[Quixocrate]

Hello. I think it'd be great if Apple could build support for file version management into OS X. For instance, when I make changes to a document or image file and save it, the OS would move the original file into a compressed archive (either for that file or all files, whichever is faster) in the home folder. Thus, I could get to the file later. Even better, if they made this accessible in applications, finder, and even spotlight, a user could toggle which file version he wanted to look at. So if I'd modified a family picture and saved it, and then searched in Spotlight for a keyword associated with it (ie family), it would come up with the modified version and (rather than a second preview for the original) arrow keys or something next to the modified one which would let me select which version I wanted. That would be so cool!

Is there any program out there that already support this?
Don

[Quixocrate]

This could also be done I suppose by creating a hidding directory; this would be transparent- the user would only see one file and a toggle for versions, but it would actually be a directory with the different versions in it.

[OreoCookie]

Take a look at the Elephant File System

http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs535/s03/san...99/slide1.html

[cla]

No need to waste energy on whatever technical approach – we get the idea =]

You're probably a bit ahead of your time. I reckon this will be the default behaviour of your average operating system some day. Whenever automatic versioning can be implemented without getting in your face (lags for diffing/comparing/compressing or space issues), it will imply an important side effect: no need for saving files (which no doubt would take some time getting used to), as the OS could save the files automatically for you.

This behaviour rhymes with the analogy of the desktop metaphor - the desktop itself. If you pull a folder out of the bookshelf, rip out the only copy of the annual sales report which you by the way throw on the floor along with your naked body covered in lard and ink and roll around laughing hysterically - once you're done, no one's going to ask you if you really want to Save.

Those ink splattered pages sticking onto your body are the NEW annual sales report (tada!). I could live with that, as long as a option of reverting to version 1.0.

Then again, I wouldn't mind getting past 'the ole desktop metaphor' before I die.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is: If you Google for "versioning file system", you'll get a few interesting hits:
One of them is Wayback, a versioning file system for Linux, virtual in the sense that it resides on top of a logical file system (id est, can be applied to ReiserFS, FAT, EXT3 and so on).

If you really want to get down and dirty, I can recommend A Versatile and User-Oriented Versioning File System (Kiran-Kumar Muniswamy-Reddy et al.).

I haven't actually read it myself, I have however always had an urge to recommend someone reading something with a really heavy title like that.
I will now go on with my life.

[C.J. Moof]

I've been wishing that documents had a time slider like a quicktime movie. Need to roll back to the way it was last Thursday at 2PM? Just pick up the slider, watch the little pop-up window, and there you are.

[xi_hyperon]

Originally Posted by C.J. Moof

I've been wishing that documents had a time slider like a quicktime movie. Need to roll back to the way it was last Thursday at 2PM? Just pick up the slider, watch the little pop-up window, and there you are.

Wow. What a great idea.

[cla]

That IS a great idea!

If the file type/size isn't too ungainly, one could even allow the user to slowly scrub the slider in order to animate the changes (if you ever used Apples diff tool: imagine visualizing the differences between two version as a function of time rather than space).

[entrox]

Hey, 1980 called, they want their technology back. There have been several operating systems with versioning file systems in the past (Genera, VMS).

It's quite sad to see how many technologies get forgotten and then re-invented 20 years later in the software sector, praising them as "innovations". This is just one example.