[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[hb]

On 02/09/2018 12:06 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> First of all, having the file versions are much more lightweight when
> you want to go back and check something from a previous version, than to
> go through the backup system and restore a previous version, not to
> mention the simple ability of being able to compare them side to side
> without having to start doing renames or other tricks so that the
> restored version from the backup don't actually overwrite the current
> version with the same name.
> 
> Second, I'm not aware of any backup system that does a snapshot at every
> file close. The closest to what you describe that I know of is the Time
> Machine from Apple. But that only takes a snapshot every hour. I can
> create many versions in one hour when I'm developing code.
> 
> And there is still that issue of having to go into the time machine
> interface and restore if I want to get an older version back, and of
> course the name collision if I also want to retain the current version,
> and maybe also want to make comparisons or checks against 7 other recent
> versions in short order.
> 
> But hey, I certainly do recognize that I'm not a typical user, and my
> patterns are probably both odd and archaic. I don't really believe in
> IDEs either, but I do believe in version control systems. But I do not
> consider version control systems to really overlap my use of file
> versions either.

IDEs like Eclipse have a local history, besides a plugin for the version
control system of your choice. The local file versions are identified by
the time, when the source was saved, not by a number. You can do
compares within the IDE, local history and/or any revision in your
version control system. Just a few mouse clicks. If you want, you can
merge the code from the compare window/view, difference by difference
with another mouse click. Fits me.