On backup (was: Argh! where have all my stacks gone?)

[Steven W. Riggins]

We had this problem with projects in HyperCard, because the media was 
kept in the same file as your code.  Usually, code is what changed 
the most, and that is the smallest of the assets.

I am not sure what 2.0 has, but because product stability is 
*paramount* as is protecting your assets, I would propose several 
items (unless they are there)

1) The ability to save your project in an XML file.  This could 
include media (converted into text) or not (would store references to 
media on disk)

2) The ability to script Rev to do this (from say AppleScript, or 
some other outside source)

You could then (as I do with CodeWarrior) export your project to XML 
and check that into a CVS source tree.  You get the benefits of 
keeping versions of your project, looking at the differences (how 
many times have you wanted to see "ohhh I deleted a line from that 
button by accident!) and also give you a way to back up the project 
sans the media.

You could then use Backup app of your choice.  For me, I would run my 
shell script that gzips the file, gpg encrypts it, moves it into a 
folder where the .mac backup app then backs it up later.

It is a little involved, but I know we had no such beast in the HC 
days.  In fact, talk about flashback, I had a script to dump a stack 
to a tagged file format!  I remember it failed if you used object IDs 
on recreation (because I could not specify them) but it was a backup 
to stack corruption issues.

Amazing how we seem to chase our tails....

Anyhow, I can see projects being so large that just disk copying is 
not enough.  It is great for daily backups, but if you want long term 
archivals and not have to worry about corruption creep, a text based 
solution is better.

I thanked the Codewarrior gods when they allowed for XML export......

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Steve Riggins, Macintosh Geek                     http://www.geeksrus.com/