Why Version Control Exists: The Pendrive Problem
Introduction
Before version control system existed sharing and collaboration between developers was a disaster.
We used to share the code using zips and pendrives. This was quite difficult but when there were two or more developers working on the code , it would become disaster.
Lets go deeper in this Pendrive Problem and its solution
The Problem
Lets say there is a developer A who is working on a app. Now he has to collaborate with another developer B and they work on same project at same time. They create a zip named app-working.zip and start working on the app.
Now developer A completes feature A and developer B completes feature B and both of them have very different codes. Merging the code has become disaster they use tools like difference checker and it took both of them a lot of time to merge their code.
Now this was only for 2 developer but usually more developers work on same project and share the code using zip or pendrive. This leads to :
code_final.zip
code_working.zip
code_fully_final.zip
Many versions of the code starts existing and it is hard to maintain a single source of truth.
The Solution
To solve these problems, Version Control System like git was created.
Using version control systems we can track all changes/versions of our code. So instead of creating different zips, we can track changes in our code using version control systems and merge the code without any issues.
Conclusion
The Pendrive Problem seems small, but it is much bigger issue that is lack of control over changes.
Version control systems exist because humans collaborate, make mistakes, and need structure.
It turns messy file-sharing into a clean, reliable workflow.
