66 2. Tools of the Trade
When you perform a commit operation by right-clicking on any folder
and selecting “SVN Commit...” from the pop-up menu, you may be prompt-
ed to merge your changes with changes made by someone else. But if no one
has changed the fi le since you last updated your local copy, then your changes
will be committ ed without any further action on your part. This is a very con-
venient feature, but it can also be dangerous. It’s a good idea to always check
your commits carefully to be sure you aren’t committ ing any fi les that you
didn’t intend to modify. When TortoiseSVN displays its Commit Files dialog,
you can double-click on an individual fi le in order to see the diff s you made
prior to hitt ing the “OK” butt on.2.1.8. Deleting Files
When a fi le is deleted from the repository, it’s not really gone. The fi le still ex-
ists in the repository, but its latest version is simply marked “deleted” so that
users will no longer see the fi le in their local directory trees. You can still see
and access previous versions of a deleted fi le by right-clicking on the folder in
which the fi le was contained and selecting “Show log” from the TortoiseSVN
menu.
You can undelete a deleted fi le by updating your local directory to the
version immediately before the version in which the fi le was marked deleted.
Then simply commit the fi le again. This replaces the latest deleted version of
the fi le with the version just prior to the deletion, eff ectively undeleting the
fi le.2.2 Microsoft Visual Studio
Compiled languages, such as C++, require a compiler and linker in order to
transform source code into an executable program. There are many com-
pilers/linkers available for C++, but for the Microsoft Windows platform
the most commonly used package is probably Microsoft Visual Studio. The
fully featured Professional Edition of the product can be purchased at any
store that sells Windows soft ware. And Visual Studio Express, its lighter-
weight cousin, is available for free download at htt p://www.microsoft .com/
express/download/. Documentation on Visual Studio is available online at the
Microsoft Developer’s Network (MSDN) site (htt p://msdn.microsoft .com/en-
us/library/52f3sw5c.aspx).
Visual Studio is more than just a compiler and linker. It is an integrated
development environment (IDE), including a slick and fully featured text editor
for source code and a powerful source-level and machine-level debugger. In