Re: Total Heresy: CVS & Windows MS Office Docs

[Tennis Smith]

Thanks, Doug.

I was afraid that would pretty much be the answer.

-T


"Doug Lee" <address@hidden> wrote in message
news:address@hidden
> Re: managing Office files in CVS:
>
> The short answer is yes, but the long answer is no. <grin>  If I
> understand your interest correctly, the answer is definitely no.
> Details follow.
>
> Yes, you can store Office files in CVS and get them back out, but you
> must tell CVS that they are binary files (-kb on add).  You can not
> merge versions, get diffs, or pretty much do anything else except
> checkin and checkout.  Furthermore, CVS will consume vast quantities
> of space storing many versions of an Office file because it has no
> efficient way of generating deltas between them, and Office files tend
> to change dramatically throughout for even small changes in content,
> in my experience.
>
> If you just want to version documents, check out the built-in ability
> of Office applications to maintain revisions within a single file.  If
> you're just trying to include Office documents alongside another
> project that fits better with CVS, you may find CVS's support
> sufficient (I do that much myself).  But if you want true version
> control of Office files outside of Office's own support, CVS won't fit
> the bill.
>
> On Mon, Aug 30, 2004 at 01:56:03PM -0700, Tennis Smith wrote:
> > Can cvs be used for change management on Windows  Office (e.g.
Word/Excel)
> > documents?  Put another way, can these documents deal with having cvs
> > updating them in the repository?
> >
> > --
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> >
> >
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>
> --
> Doug Lee           address@hidden        http://www.dlee.org
> Bartimaeus Group   address@hidden   http://www.bartsite.com
> "Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what
> we can. {Ralph Waldo Emerson}
>
>