[Info-vax] DCL enhancements

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2021-01-25 kl. 19:49, skrev Arne Vajhøj:
> On 1/25/2021 12:05 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> On 2021-01-25 13:40:25 +0000, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply said:
>>> What about some easy-to-implement DCL enhancements?
>>>
>>> With PURGE/CONFIRM, there is Y, N, and A.  Why not R, for "rest", which 
>>> would be A but only for the current file name and extension, then it 
>>> would ask again for the next one?
>>
>> Or set the default version limit to one on all volumes newly initialized, 
>> maybe fix the inexplicable SYS$SCRATCH default of SYS$LOGIN, and force 
>> the user to enable and accept the costs and messes of multiple versions 
>> manually.
>>
>> 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:.
>>
>> The forward-looking and overly-complex design—avoiding this mess—would 
>> integrate replaced versions with backups and with a backup data recovery 
>> framework, so that the superseded versions are immediately gone, but are 
>> also archived and available to restore. This might work better with newer 
>> file systems that are not infested with versions, but would need 
>> file-change notification support and work in BACKUP or its replacement. 
>> This'll need some change-pruning support, obviously. Maybe all copies for 
>> an hour, then hourly copies for a day, etc. Pretty soon, you will have 
>> built your own time machine for saving and restoring files.
>>
>> But then designing a mostly-secure temporary storage area might require a 
>> little more thought than initially realized, too. Same for backup and 
>> restore integration. And compressing the delta for the version-to-version 
>> changes is certainly fodder for thought.
> 
> I don't agree.
> 
> I don't see any point in VMS trying to become exactly like other OS.
> If it does then there is no point in VMS.
> 
> There is a real demand for having backup of files. And it makes
> sense to have a single solution across tools.
> 
> Are there better solutions than version numbers. Probably yes.
> 
> But versions number work. And people know them.
> 
> So why not keep them.
> 
> Arne
> 

Thanks. Someone sensible...