly integrate with CodeWright.

SOS has never been tested with CodeWright. It's not supported, though some unsupported IDEs do work with SOS since we use the same Microsoft integration .dll. We do test and fully support integration with Visual Studio.

Our SOS Preview period is over, but SOS 5.0 should be out soon, and we hope you find the new features enhance your productivity.

[adiroot]

More feedback for you:

The file history window does not have a 'view' option. The only way to see an older version is to overwrite the current one.
The 'view' option is a really convenient one. Please consider adding it to version 5.

Getting a file does not offer an option to place it anywhere except into the working folder. VSS allows you to specify where to save the file and what filename to use. This is also a very convenient feature.

For both of the missing features above, I have to
1) save a copy of the current file under a different name,
2) do a get using SOS,
3) view the got file,
4) get rid of the got file
5) rename the current file to its original name
5 steps instead of 1.

[lbauer]

Thanks for your additional suggestions. I will log in this feature request, although it is too late for the vault 5.0 release. We might be up to do this in a future release, however.

UPDATE: As it turns out, SOS 5.0 will allow you to view files from history. Wish granted!

[jclausius]

SOS 5 is out! For more details, check out the announcement in this forum.