If you've ever worked with a team of two or more developers you would know that not using source control is a nightmare: The complexity or merging files grows exponentially as the number of people in the team increases.
You should ALWAYS use source control, even if only working with yourself. Here's a couple of reasons:
- It's an undo mechanism
- It's a historical archive
- It's a reference point for diffs
- It's a backup of your code
And if you're working on a team it's even better:
- It helps isolate production-working code from development, reducing bugs on live sites/apps
- It helps branch new/risky/important changes to the codebase before pushing to production (see previous point)
- It allows more than one person to work on a file at the same time
- It allows a team lead to coordinate better
- It makes open-source possible
If you haven't used source control before, checkout some of the descriptions and tutorials below to get started:
About Source Control:
- What Is Git & Why You Should Use Version Control If You’re a Developer
- Getting Started - About Version Control
- A Visual Guide to Version Control
- Stack Overflow: Why should I use Source Control
- Programmers Exhange: My boss is afraid of Source Control
Tutorials for specific Version Control Systems: