Matrix Games Forums

I just got back from out of town and found my house had been broken into. Yet I can't find anything missing!? Most notably, they didn't take my PC. Considering that all the update code was on it, and wasn't stored anywhere else, this is sort of like a bullet just missing your head. I definitely need to find a safe place to back that stuff up soon.

Omg. You don't backup your data?!?!?!? What a noob mistake. You're fired.

Lobster wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 2:46 am Omg. You don't backup your data?!?!?!? What a noob mistake. You're fired.

Well, I do now.

(Put it on a thumb drive). But this was a close one.

Curtis Lemay wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 12:37 am I just got back from out of town and found my house had been broken into. Yet I can't find anything missing!? Most notably, they didn't take my PC. Considering that all the update code was on it, and wasn't stored anywhere else, this is sort of like a bullet just missing your head. I definitely need to find a safe place to back that stuff up soon.

This sounds terrifying. I hope that you can feel safe again in your house. I am not sure if it is the right time to point out that a USB stick backup probably won't cut it in the long run, as you probably have bigger fishs to fry right now. In my experience backing up to USB media is too much work compared to a fully automatic backup to some remote server, and I tend to forget backups if they are not automated

Use source control like github you can create a free account and make a private (only you or who you choose to a access) repo or public repo (default). It’s the only way to go.

All software development projects (especially games) should be under source control.

Maybe get some of those cameras for security. I keep putting it off myself, mostly because there are many to pick from, but also because they are a bit pricey [which I admit is a dumbass reason, but I am old and grumpy].

Um.... this game isn't using source control?

This is so basic a mistake that I can't even make a snarky comment.

Ralph was using GitHub. But now, there's only one coder left. What purpose would it serve?

Curtis Lemay wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 2:23 am Ralph was using GitHub. But now, there's only one coder left. What purpose would it serve?

If you have to ask that question I just don’t know what to say other than the lack of professionalism and understanding how source control and software development works.

Unless you have a photographic memory and let’s say you wrote 1,000 lines of code touching 100 files and it was a total botch and broke existing functionality, how would you revert your changes without source control?

Spend several hours or days copying or replacing files from a back up source, which is mistake and error prone, or using source control do it in mere seconds with no fear of corruption or errors.

I have worked on both small and large teams and even my solo projects are under source control. So saying only one programmer is working on the code so why need source control just show lack of understanding and experience.

Its like saying to a carpenter why do you use a tool bag, I just keep all my tools in my pants and shirt pockets.

As a professional coder for 35 years, I never used github, but that was then and we did have serious backups. It's definitely something that would be helfpul. But if you think that's too much of a hassle, do what I do with files I can't afford to lose: just email them to yourself and leave the last half dozen or so emails in your account. That way if your house burns down, taking both computer and thumb drive with it, you're covered. Although at that point it will probably be a while until you get back to coding.

Zovs wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 12:05 pm

Curtis Lemay wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 2:23 am Ralph was using GitHub. But now, there's only one coder left. What purpose would it serve?

If you have to ask that question I just don’t know what to say other than the lack of professionalism and understanding how source control and software development works.

Unless you have a photographic memory and let’s say you wrote 1,000 lines of code touching 100 files and it was a total botch and broke existing functionality, how would you revert your changes without source control?

Spend several hours or days copying or replacing files from a back up source, which is mistake and error prone, or using source control do it in mere seconds with no fear of corruption or errors.

I have worked on both small and large teams and even my solo projects are under source control. So saying only one programmer is working on the code so why need source control just show lack of understanding and experience.

Its like saying to a carpenter why do you use a tool bag, I just keep all my tools in my pants and shirt pockets.

I document the lines I add or change. But I wouldn't debug anything by ripping out 100's of lines of code. I would use the debugger to figure what the issue was.

And Ralph hasn't been gone that long. Even if I had started some sort of source control the instant I knew he was gone for good (less than a year ago), only very recent coding would have been thus affected.

Time is a nonrenewable resource. Even if you had to recreate ten lines of code it is time lost that can never be retrieved. I am someone who abhors doing the same thing twice. Every time I'm going to make a change there's a backup. At the end of a session there's a backup to dropbox and a thumb drive plus a copy is automatically mirrored on my laptop as I'm working. It can seem like a pain in the butt and/or paranoia however the consequences of not having a failproof backup is so bad there are no words to describe the pain of the loss.

Can't you just go for security program like Norton that offers also some online capacity for backups?
Afaik my has 10GB of storage, isn't that enough for you?

I would listen to the professional programmers and do it properly, you will probably find it faster in the long run.

Learn git, you'll thank us all later. It is distributed VCS that is easy and safe to use. It isn't just about backing up your code, although it does that if you use something like github. It is also about managing changes to your code in a more organized fashion. For example, with git, it is easy to work on a branch specific to ticket #1234 and another branch for ticket #6789. You can swap branches simply. You can merge branches easily. You can pick and choose what you merge to the main branch so what goes to production is exactly what you expected and you don't pull in something else you were working on.

Also, by using tools like git bisect you can track down bugs by following the exact commit that caused it. If you are a normal programmer, you are naturally lazy and want to use tools that help you maintain your natural level of laziness. Git does that.

You can also tag your commits with comments instead of putting them all over the source code. You can then run a tool to turn those commit comments into a changelog, as another example.

Git is easy to learn and like I said you can make private and public repos. Everything graymane says is correct even if your the only programer.

or at least use Dropbox! I never trusted thumb drives for the very important stuff.

https://www.dropbox.com/basic

It's the simplest to use, as it just automatically backs up your selected directories in the cloud. It's free up to I forgot..say 1 Gb?

That is where I keep my scenarios .

governato wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 1:23 am or at least use Dropbox! I never trusted thumb drives for the very important stuff.

https://www.dropbox.com/basic

It's the simplest to use, as it just automatically backs up your selected directories in the cloud. It's free up to I forgot..say 1 Gb?

That is where I keep my scenarios .

I switched to Google Drive a while back because you get a whole lot more storage free (15GB I think)? 1GB is plenty for TOAW but when you have a young child you produce an awful lot of photos and videos that you don't want to lose.

I have both! Yes GD has more space BUT I liked dropbox because it required no actions on my part. you have a directory with all your files and they get automatically saved, so Dropbox is great for disaster prevention...

Source control is only partially about disaster recovery. It’s more about branching, merging, and stashing code changes, and also distribution and data assurance.

Here is a basic overview and for any software development and especially a game why it needs to be under source control.

https://git-scm.com/video/what-is-version-control