John Passaniti wrote:
> Let's start with what I'm not interested in. I'm not interested in a
> debate on different version control systems or on the usefulness of
> version control in general.
>
> What I am interested in is what *existing* strategies may have been used
> in the past (or are used now) for doing version control using Forths
> that stored source using *true* blocks.
Well, a quarter century ago I briefly set up a system that sent the
blocks out over a serial line to a UNIX server which stored them in a
file, which was then placed under RCS. Worked fine, but rapidly mutated
into an approach where the field systems just kept binary images in
their block devices, with source on the UNIX servers. Handier.
>
> Note carefully that I make two qualifications here: First, I'm only
> interested in *existing* strategies because I'm looking for something
> that has been proven by others, not an abstract discussion about what
> possibly could be done. Second, I'm asking about Forth systems that are
> based on *true* blocks, not blocks implemented on top of files since the
> trivial answer in that case would be to version control the files
> holding blocks.
>
> I appreciate that such a version control system might be ultra-minimal
> and not offer features like branching, tagging, differencing, and
> merging, etc.. It might only offer manual roll-back of a specific block
> to a prior state, or possibly a grand snapshot of all blocks captured at
> a particular point in time. Whatever-- I'm just looking for past
> strategies.
I'm not sure what your real requirement is: you need to function
entirely within a block world? When we did that we just made a floppy
with a snapshot whenever we would have made a commit. Wound up with
boxes of labeled, dated floppies. Start a new fork, start a new box ;-).
I suppose you could do the same with CD's. Cheap and simple enough...
--
John Doty, Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
--
The axiomatic method of mathematics is one of the great achievements of
our culture. However, it is only a method. Whereas the facts of
mathematics once discovered will never change, the method by which these
facts are verified has changed many times in the past, and it would be
foolhardy to expect that changes will not occur again at some future
date. - Gian-Carlo Rota
