Denny Esterline wrote:
> We specificly need something that works painlessly with MPLab and Eagle
> and capable of handling other project files (flowcharts, spec documents,
> etc)

I'm quite fond of Subversion (http://subversion.tigris.org/) and Mercurial 
(http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/).

Subversion is very close to CVS -- a centralised system that relies on having 
a server to track changes. It has atomic commits (i.e. if a commit fails, it 
rolls back the whole thing instead of leaving the repository in an 
inconsistent state), and also tends to handle code merges much better than CVS.

Mercurial is one of the "next generation" VCSes. Basically, everyone has a 
copy of the full source tree and change history (via the 'hg pull' command). 
They can then change the code locally, commit for every small step in the 
development process, then push their changes back to a central repository as 
one changeset, or even pass them onto other people in the development team 
(via hg push / hg share / hg pull). It's also great for doing development 
out-of-office, because you don't need a connection to the server to do so. Do 
a 'hg pull' on your way out of the building, change the code on the 
bus/plane/train, then 'hg push' the changes back in in the morning. Admittedly 
this is more useful for OSS/FS development than closed-source work, but it's 
still a nice feature to have.

Both of these can handle binary files, and will detect them automatically. 
They're also cross-platform (Windows / Linux / OSX), but Subversion currently 
has the edge over Hg in add-ons -- for instance, TortoiseSVN integrates 
Subversion into Windows Explorer, so you can just right-click to 
add/remove/copy/move files, or commit changes to the repository. Hg has 
something similar (TortoiseHg) but that's still in early beta IIRC.

Also look up Trac - it's a change-tracking system that operates over a web 
interface and allows you to go back through the commit history quickly and 
easily. The Wiki features are handy for documenting code (and hardware 
designs) -- think "private Wikipedia for the source code documentation". It's 
a fantastic tool for exchanging information about the 'how and why' aspects of 
the code.

Mantis is also worth a look at for bug tracking -- Bugzilla is getting a 
little long in the tooth IMO. Though I think Trac can be configured to do 
bug-tracking too.. it's been a while since I've checked though. About the only 
thing I miss from Bugzilla is the quips list :P

-- 
Phil.
piclist@philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist