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Plastic SCM

40
76
+ 1
17
SVN (Subversion)

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618
+ 1
43
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Plastic SCM vs SVN (Subversion): What are the differences?

Key Differences between Plastic SCM and SVN (Subversion)

Plastic SCM and SVN (Subversion) are both version control systems commonly used in software development. However, they differ in several key aspects:

  1. Scalability: Plastic SCM offers better scalability compared to SVN. Plastic SCM uses a distributed model that allows for decentralized development and better handling of large codebases. SVN, on the other hand, uses a centralized model, which can limit scalability for larger teams and projects.

  2. Branching and Merging: Plastic SCM provides more advanced branching and merging capabilities than SVN. Plastic SCM supports true branching and merging, enabling developers to create and manage branches more efficiently. SVN, on the other hand, uses a copy-modify-merge model, which can be more complex and error-prone when dealing with branching and merging.

  3. Performance: Plastic SCM generally provides better performance compared to SVN. Plastic SCM uses a database backend and optimized algorithms, which results in faster operations and better responsiveness. SVN, on the other hand, can be slower, especially for larger repositories or when dealing with complex operations.

  4. Visualization: Plastic SCM offers comprehensive visualization tools that enable developers to visualize and understand the structure and history of their codebase easily. These visualizations include branch graphs, change sets, and live metrics. SVN, on the other hand, lacks such comprehensive visualization capabilities.

  5. Flexibility: Plastic SCM offers more flexibility in terms of the supported workflows and integration with other tools. Plastic SCM supports various workflows, including Git-like workflows, which provides developers with more options to choose from. SVN, on the other hand, follows a more traditional centralized workflow and has limited integration options.

  6. Security: Plastic SCM provides better security features compared to SVN. Plastic SCM offers advanced access control mechanisms, including fine-grained permission controls and encrypted communication, ensuring that only authorized users can access and modify the repository. SVN also supports access control, but its capabilities are not as advanced as Plastic SCM.

In summary, Plastic SCM offers better scalability, advanced branching and merging capabilities, improved performance, comprehensive visualization tools, enhanced flexibility, and superior security features compared to SVN.

Decisions about Plastic SCM and SVN (Subversion)
Kamaldeep Singh

SVN is much simpler than git for the simple stuff (checking in files and updating them when everyone's online), and much more complex than git for the complicated stuff (branching and merging). Or put another way, git's learning curve is steep up front, and then increases moderately as you do weird things; SVN's learning curve is very shallow up front and then increases rapidly.

If you're storing large files, if you're not branching, if you're not storing source code, and if your team is happy with SVN and the workflow you have, I'd say you should stay on SVN.

If you're writing source code with a relatively modern development practice (developers doing local builds and tests, pre-commit code reviews, preferably automated testing, preferably some amount of open-source code), you should move to git for two reasons: first, this style of working inherently requires frequent branching and merging, and second, your ability to interact with outside projects is easier if you're all comfortable with git instead of snapshotting the outside project into SVN.

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Pros of Plastic SCM
Pros of SVN (Subversion)
  • 8
    Wanna do Branch per Task Dev? Plastic rocks it
  • 4
    No Size limite
  • 2
    File Locking
  • 2
    Simple, easy to use interfaces. Resilient and solid
  • 1
    Very fast
  • 20
    Easy to use
  • 13
    Simple code versioning
  • 5
    User/Access Management
  • 3
    Complicated code versionioning by Subversion
  • 2
    Free

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Cons of Plastic SCM
Cons of SVN (Subversion)
  • 1
    Always uses automatic conflict resolution first
  • 1
    Adds files with only changed timestamp to pending
  • 1
    Keyboard shortcuts are lacking
  • 1
    Can't place windows next to each other to save space
  • 1
    No dark theme
  • 1
    Doesn't have file staging
  • 7
    Branching and tagging use tons of disk space

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What is Plastic SCM?

Plastic SCM is a distributed version control designed for big projects. It excels on branching and merging, graphical user interfaces, and can also deal with large files and even file-locking (great for game devs). It includes "semantic" features like refactor detection to ease diffing complex refactors.

What is SVN (Subversion)?

Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.

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What companies use Plastic SCM?
What companies use SVN (Subversion)?
See which teams inside your own company are using Plastic SCM or SVN (Subversion).
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What tools integrate with Plastic SCM?
What tools integrate with SVN (Subversion)?

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What are some alternatives to Plastic SCM and SVN (Subversion)?
Git
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
Perforce
Visibility, access control, workflow and code management for Git environments. Flexibility of collaborating on the same codebase and code reviews using any combination of Perforce and Git workflows and tools without compromise.
Mercurial
Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.
DVC
It is an open-source Version Control System for data science and machine learning projects. It is designed to handle large files, data sets, machine learning models, and metrics as well as code.
Magit
It is an interface to the version control system Git, implemented as an Emacs package. It aspires to be a complete Git porcelain. While we cannot (yet) claim that it wraps and improves upon each and every Git command, it is complete enough to allow even experienced Git users to perform almost all of their daily version control tasks directly from within Emacs. While many fine Git clients exist, only deserve to be called porcelains.
See all alternatives