On windows the most popular client is TortoiseSVN, but the situation isn’t as clear on the mac.

SvnX

The first one i tried was SvnX. It’s free open-source subversion client which is quite popular. It has all the usual subversion feature one needs - commit, check out, show revisions, svn move, svn copy, etc, etc…

SvnX has quite a lot of windows to work in. The first one is Repositories

Quite straightforward, SvnX supports local repositories as well as svn+ssh and http/https svn access.

By logging on to repository you get to the next window

You have the whole revision history with the comments and modified files easily visible and lower than that here is your repository view. You can perform actions by using the toolbar but nothing much else. And here is what annoys me about SvnX - it just isn’t possible to the modified files, files with conflicts, etc… for the whole of repository.

How do we handle the files that were checked out? - we do that through Working Copies Window

Having chosen the working copy we need we just double-click and see the working copy window there.

SvnX uses FileMerge to show differences between revisions which has quite nice syntax coloring, but it stops coloring if both are older revisions(as they are .tmp files then and filemerge can’t determine the appropriate syntax).

ZigVersion

So I’ve decided to switch over to ZigVersion. It’s not open-source, but free for personal use which suits me just fine. The repository choice window is pretty much the same, though it does have the “Import working copy” button of which I’ll talk a bit later

The prime difference to SvnX(or to other svn clients for that matter) is that there is only one window for both repository and working copy - so any svn actions which are applied to the working copy are automatically mirrored to repository. This is quite handy but does introduce a limitation - there is only one working copy possible, doesn’t worry me much, but might be a crippling restriction for some.

And because of its simplicity it also has some gui problems - some actions are quite unobvious.
For example, getting diffs between revisions involves selecting the file, opening its history window, selecting the required revisions and only then the View changes options is available in contextual menu.

Or what if you want to import the working copy - the only way to do that is go to repositories window thus reconnecting to the server every time you need to import a working copy. It becomes quite a chore if there are a lot of branches.

What if you want to revert to previous revision? You have to drag-drop the revision into your working copy directory(and you can’t drag it from revision viewer window, only from history window) and then check it in.

The revision viewer is quite handy though and it uses its own diff application - though it doesn’t have any syntax coloring…

Conslusions

All in all, I do prefer Zigversion, though I’ll be on lookout for other mac svn clients - there is java SmartSvn and upcoming VersionsApp which looks quite promisiing. For now, the choice is yours what to use…