An explicit version is
made as a snapshot of the status of the whole repository. The difference in scale
between the smallest units of reuse and the units of versioning is thus larger than with
textual programming languages.
Are there any bene?¬?ts to be gained by having these units aligned, or any
disadvantages if they are not? Aligning reuse with locking seems useful: nobody can
change the thing we are referring to. This removes problems similar to those at the end
404 DSM IN USE
of Section 15.2.1. Having such a large unit of versioning however tends to give cold
shivers to most programmers used to source ?¬?le version control. File-based versioning
has been the way they have accomplished many tasks, and so the lack of it makes
working with models seemingly impossible. Below we will look at the most common
questions in the context of a multiuser repository: where repositories are single user or
models are stored in ?¬?les, little changes from traditional practices.
15.3.1 But How Do I Just Save My Work?
Normal development in ?¬?le-based version control consists of checking out your own
?¬?le or ?¬?les for changes, then working with them for a while. If the results are
satisfactory, you publish the changed ?¬?les back to the version control system. If the
results show this was a bad idea, you throw away the changes and release the checked
out ?¬?les.
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