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Re: "in-program" backup facility

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg111931] Re: "in-program" backup facility
  • From: David Reiss <dbreiss at gmail.com>
  • Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:22:15 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <i4ges3$jek$1@smc.vnet.net>

On Aug 18, 4:06 am, peter <plindsa... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Understood, thanks to all who responded.
> peter
>
> On 17 August 2010 06:20, David Bailey <d... at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On16/08/10 10:55, Bill Rowe wrote:
> >> On 8/15/10 at 7:36 AM, plindsa... 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


Since I didn't mention it in this thread, there is a CVS-like backup
facility in
http://scientificarts.com/worklife/
Best,
David


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