Re: [Info-Ingres] Trash talking VMS

Michael Leo wrote:
Plus the file versioning VMS does is incredibly cool. Don't know why
Windows or Linux doesn't do it?

In 25 years of working in IT (10 on VMS), I've never managed to need
those old versions. I must work differently.

Really? In 25 years, you've never referred to a .bak, .bck, ~filename,
filename1, filename.old, .old/filename, or other such hack? Never used
rotlog or similar? Never changed a script and changed it back, unretyping
stuff in vi? I wish I had you talent.

Built-in file versions eliminate the need for ad hoc
application/administrative versions.

And in modern OSes we have this thing called "version control systems",
like Subversion, that efficiently store entire snapshots of directories.

1. File versioning is orthogonal to version control. One does not
preclude the other.

2. Surely you remember VMS had source control management systems, too.
(Oh, and if you like cscope and Ingres, you'd flip over SCA.)

Your argument is that if you need versions, you need version management.
The existence of all those .bak files (and undo features) proves
otherwise: sometimes it's less work to back up a few steps.

Adding a versioning filesystem to Linux/BSD wouldn't be technically
difficult IMO, easier than, say, adding support for a new bus. And it
makes more sense than ever today, given the ratio of storage/labor costs.
The hard thing would be to overcome ossified bad-is-better attitudes.

--jkl

.