MathGroup Archive 2011

[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Search the Archive

Re: Managing your notebooks

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg118064] Re: Managing your notebooks
  • From: ADL <alberto.dilullo at tiscali.it>
  • Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:06:12 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <inpesv$8tp$1@smc.vnet.net>

On 9 Apr, 13:11, Jason Quinn <jason.lee.qu... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was curious if anybody would be willing to share there strategy for
> managing their Mathematica notebook versions.
>
> In my experience, Mathematica notebooks are "fragile" because running
> the code is not cleanly separated from using the code. Notebooks
> indicate modification after a cell is run even if no changes to the
> code were made. In practice, after using a notebook for a while, it's
> easy to forget if changes were actually made that you would want to
> keep, so when you are prompted to save a notebook, you are left with a
> dilemma. Staying safe, you save again and again which leads to a
> proliferation of versions.
>
> I am aware you can make cells edit protected but this doesn't solve
> the problem. I also know about the "Notebook history" feature, which
> seems to be of very limited value. I always end up with so many
> "versions" of my notebooks that I forget what the differences between
> them are.
>
> I can't help but feel that I'm missing something. I have no problems
> managing compiled code or interpreted scripts but notebooks are much
> more challenging. Is this something you experience as well. Have you
> too noticed extra difficulty managing your mathematica notebooks?
>
> Comments? Suggestions?
> Jason

For versioning .m files, I easily developed a GET function (similar to
the Get one), which operates like this:

GET[file] looks for any file (in my paths) of the form "file-nnn.m",
where the n are numbers, and loads the one with the highest number.

In this way, while saving my file versions, I simply add a progressive
number to the file and I'm sure to automatically load (or reload) only
the last one. If I am not happy, I delete the last and get
automatically back to the previous.

The same concept may be used to change directory.

ADL


  • Prev by Date: Re: Selecting round parentheses arguments
  • Next by Date: Re: CDF browser plugin and Wolfram library archive
  • Previous by thread: Re: Managing your notebooks
  • Next by thread: Re: Managing your notebooks