Practical Perforce: Channeling the Flow of Change in Software Development Collaboration

by Laura Wingerd

When developers build software, they're able to keep track of all the different versions and all the components they use with software configuration management (SCM) systems. One of the more popular SCM products is Perforce. Authored by Perforce's own VP of product technology, Practical Perforce is the ideal complement to the existing product manual, focusing less on the 'how" and more on the "why" and "when." The book is not only a helpful introduction to Perforce, it's an enlightening resource for those already familiar with this versatile SCM product. Whether you're a programmer, product manager, or build engineer, you stand to benefit from the many insider tips and ideas presented in this convenient guide. Practical Perforce is divided into two main parts. Part I offers a whirlwind technical tour, complete with careful descriptions of basic and advanced Perforce commands designed to give you a baseline knowledge. Part II describes the big picture-using Perforce in a collaborative software development. It outlines recommended best practices and quickly shows how to implement them with the Perforce operations introduced in Part I. Throughout the book, you'll learn how to maximize Perforce so it completes tasks like these in the most efficient manner Recognizing the pitfalls and practices of an SCM system like Perforce is absolutely essential to producing good software. Now, with Practical Perforce , you have the edge you need to ensure success.

Genres: Programming, Technical

358 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2005

Reviews

[Tony Poerio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started using Perforce recently, while working with a code base that has some 17-years of history.

I come from the Git world. So at first, the processes and terminology were pretty foreign to me. Terms like 'views', 'clients', 'branches', etc.. are all overloaded; they mean different things in different contexts. And sometimes it's counter-intuitive (IMO).

This helped me unpack what's going on, and got me up to speed. Worth reading, and using as a reference.

A straightforward and easy read.

[Garrett Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good basic overview, but none of the hairy details that would really be useful in a production environment. Perhaps I should have gleaned that from the "Practical" part.

[Mansur Mustaquim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a good reference manual that should probably ship with Perforce to begin with. There aren't many suggestions, best-practices, examples, scenarios or anything other than a comprehensive description of what each menu item in Perforce accomplishes, what the features it offers, and how to use Perforce.

So I can't rate it highly as a book. It's not really readable cover-to-cover. In fact at times it is difficult to read complete chapters as subtopics may be isolated.