A version control system enables you to track your changes, view the history of your revisions, revert to previous states if necessary, and allows you many other very practical operations. Bazaar is such a system, and although these tasks are complicated and can be really difficult to accomplish, Bazaar makes makes all this as easy for you as possible.

I have been using Bazaar since its early days. At the time I was a happy user of Subversion. Although I could not do everything that I wanted with it, I was not looking for something better. I don't remember what compelled me to try Bazaar, but I do remember that soon after I tried it, very quickly (and very easily!) I migrated all my projects, without ever looking back.

I found my way around Bazaar little by little, mostly by reading its built-in help pages. Based on my previous experiences with version control systems, I often used operations the "hard way" at first, only to learn later that Bazaar had a much easier, much more intuitive way to accomplish the same thing. I had to unlearn many things, and again and again I was surprised by how predictable this tool was. I could guess how some complex operations would work in a situation I have never experienced before, and to my surprise Bazaar would prove me right.

Although Bazaar has excellent documentation both built-in and online, the idea behind the structure of this book is to lead you on, step by step, through more and more logically complex scenarios that you might find yourself in when working on any project. When you start using a version control tool, you will probably try it first by yourself, in a simple project you have, or something completely new. As the project shapes up, you might want to share your work with your friends or colleagues, get some feedback from them, or better yet, get actual implementations of real improvements. The idea is to not to just go over all the possible operations like a bullet-point list, but to put them in practical, realistic contexts, jam-packed with good examples. The book gradually reveals the power of Bazaar, while constantly highlighting the common intuition behind all the operations.

Using a version control system skillfully is not easy at all, and the subject should not be taken lightly. I truly hope that this book will help you gain a solid understanding of version control with Bazaar, and that you will become fully comfortable and effective using this fantastic tool.