Windows – Which is the best and simplest Windows Subversion client I can install to get the Google Client Library for PHP

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My operating system is Windows 7.

The google-api-php-client is made available on GitHub, and can be downloaded with Subversion.

The documentation provides the exact command line command to download the google-api-php-client files, 

svn checkout http://google-api-php-client.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ google-api-php-client

So that’s no problem. But—as shown on this official Subversion download page—there are different sources for downloading Subversion, and it seems like there are different versions of Subversion with different features.

All I need to do, is run that Subversion command once, and I’ll probably never use Subersion again. Or, maybe I’ll use Subversion once a year. I need the easiest and simplest installation of Subversion that I can get. In order to figure that out, I could download every offer from every provider of Subversion, install every one, and compare them all, but I’d rather not do that.

What’s the easiest way to install Subversion and run that one line of code just one time?

Best Answer

What’s the easiest way to install Subversion and run that one line of code just one time?

Generally, what I would do in a case of “which version of the commonly used software should I install” like this is to just pick the software that:

  1. Is most up to date and most basic to common everyday software client usage.
  2. Can handle basic core software command line items.
  3. Is free or does not require any registration or purchase price.

Looking at the list on that site here is how I would breakdown my recommendations:

  • WANdisco’s Subversion 1.8.11 client: It seems like WANdisco’s Subversion 1.8.11 client is the cleanest and most system agnostic, end-user usage best bet.

  • Win32SVN Subversion 1.8.10 package: I might also think that the Win32SVN Subversion 1.8.10 package is good as well, but if you ask me it seems like it’s not maintained as often as WANdisco’s version, is only available as a 32-bit binary. Not to mention it contains the SVN server as well as Apache related modules which are overkill for simple SVN client usage.

  • SlikSVN’s Subversion 1.8.13 client: All of that said, I am on the fence about the SlikSVN’s Subversion 1.8.13 client since while it’s simply a client and slightly more up to date that WANdisco’s version, the fact it’s compiled primarily for use on SilkSVN’s service might be an issue. I emphasize might because for all I know, it could just be a clean SVN client that SilkSVN is simply maintaining for the convenience of their service’s end-users. Or it could be a slightly customized SVN client that has extra “cruft” that would only benefit SilkSVN end-users and get in the way of other generic SVN usage needs.

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