[Info-vax] DCL enhancements

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2021-01-25 17:25:09 +0000, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply said:

> In article <rumtou$mrk$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman 
> <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
> 
>> Or set the default version limit to one on all volumes newly initialized,
> 
> That's one thing I wouldn't want, at least not as the default.

Versions were and are a bad idea and a mess and a hassle.

>> maybe fix the inexplicable SYS$SCRATCH default of SYS$LOGIN,
> 
> Presumably, SYS$LOGIN is the only directory which can be counted on to  exist.

I'd wager it was a good-enough shortcut during development, rather than 
actually implementing viable and automatically-managed temporary 
storage.

>> and force the user to enable and accept the costs and messes  of 
>> multiple versions manually.
> 
> The advantages HUGELY outweigh the disadvantages!

Yes, they create more work and more hassles and more expense.

> 
>> Then force the user to deal with the ensuing complexity brought by 
>> their unwise choice to enable multiple versions, to script the 
>> inevitable cleanup requirements, to store their temporary files in an 
>> actual temporary area, and not dump all that into SYS$LOGIN:.
> 
> Or tell them to read the manual before starting to work with VMS.  :-)

Yet we still have version-related messes, and vanishingly few apps that 
self-manage versions, and OpenVMS itself certainly not, and forty years 
on. How long do we keep digging in the same hole?

Would I like to revert to older file contents on occasion? Sure. 
Versions were and remain a problematic approach that provided the 
ability to revert, badly, and manually. Fix the problem. Reverting. 
Don't keep patching a bad idea.


-- 
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC