right now, I'm currently looking for an SVN program that just does all the basic stuff. right now, i want to get Flake's latest code and compile it myself but i can't do so because of the program that I'm currently using.

RapidSVN worked like a charm for WavPack's SVN server, but it totally failed when it was about to display an SSL dialog box.

so does anyone know of any good alternatives? I've also tried TortoiseSVN but i don't really like the idea of it being a shell extension.

edit: spelling

The subversion commandline should do just fine for checking out the odd repository. You didn't mention which OS you use, but from your mention of Tortoise I deduct it must be Windows. From the little I've used it in the past, my impression is that TortoiseSVN is great.

TortoiseSVN is a nice program. however, it integrates a little too much into explorer IMO. when i try to get the files from, let's say, WavPack, an extra icon appears on the folder(green, red, etc...) and when i try to copy the folder to another place, that green dot still exists.

for right now, i've found a program called Subcommander and it looked like it has some good SSL support. but the interface is a bit confusng. i'll still search for an alternative.

Try removing .svnignore files (or something like that) to get rid of the icons. Don't do this if the files need to be synced again.

I would have thought, for quickly grabbing code from a remote server that you can't check into, the command line would be ideal. Sourceforge even gives you the exact command line that you need to run.

Following on from kjoonlee's post about TortoiseSVN: IIRC you just need to delete the ".svn" folder in each directory to stop the directories acting as a repository and lose the icon overlays. You may need to view hidden folders to view these ".svn" folders.

I had reservations about TortoiseSVN when I first looked at it, but I have been using it at work for the past three months and have found it a really nice tool. I used it to grab the WavPack and Flake sources with no problem.

Edit: Please see my post in the Flake thread.