In the past, when I would talk about something mercurial, I would usually be referring to “Martha,” my Fighter/Barbarian’s prized sword. It, being so awesome, would take up more than the allotted space for ‘Weapon Name’ on a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet and I would have to write “Keen Masterwork Mercurial Greatsword +2 of Flaming Burst” in the margins.

But no, that’s not what I’m referring to today. Version/Source Control is a problem that’s tough for me to get working in an easy setting. Whenever I get the urge to program at home or even as part of special projects at work, I operate without a formal version control system; I have to use a hill-billy backup system. It works, but that’s like saying hammering a nail with the heel of your shoe works.

JoelOnSoftware pointed to over to Mercurial, a new kind of version control system that is different than other systems. It looks like it is built for teams of more than one, but it also looks like it’s super easy to setup and use – perfect for me! I’ll be giving it a go to see how well it works. Hopefully I’ll like it, and I’ll endeavor to report back on it.

It has certainly been awhile hasn’t it?

I am now so unladen with work at my job that I am bored. I now have long stretches of time in which I have nothing to do other than wait for something to come into my inbox. Sure I could certainly dive into some code, but the stretches of time aren’t nearly long enough for my concentration to coalesce into anything useful before getting snapped back to the reality of talking to someone on the phone.

Things have changed for Steve quite dramatically than what they were before, and I should be able to get into that as long as these stretches of time continue to be lengthy.