Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!iuvax!bsu-cs!jdh From: jdh@bsu-cs.UUCP (John Hiday) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: The Next Generation Message-ID: <1570@bsu-cs.UUCP> Date: Sun, 22-Nov-87 23:18:02 EST Article-I.D.: bsu-cs.1570 Posted: Sun Nov 22 23:18:02 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Nov-87 19:55:33 EST References: <5294@ccicpg.UUCP> <2803@cbmvax.UUCP> <516@mcdsun.UUCP> <5537@ccicpg.UUCP> <2252@dayton.UUCP> Reply-To: jdh@bsu-cs.UUCP (John Hiday) Organization: Ball State University UCS, Muncie, IN Lines: 55 Summary: How about VMSish version numbers? In article <2252@dayton.UUCP> joe@dayton.UUCP (Joseph P. Larson) writes: >> > [...] >I think Harald isn't taking into consideration the fact that accidentally >deleting a file isn't the only sort of protection from oneself one might like. >For instance: > > o Overwritting a file with garbage isn't deleting a file. > [...] Reading about protecting me from myself has reminded me of a VMS feature which I sorely miss on my Amiga -- version numbers on files. For those of you unfamiliar with VMS, all file names are suffixed with a version number. In this way, when you create a new version of a file you simply bump the version number up by one. Your old file is still there and is still called by the same name (not renamed to .BAK or moved to the t: directory or some other kludge). When accessing a file you do not have to remember what is the highest version number nor do you have to go to the trouble of giving the filename and version number. A reference to a file by just the name (no version specification) will get you the highest version. Of course if you want to play with a version which is not the highest you can explicitly state what version you want. To keep things tidy (so that you don't fill an entire disk with every version of a file made in the past 10 years) the number of backup versions that the system should retain is a user controllable file attribute. For example: $ EDIT IMPORTANT.FILE *delete begin:end *exit 0 lines written to IMPORTANT.FILE;2 $ DIR/SIZE IMPORTANT.FILE IMPORTANT.FILE;2 0 IMPORTANT.FILE;1 1000 $ TYPE IMPORTANT.FILE (defaults to highest version which is empty) $ DELETE IMPORTANT.FILE;2 (deletes just the new, empty version) $ TYPE IMPORTANT.FILE (the old ;1 now the highest) Important stuff still here... I realize this would mean adding another special character and that it might cause problems with the way filenames are hashed, but I think that it would be a useful feature to at least consider. -- == John Hiday UUCP: !{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!jdh == Ball State University / University Computing Services GEnie: JDHIDAY == Muncie, IN 47306