FWIW, I like Mercurial as a version control system. It can be entirely local or distributed, but there is no unique master repository. The commands are very similar to Git. Whenever I have something that benefits from saving previous versions, I create a Mercurial repository in the directory, or base directory, that contains the 'something'.
We expect to make it an optional part of our software, with the repository for a document inside the document itself. That way, a (fat version) of a document file would contain not only the text, images, videos, etc. of the document, but also its full history. (There would of course be a skinny version with the historical record removed.) If you have the file, you have its complete history. If you lose the file, well, that's what backups are for. --Barry On Apr 8, 2013, at 6:50 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > On 4/8/13 5:48 PM, Russell Standish wrote: > Russell- >> On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 12:49:47PM -0600, Steve Smith wrote: >> A point and click later and we are back to the earlier state, >> and if I'm wrong, another point and click and we are at another >> state, and .... >> rsync doesn't solve this particular problem. If I need to do that, I >> use a version control system - eg subversion > I've used Subversion (and in the ancient prehistory SCCS and RCS) which is > partly why for my professional projects, I don't worry so much about *backup* > perse... everything is in a repository *off site* and backed up by someone > with more care and patience than *I* have. >> - if my wife needs to do >> that, she is SOL :). I'm not going to try to teach her >> subversion. Fortunately, that has never happened. > Wow, it is my *wife* that has taught *me* all I know about subversion (as > opposed to Subversion(tm)). She's the master (mistress?) at it! >> >> Time Machine would be nice (provided I could develop trust of >> it). Unfortunately, I'm Linux, not Mac, so its not an option :). If >> someone implements a transparent copy on write versioning file system, >> I'd probably install it on my home partition, just in case I even need >> to solve a problem like the above. Subversion is too expensive for >> /home. Alas, even though some experimental versions exist, none have >> made it to prime time. > I'm surprised someone (aside from Apple) hasn't solved this. I presume there > is no Time Machine interface for anything but OSX. But I haven't checked... > it is *mostly* software. To the extent that (too?) many of us do *nothing*, > it is not hard to trust Time Machine to do *more*. > > Thanks for the clarification about rsync... since incremental/diff-based > source control has been around *forever* and Time Machine for 5 or more > years? I assumed there were other equivalent solutions... hmmmm? Silly > Apple, *why* would they ever think they were unique? > > > - Steve > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
