Re: suggestions for version control or backup systems?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg113590] Re: suggestions for version control or backup systems?
- From: Sebastian <sebhofer at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 03:57:34 -0500 (EST)
- References: <i8c8sa$g7l$1@smc.vnet.net> <i8erfg$hsd$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Oct 7, 8:37 am, Albert Retey <a... at gmx-topmail.de> wrote: > Hi, > > > The main problem I encounter is that bzr tries to merge my nb files, > > which of course differ a lot from each other because of different > > output cells, etc. It then screws up the nb by placing markers which > > are supposed to help you resolve the conflict, which of course is just > > a pain! So I want a vcs which handles binary files better and > > preferably doesn't screw them up. Maybe I should also think of > > deleting my output cells, on the other hand it may take some time to > > recreate them... Anyway, thanks for your heads up on hg! > > The merging problem will probably exist for every vcs out there, since > almost every vcs I know or have heard of works in a line oriented way. I > think there are alternatives, which try to store and compare some kind > of interpreted expression instead of plain text, but I am quite sure > there is none that understands the internals of notebooks (or > mathematica expression syntax in general). It would maybe be an > interesting task to implement something like that in Mathematica itself :-) > > As far as I remember both svn and hg -- and probably most other vcs -- > do this kind of automatic merging but also can just extract the two > versions that conflict so you can do the merging by hand, I do that once > in a while with the NotebookDiff-Utility from the old AuthorTools > package. Maybe you will need some configuration or extra commands to > check out the two conflicting versions instead of the one with the > conflict marks. > > So the problem you had will not be solved by using another vcs, but > maybe you will find it easier to configure one of them to not even try > the automatic merges. With newer version I find it a reasonable approach > to edit .m files in the frontend, which has the advantage that these can > be treated as regular text code files by a vcs, so you will even be able > to take advantage of automatica merges... > > hth, > > Albert Thanks for all your help! I just noticed that I already replied (twice!) to your answers, but the messages didn't get through! Crossing my fingers for better luck this time! s