Re: "in-program" backup facility
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111912] Re: "in-program" backup facility
- From: peter <plindsay.0 at gmail.com>
- Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:07:14 -0400 (EDT)
Understood, thanks to all who responded. peter On 17 August 2010 06:20, David Bailey <dave at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote: > On 16/08/10 10:55, Bill Rowe wrote: >> On 8/15/10 at 7:36 AM, plindsay.0 at gmail.com (peter) wrote: >> >>> I've seen a few posts about this and I'm wondering if I am missing >>> the point [ again ]. Surely folks are managing their own backups - >>> perhaps using "Time Machine" on the mac or whatever. The arguments >>> in favour or regular backups surely extend beyond the use of >>> Mathematica and apply generally to the use of a personal computer ? >> >> Undoubtedly, such backups are done by many users here. But, such >> backups don't entirely resolve the issue. >> >> Time Machine and the like backup the entire hard drive. The >> default interval for Time Machine is 1 hour. With Mathematica, a >> substantial amount of work can be lost when restoring a notebook >> to what it was 1 hour ago. >> >> And note, Time Machine backs up the file as it exists on the >> hard drive. If you have not saved your work periodically, the >> file backed up by Time Machine could be quite a bit more than 1 >> hour old. >> >> Creating some sort of script to automate periodically saving the >> state of a notebook and decreasing the interval Time Machine >> uses for backups isn't a viable solution either. If you decrease >> the interval between backups enough, then Time Machine will be >> perpetually running and never complete a backup. Further, with a >> scheme to automatically save notebooks there will be the chance >> Time Machine will be writing the notebook to the backup at the >> same time it is being modified (saved) by the automated save >> script. And the probability of this occurring clearly increases >> as the interval between backups is decreased. The result of such >> collisions will be the copy of the notebook in the Time Machine >> backup won't be stable and likely is unusable. >> >> Programs designed to backup all files that have changed on a >> hard drive really aren't replacements for what is being asked for. >> >> > > I'd say some sort of 'nag' function that just reminded the user that he > had been working on a notebook for x minutes, and wouldn't he like to > save. An automatic save can easily happen at the worst possible moment - > say half way through a long series of find/replace operations! > > I like control over what is going on. > > David Bailey > > http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk > >