>We have been using it for a while with VSS and SourceOffSite and it works very well, our compliments.
>
>Do you have any suggestions on how we might handle merges? Since the binary can be backwards created, it seems merges could be automated or semi-automated within the diff comparison.
>


Hi Tuvia:

I really don't recommend automating the merge totally, not without visual validating it before checking in, because the merge algorithms can sometimes decide some paths of merging that are logical to the point of view of the tool, but can create invalid code that will not compile, or worse, compile but don't work as expected.

In my --year now-- experience with a tool with good merge algorithms (I use PlasticSCM), even the automatic merges need visual validation, because I've seen bad automatic decisions that might have failed if we had not chosen another option or would not have changed some code manually.

A difficult scenario is, in example, a code modified by 2 developers (the same method in the same part of the code), when the tool can't decide it, so requests your manual intervention.

Another difficult scenario is when working with many branches, at a level on which the same code was modified by distinct devs on distinct branches, but the merge algorithm sometimes didn't see a collition in parts of the code, and take bad asumptions.

You have to keep in mind that merge tools normally don't have knowledge of the program language you are using, so for them is just "text", but this text, depending on the environment and the location between the rest of the code can have a disastrous impact.

The best advice I can give you is to use tools with a very good diff and merge algorithms, so you have less manual work to do, sometimes you even don't have to choose because the algorithm has done it, but allways is necessary to inspect the final result to decide if you are going to check it in, if need modification before chek it in, repeat it with another point of view or a distinct algorithm (some tools allow changing that), or undo it.