TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Store Files on a Server? From:"Martin, Chuck" <chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 15 Jan 1998 12:00:05 -0800
> From: Tracy Boyington
> (1) It's a moot point for me, because we've been told not to store
files
> on the server -- there's not enough room.
With prices for quality hard drives dipping well below 10
cents/megabyte, there's *no* excuse to not have enough room on servers.
>
> (2) In my case, our server and/or the entire network are much more
> likely to go down than my computer. If the network goes down and my
> files are on my hard drive, I can continue working -- if not, it's
> thumb-twiddling time. If my files are on my hard drive and my computer
> goes down, assuming I've been a good girl and made my backups, I can
> just move to a different computer.
If you are using version control software, copies are on both your
network drive and your local drive.
>
> (3) Someone mentioned version control -- again, in my case, it's the
> opposite (if I understood what you meant) because as long as there is
> only one copy of my document, and it's on my hard drive, nobody is
going
> to end up with the wrong version or accidentally delete the only
recent
> copy (both of which have happened with files on the server).
Version control is for paranoid people; it keeps unauthorized changes
from being made, it reconciles differences if more than one person is
working with a specific file, or it can keep just one version of a file
available for changes (if you've checked it out, no one else can make
any changes to it). Also, you can't just delete files; previous versions
and deltas are stored in the version control program database. Plus, if
your computer somehow crashes and mangles your document so it is
irretrievable, version control software lets you go back easily to the
previous version, probably somewhat easier than locating it on your last
backup. I have never worked for a company where individual users do
backups of their desktop machines (perhaps a bad practice), but they
*always* back up their network servers, and instruct people to keep
company data on the servers precisely for that purpose.
--
"You don't look American."
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere."
- Doonesbury
Chuck Martin, Technical Writer
Evolve Software | Personal
chuckm -at- evolvesoftware -dot- com | writer -at- grin -dot- net
www.evolvesoftware.com | www.grin.net/~writer
