Mercurial or SVN

Since my last post was on SVN, I think its time to make an update about this version control thingy. Trust me guys mercurial(and for that matter git) is way better than SVN. Mercurial may have a slow learning curve but once you get the feel you will be amazed by its power. and again with eclipse we have the awesome mercurial plugin.
The easiest way to go about learning mercurial is
1)Have a start here http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/03/17.html

2) First clear the basics and only after then start using it. Meanwhile forget everything you have learnt from SVN.

3) Have fun with it. :)

Update: Sep,2014. It looks funny that after all these years git has beaten mercurial to death. More than 90% of the developer community(at least those I know) uses git now. I myself having used both git and mercurial, would recommend git too.

How to branch in svn using eclipse

Eclipse is one of the best IDEs I have seen. The subversion support is also quite cool. Just ensure that you the latest version of the plugin installed.
While developing bigger projects , the branch feature of svn is quite helpful. Although now it seems quite easy but it took me some time to figure out the exact details.
So, to create a branch first the project should be setup like::
"project name"
|---- trunk
|---- tags
|---- branches

the folder "trunk" is the mainstream of the project. If you want to create a new branch or new tags.

• Update your project (Team->update)
• Create a branch/tag (Team->Branch/tag). Make a new subdirectory in the branches directory if you want a branch or in the tags directory.
• Now, switch your working copy to this folder.
• Your branches/tags have been create and you can switch between them whenever you want using (Team->switch to another branch/tag)