   Version control for non-progamming projects?
  What other types of project do people use version control for.  It seems like it a mostly used for software development, is it used somewhere else?   
  A couple of places I've worked in use the versioning functionality in things like Sharepoint for document versioning. Version control is also used for graphical and model assets in game development companies, with systems like Perforce actually having functionality to help support this sort of use.   ;  At work we use SVN for art assets and we were using Hansoft for documents, but we just switched to Project (lame). Haven't had a chance to mess around with Project's document management capabilities yet.   ;  I use SVN for software development, but that involves a multitude of file types.Basically 2 general file types.1) Text based files (HTML, XML, programming source files, etc).Use the SVN difference,merging and conflict resolution model for these files (default).2) Binary files(typically image files), any files which the above model doesn't handle correctly.I Use the lock/unlock file model for these cases.@3dmodlerguy, is this a general question, or do you have any particular file formats that you would like to bring under version conrol?   ;  It was more of a general question, but I do have a specific one that I think I know the answer to.Text files (source code,xml, etc...) are the one kind of files that you can actually merge conflicts on, right.  I mean is there a way to actually diff image and other files?  Those binary files would have to only be worked on by 1 person at a time, right?   ;Quote:Original post by 3dmodelerguyIt was more of a general question, but I do have a specific one that I think I know the answer to.Text files (source code,xml, etc...) are the one kind of files that you can actually merge conflicts on, right.  I mean is there a way to actually diff image and other files?  Those binary files would have to only be worked on by 1 person at a time, right?Yes, version-control systems are generally only really good for text. I think it's theoretically possible to write a tool which can do image-based diffs and merges, but I don't think anyone has written that tool yet. Probably because artists very rarely want to "merge" their work :)So what ends up happening with images and other assets is:1) You put them all in the VCS anyway, because it's simpler to have everything in one place. This isn't perfect, but it usually works OK. Some tools like Perforce do pretty well.2) You set up a separate tool for assets. This kind of tool is usually called a "content management system" or CMS. If you google around, there are lots of these out there.   ;  Adobe Version Cue is a very useful version control system for graphics. It, in conjunction with Bridge, features a diff system in which you can visually compare different versions of the same graphic file. Also, it is very easy to go back to older versions as needed. Merge operation is not supported because it wouldn't have the same meaning as with code or text.The Version Cue server component is included in all CS4 suites (except, apparently, Production suites). It can be installed locally on a workstation or as a shared repository on a discrete server.   ;  Recent versions of TortiseSVN (a GUI for SVN) can diff various Office documents using the built in functionality of Office or OpenOffice. Word, Excel and PowerPoint (except 2007) are supported (and their OO equivelenents).There is also support for merging Word documents using Word (and Writer and Calc documents for OpenOffice).There's also a simple-but-effective image diff utility.Of course, Word and Excel have their own built in versioning system ("Track Changes"), if that's all you're working on. (PowerPoint 2007 doesn't - but maybe earlier versions do.)If these are files that go with some programming project, I find it useful to keep the assets in the same repository, so that revision numbers (in SVN) are valid across assets, documents and code.   ;  I have heard of system admins using version control systems, particularly on linux/unix where configs are stored in text files. I can see it being quite useful for tracking system configuration changes and easily rolling back if needed.   ;  I use version control for LaTeX sources (essentially "marked up" text, even if theoretically it is actually source code).   