[sugar] adding versions to journal/datastore

[Eben Eliason]

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 9:04 PM, Christopher Sawtell <csawtell at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am new around here & did not realise that the list server doesn't
> munge the addresses, my apologies.
>
> Anyway, I responded to Mikus thus:-
>
> I agree the 'effort' is theoretically trivial, what "versioning"
> provides is a new version number without the need to _remember_ that
> one has to create a new file name for the new version, and that, for
> many people, is far from trivial.
>
> Remember that in times of yore - pre 1981 - versioning was a standard
> feature offered by many O/Ss.
>
> These days the need for versioning has become somewhat nebulous
> because the various source code control systems allow one to check in
> and out, and to see the differences very simply.
>
> Whether or not children should have to deal with that level of
> complexity in order to be able to 'undo' the latest, & erroneous,
> changes to their current 'magnum opus' is, I suppose, open to debate.

We certainly don't plan on exposing them to that, unless they
absolutely want it. Instead, the model will simply be along the lines
of "I messed up this picture, but it looked good yesterday before I
scribbled on it.  Let me scroll back in time through the Journal to
yesterday's entry, when it still looked OK, and resume that."
Previews and dates should assist the process of rediscovering old
versions.

Another potential option is to build versioning support into the
undo/redo buttons of an activity, such that it's possible to skip back
through old entries by undoing.  This idea, of course, has its share
of intricacies to figure out, but it could be a powerful system.

- Eben

> --
> Sincerely etc.
> Christopher Sawtell
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