Codice Software today announced GitSync for Plastic SCM, the company’s distributed source code version control system. This new features provides the distributed version control system with deep Git integration, (not just a shell on top of Git commands or scripts).
The key features of GitSync for Plastic SCM include:
- Support for native Git protocols: GitSync supports https:// and git:// protocols for both pushing and pulling change sets. There is no need for intermediate translations.
- Windows GUI: Git developers on Windows can now benefit from GitSync for Plastic SCM, specifically designed for Windows developers, which works with all Git projects.
- Visual Studio integration: Plastic SCM provides a full-featured integration with Visual Studio, enabling all the platform’s features within an integrated development environment (IDE).
- Branching and merging: Since Plastic SCM is a full DVCS, like Git, it can clone a Git repository and later push changes to it. Developers can create branches and push them to Git, or create branches on Git and pull them in. GitSync does not restrict software coding to a single branch.
- Handling concurrent conflicts: Developers can work on the same branch on the two systems and reconcile changes, just as they would when using a pure Plastic SCM environment or a pure Git one. There are no restrictions; GitSync is not an adapter or an intermediate scripting layer.
The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to run PlasticSCM directly with any Git repository and integrate other Git tools. Given its Git protocol integration, all merging and branching data is shared, and changes are reconciled and seen on all sides of the merge. I had the chance to speak with Pablo Santos, co-founder of Codice Software, and he described Plastic SCM's advanced merging engine as one of its key strengths, and probably one of the most advanced available. The software can handle complex merges, including divergent moves, which many others cannot. Santos also described how the Branch Explorer enables users to view and collaborate with repositories on remote servers.
In terms of tool integration, Plastic SCM integrates with many agile and continuous integration tools such as TeamCity, Hudson, Jenkins, Bamboo, Drools, Jira, Mantis, Rally, Cruise Control, and others. As for IDE integration, Plastic SCM works with the usual suspects such as Eclipse, Visual Studio, and IntelliJ Idea. It also has support for Power Builder, which is still widely used in Codice Software's view.
In addition to Windows, Codice Software offers versions of Plastic SCM that run on Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX.
