Product Description: SourceSafe 
Project Oriented Version Control

SourceSafe by One Tree Software is a "project oriented version control
system."  SourceSafe doesn't try to write your program for you: it takes
care of your maintenance and tracking responsibilities, freeing you up to
concentrate on programming.

More specifically, using SourceSafe can enhance your development
productivity in five principal ways.

1. Team Coordination

When more than one person is working together on a project, how do you keep
track of who is doing what, when? If several developers attempt to modify
the same file at the same time, they might wind up overwriting each
other's changes! That can be disastrous. But policies to prevent it can be
costly, inefficient, and difficult to enforce. And the more programmers
you have, the greater the inefficiency!

Unless, that is, you use SourceSafe. With SourceSafe, each developer
"checks out" a file before modifying it. Other developers still have
access to the file, but they cannot check it out for modification. When
the programmer is finished working on the file, he updates it back into
SourceSafe, making the latest version immediately available to everybody.
This simple system requires no time-consuming overhead, enforces itself,
and provides an error-proof guarantee that one person will be modifying
one file at one time.

2. File and Project Histories

The name "version control" refers specifically to a product's ability to
store old versions of a file. If you've updated a file ten times,
SourceSafe can give you the most recent version, or any of the previous
nine. But that doesn't mean it's storing your file ten times! SourceSafe
stores the most recent version of your file, and the changes you made each
time you updated it--so your ten versions probably use less disk space
than two complete files would. And SourceSafe version tracking works on
all your files: code, makefiles, bitmaps, resource files, literally any
text or binary file can be tracked by SourceSafe.

But SourceSafe goes beyond simple file histories, and tracks the history of
entire projects as well! Suppose a customer with version 2.00b of your
program finds a bug, and you need to rebuild version 2.00b. No
problem--because SourceSafe has recorded every time you changed, deleted,
added, or renamed a file in the project, so it can hand you exactly what
you had in the project at that time. Just build your program and start
hunting!

3. Shared Code

If you write a number of programs around a common base of "core code"; if
you customize one program for different customers' needs; or if you write
in an object-oriented language such as C++; then you know the power of
reusable code. You can add a feature to one shared module, and immediately
get the benefit in five different programs.

But you also know the organizational issues: you have to remember what
programs are using each file, and propagate every change to all the
necessary places! The more complex your development gets, the more effort
you have to put in keeping track of which programs use which modules.
That's why SourceSafe has built-in support for shared code. It works like
this: you tell SourceSafe which programs use a particular file. Then,
SourceSafe remembers it.

Sound simple? It is. But it's also SourceSafe's most powerful feature, and
the reason the program was written in the first place. Because when you
change a file, you only need to change it in one place; SourceSafe makes
sure all the appropriate projects receive the update. And it can list all
those projects at any time, if (for instance) you want to know which
programs to recompile. This simple feature makes SourceSafe the first
version control system ever to truly support modular code.

4. Accessible Interfaces

You've got programs to write, deadlines to meet and customers to worry
about. The last thing you need from your version control system is one
more thing to worry about, a day-long installation process and tedious
employee training sessions.

That's why SourceSafe is as easy to use as it is powerful. Microsoft
Windows 3.1 and NT users can run a SourceSafe interface which is modeled
on the Windows File Manager; DOS users can run a text-based version of the
same interface! And the DOS command-line version of SourceSafe is simple
and straightforward, with no obscure parameters required for common
actions. The net result is that you can install SourceSafe in under
fifteen minutes, and each user can learn the basics of the system in less
than half an hour with the SourceSafe User's Manual. So SourceSafe
immediately becomes a part of your work--not an interruption to it.

5. The One Tree Guarantee

Once you start using SourceSafe, it will become an integral part of your
development process. You may wonder how you ever got along without it.
Before you make any decision that important, you need to know you won't
regret it. That's why with One Tree Software, you always have the
guarantees you need to feel absolutely secure.

What if there's a problem with SourceSafe, or a feature you don't
understand? We don't want to make money from your problems. That's why we
offer free, unlimited technical support to all registered SourceSafe
users.

But what if SourceSafe still doesn't meet your needs? Simple: return it,
and we'll send your money back. No questions asked, and no time limit
either. Because if you're not completely satisfied with SourceSafe, it's
not doing its job.

It all adds up to a simple philosophy: you need long-term solutions to
important development questions, and those solutions depend on the company
that stands behind the product. One Tree Software is 100% committed to
meeting all your needs, and to providing a level of customer service and
support which matches the high level of quality in our products
themselves.

One Tree Software, PO Box 11639, Raleigh, NC 27604
Sales 800/397-2323;  Business 919/821-2300;  Fax 919/821-5222

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