title: Lightweight version control for small projects (prototypes, demos, and one-offs)
body: <p><strong>Background</strong></p>
  
  <p>I work on a lot of small projects (prototypes, demos, one-offs, etc.). They are mostly coded in Visual Studio (WPF or ASP.NET with code written in C#). Usually, I am the only coder. Occasionally, I work with one other person. The projects come and go, usually in a matter of months, but I have a constantly evolving set of common code libraries that I reuse.</p>
  
  <p><strong>The problem</strong></p>
  
  <p>I've tried to use source control software before (SourceGear Vault), but it seemed like a lot of overhead when working on a small project, especially when I was the only programmer. Still, I would like some of the features that version control offers.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Here's a list of features I'd like to have:</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Let me look at any file in an older version of my project <em>instantly</em>. Please don't force me through the rigmarole of (1) checking in my current work, (2) reverting my local copy to the old version, and (3) checking the current version back out so I can once again work on it.</li>
  <li>In fact, if I'm the only one on the project, I don't ever want to check out. The only thing I want to be able to do is say, "Please save what I have now as version 2.5."</li>
  <li>Store my data efficiently. If I have 100 Mb of media in my project, I don't want that to get copied with every new version I release. Only copy what changes.</li>
  <li>Let me keep my common library code files in a single location on my hard drive so that all my current projects can benefit from any bug fixes or improvements I make to my library. I don't want to have to keep copying my library to other projects every time I make a change.</li>
  <li>However, <em>do</em> let me go back in time to any version of any project and see what the source code (<em>including</em> the library code) looked like at the time that version was released.</li>
  <li>Please don't make me store a special database server on my machine that makes my computer take longer to start up and/or uses resources when I'm not even programming.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>Does this exist?</strong></p>
  
  <p>If not, how close can I get?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit 1: TortoiseSVN impressions</strong></p>
  
  <p>I did some experimenting with Subversion. A couple observations:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Once you check something in to a repository, it does stuff to your files. It puts these hidden .svn folders inside your project folders. It messes with folder icons. I'm still yet to get my project back to "normal". <a href="http://tortoisesvn.net/node/343" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Unversion a working copy</a> got me part of the way there, but I still have folders with blue question mark icons. This makes me grumpy :-/ <strong>Update:</strong> finally got rid of the folder icons by manually creating new folders and copying the folders over. (Not good.)</p></li>
  <li><p>I installed the open source plugin for Visual Studio (AnkhSVN). After creating a fresh repository in my hard drive, I attempted to check in a solution from Visual Studio. It did exact what I was afraid it would do. It checked in <em>only</em> the folders and files that are physically (from the POV of the file system) inside my solution folder. In order to accomplish item #5 above, I need all source code used by solution to be check in. I attempted to do this by hand, but it wasn't a user friendly process (for one thing, when I selected multiple library projects at once and attempted to check them in, it only appeared to check in the first one). Then, I started getting error dialogs when I tried to check in subsequent projects.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So, I'm a little frustrated with SVN (and its supporting software) at this point.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit 2: TortoiseHG impressions</strong></p>
  
  <p>I'm trying out Mercurial now (TortoiseHG). It was a little bit difficult to figure out at first, no better or worse than TortoiseSVN I'd say. I noticed an RPC Server on startup (relates to item <strong>6</strong>). I figure it should be possible to turn this off if I'm not sharing anything with anyone, but it wasn't something I could figure out just by looking at the options (will check out the help later).</p>
  
  <p>I do appreciate having my local repository as just a single .hg folder. And, simply throwing the folder in the Recycle Bin seemed to be all I needed to do to return everything back to normal (i.e., unversion my project). When I check in (commit), it seems to offer a simple comment window only. I thought maybe there would be a place to put version numbers.</p>
  
  <p>My (probably not very clever) attempt to add a Windows shortcut (a folder aliasing my library projects) failed, not that I really thought it would work :) I thought maybe this would be a sneaky way to get my library projects (currently located elsewhere) included in the repository. But no. Maybe I'll try out "subrepos", but that feature is under construction. So, iffy that I'll be able to do items <strong>4</strong> and <strong>5</strong> without some manual syncing.</p>