Laura Wingerd (pictured), vice president of product technology, Perforce Software, has authored a new book, Practical Perforce, published by O'Reilly in December.

 

Not a product manual as the title might suggest, Practical Perforce discusses specific Software Configuration Management (SCM) strategies. One of the insights readers will gain is the ability to plan a branching strategy that can support a large and long-lived software product development life cycle.

 

"It's not a tutorial, nor is it a reference," Wingerd remarks. "It's more of a whirlwind technical tour."

 

Practical Perforce is divided into two main parts. Part I offers descriptions of basic and advanced Perforce commands designed to give the reader 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.

 

The book gives insights to maximize Perforce so it completes tasks like the following in the most efficient manner possible:

 

It is a complement to the existing product manual, focusing less on the "how" and more on the "why" and "when." It is a helpful introduction to Perforce, and a resource for those already familiar with this versatile SCM product.