David W. Fenton wrote, regarding my work protocols
Well, yes, but there's a margin for error there. What if you mis-type
the file name, or accidentally open the wrong file and start edits?
You can then screw up your successive versions.
OK. I concede that there is a margin of error, but the errors posed are
unlikely to have adverse consequences. Since the first thing I do in an
edit session is to save the file under a new name in which I do my
subsequent work in that session, if I open the wrong file, even if I
don't catch the fact that I did so until I have made some edits, the
changes were made to the new file, not the old one, and I merely have to
delete the new file, and start again with the proper file. In any event
the original file, whether the one I meant to open, or the one opened
because I mistyped the name, remains unchanged. And in practice my file
names are more mnemonic than "0000.mus". Even though the files for a
composers Opus 129, for string sextet, are in a folder named "OP_129",
which is a subfolder of "chamber" which itself is a subfolder of
"cmp_name", the actual file names are something like 000op129, 001op129,
002op129, &c.
So, if yesterday's work is in 002op129, when I start work today, the
first thing is to open this file, and save it 003op129. The first save
goes to the copy of 003op129 on drive c; the second save writes a new
copy (in a parallel location) of 003op129 on drive d; the third save
back to c, &c. The last save of a session is to both c and d. It is
not my custom to intentionaly delete any of the early version files. so
that when op 129 is completed there may be thirty versions of the file
in the directory. Like I said, storage is cheap.
And the nature of my luck is that as soon as I delete all but the last
version, the client will return, with changes so drastic that it would
be more expedient to start with version 016op129, instead of trying to
delete material from the 025op129.
As far as screwing up successive versions, if I open the working file
from day before yesterday (013op129) by mistake, since the first thing I
do is to save it with an incremented session number, when the computer
responds, "file 014op129 already exists, do you want to overwrite", then
I'll immediately recognize that something is not as it should be. And
if I press the "yes" button by mistake, I still have the version on the
other drive.
Yes I know that there is still a margin for error. But in my view,
there are limits on what a tool can be expected to do. I don't expect
my saw to prevent me from cutting the wrong board, or the right board in
the wrong place; I don't expect my drill to prevent me from drilling the
wrong sized hole, or the right sized hole in the wrong place. And since
I learned early on that computers do only exactly what you tell them to,
and not what you mean, I don't expect them to prevent me form editing
the wrong file, or making the wrong edits to the right one.
That can't happen with a program that works in the background.
In my personal experience, the biggest problems (that is, the ones with
the largest adverse consequences) I have had were a direct consequence
of having programs running in the background. I know that in these days
of computing, there are lots of processes and programs which do run in
the background, that I do not know about, but I am still conditioned to
mistrust them.
Further, while it may not have complete functionality, WIN has had
rudimetnary "undelete" functionality (which I admit I have made use of
more than once) with the "trash" folder.since WIN 98, though I realize
that Autosave and Backup files deleted automatically by Finale do not
get to the trash folder.
I prefer having my computer do things *for* me when it can do so
reliably, rather than depending on a poor error-prone human being
like myself.
Yes, well, while it's nice to have systems in place to recover from
one's errors, I feel that if I spend a little time anticipating where
the errors are likely to occur, and design my work habits to reduce my
chances of errors, then I save the time and effort I would have to spend
in trying to recover from them.
ns
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