John,
I would recommend evaluation of Perforce, Visual Safe Source, and perhaps a couple of others (including National Instrument's own version.)
My company uses Visual Safe Source. As manager of LabVIEW programmers, I am unhappy with VSS. I tend to want software that is as easy to use as LabVIEW is. VSS is about as easy to use as programming in Microsoft Visual C++. However, that analogy goes farther than you would imagine.
While not an easy interface, I have had mostly good results with VSS. It appears that when you know all the workarounds and bugs, that it is quite a great product. However; given that I have to be concerned with interface and ease-of-use, I tend to really despise VSS. First of all, it is set in Windows 3.1 paradigm. Why the interfa
ce isn't any better than it is questionable, of course, I have my opinion (Microsoft's core business isn't software, it is making profits. And profits don't come from GOOD products, only USEABLE products.....but that's my opinion).
Having reviewed PerForce, I tend to like this product. First of all, the interface appears to be much more intuitive. However; I haven't used it. Perhaps someone else can compare Perforce and VSS's interfaces. Most important to me is that Perforce has multiple platform and even simultaneous multiple platform implementation. In a world that is quickly waking up to the fact that Microsoft isn't the solution to everything, having a portable or interplatform product is important. You may find that your developers are on diverse platforms (Please tell us otherwise...) and would prefer an independent or interplatform method.
It's basically a matter of implementation.
For LabVIEW programmers, try to look into alternatives to VSS. LabVIEW programmer
s are generally not accustomed to interfaces such as VSS. I also hear that the LabVIEW interface to VSS is prone to problems, but I cannot confirm this.
Basically, look around. Evaluate. And Good luck.
