Visual Studio + TortoiseSVN enough? or should I use AnkhSVN addin too?

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2010. I thought for SVN I can use TortoiseSVN and I just adding my VS project folder to repository and done. Maybe I could use the tortoiseSVN addin, but its still a beta and old.

Other people are talking about AnkhSVN + TortoiseSVN. Do I really need to combine these 2 tools? Im just asking, before I starting here some SVN I would like to know whats the smartest way. Any suggestions? Thank you!

Edit: Ok I dont really understand. If you are telling me I should use both - what am I doing if I want to commit a new stuff? I commit it first with Ankh and then with TortoiseSVN? And everything will work fine without errors? Okey Im just confused, because I did never use svn (specially 2 of them at the same time) that much.

Answer 1

TortoiseSVN and AnkhSVN coexist well together, as long as you keep both fairly up-to-date (meaning the version of Apache Subversion should be the same in AnkhSVN and TortoiseSVN).

It is convenient to use AnkhSVN because you can do many SVN operations directly in Visual Studio without switching to TortoiseSVN and you'll see status of your files in the Solution Explorer.

There are a few things (e.g. resolving conflicts) that TortoiseSVN does better, so it's nice to have it available in such situations.

Answer 2

Both.

Ankh makes it much easier to ensure you don't add a class and forget to add it to the repository (for example).

Tortoise is better at resolving complex commit issues, like combinations of moves and deletes.

Answer 3

When using Subversion as a version-control for your projects developed in Visual Studio and using only a standalone client (e.g. TortoiseSVN or just a command-line) you may encounter such issues:

• You have to switch to a standalone client from Visual Studio to perform rename / delete / add etc. I.e. you have to reflect changes made to your project to Subversion manually,

• You don't see the changes you've made to your project in Visual Studio,

• You have to ignore temporary files manually (the ones that should not be versioned).

etc etc

AnkhSVN integrates Apache Subversion into Visual Studio. E.g. it will show you files' status in Solution Explorer, reflect changes you make to Subversion etc.

However I personally use VisualSVN and consider that it does the integration much better than AnkhSVN. E.g. AnkhSVN does not show status for C++ filters in Solution Explorer but VisualSVN shows. And IMHO VisualSVN is easier and more intuitive than AnkhSVN.

Answer 4

Both. I find using AnkhSVN in addition helps when moving / renaming files from within Visual Studio.