Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!mks!wheels
From: wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need info on Program Version Control software (sccs).
Summary: rcs is usually faster than sccs
Message-ID: <375@mks.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jan 88 16:46:17 GMT
References: <7800@sunybcs.UUCP> <1159@mtunb.ATT.COM>
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems, Waterloo, Ont.
Lines: 23

In article <1159@mtunb.ATT.COM>, dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman) writes:
> Several years ago, I used SCCS much more than now; even
> controlled the drafts of my memos.  But I stopped because gets and
> deltas took too long.  PVCS is so fast, you hardly notice.

I think SCCS stores the full text of the first version of the document,
and then stores deltas so that later versions can be recreated. 
However, it seems that the most common operation is to check out the
newest version, not the oldest. 

RCS does the opposite -- it stores the full text of the most recent
version and reverse deltas so that older versions can be recreated. 
(Some SCCS-type systems store the full text of the oldest and the
newest, just to avoid this problem.)

On a system like MS-DOS, where the speed of the computer and/or disks
may be a limitation, the RCS approach clearly makes the most of what
you have.
-- 
     Gerry Wheeler                           Phone: (519)884-2251
Mortice Kern Systems Inc.               UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels
   35 King St. North                             BIX: join mks
Waterloo, Ontario  N2J 2W9                  CompuServe: 73260,1043