when your company doesn't let you use source control because it's afraid people would steal the code 😩

I really don't understand non-tech people even after we explain to them properly. Finally I give up.

BTW: Welcome to devRant.

Don't they have a contract or something?

You can now make your avatar. 😁

it is your fault that you can not explain how you will use local secure repo

Maybe explain them how they can have their own local server for the repos?

Self host it(Gitlab), your boss should be fine with that. Later on, you can sync Gitlab with Github(mirror it).

Thanks everyone! and for the suggestions, I'd not even think about developing a serious app without a version control system. So I did set up a local git repo. A private GitHub repo would have been much nicer though..

Time for a new job. If the company is so bone headed for something this simple, it will be bone headed for everything

@nickhh not true at all. Companies are a collection of individuals, so they move and sometimes think slower. Sometimes multiple people need to be convinced and / or taught best practise. Also, leaving the company eliminates all possibility of them rewarding OP for providing a solution to a very real problem.

Point out a prior nightmare that could be prevented in the future with version control. Patiently explain the benefits and point to competitors and / or larger companies that successfully use version control. Lastly, be patient and give the decision makers time to make an informed decision.

Pro tip: substitute version control for anything else in other persuasive scenarios.

Well, tell them they should rather be afraid to lose current developers or to only get those that are comfortable with not using version control ^^

This argument becomes especially void that you very easily could host a git server yourself.

I will never work for a company that doesn't have version control.

The easy way to explain it, I think, to non-tech people it to say "source control to code is the equivalent of backups of your business documents". They can usually get behind that.

#fuckingretarded

You can use git without remote repos

@strang3quark This. Even if you were working on in an airgapped room on an isolated laptop, you could still just run git init in your project directory.

To enjoy all the benefits of version control, you can work in a single local directory. Your boss doesn't even have to know.

And you can *optionally* use any path(s) as a remote.

If you wanted to you could pass a usb drive around the office, and push/pull from that (bad for security though). Or use a windows share, or an ftp server... for security you should stick to local directories or ssh/https as remotes though.

Github and Bitbucket just provide remotes over ssh & https, with a nice web interface for things like pull requests & issue tracking. You don't have to use their services!

@bittersweet thanks! didn't know setting up a remote was that simple

Gitlab has unlimited free private repos, local VCS is great but a distributed VCS is way better. Also you can DL the community version of gitlab and run your own git server...

@encrypt0r Once you go git, you never go back. My terminal/editor/IDE configs are in a repo, my personal notes are in a repo, theres a code snippet & query repo, I commit the saves of some games, some shopping lists... anything which is useful to keep a versioned log of.