Re: Data (and OTHER) "Integrity" Issues at ADM

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3194

Posted by sub
2005-05-06 05:43:46

> As evidence, I’d present the disclaimer that accompanies virtually all these programs which indemnifies the developer from any liability for lost information.

The disclaimer is a logical precaution. Fortunately, disclaimers are _not_ an indicator of what _usually_ happens, or else no one would trust the postal service, or buy cars, or get into public buildings.

I maintain that data integrity is one of the first things a programmer should cater for! It is not a question of “improving” a commercial program. Of course losses of data are a continuous possibility in beta software; however, correct me if I’m wrong, but in the case of ADM it wasn’t just the beta versions that had problems.

> Of course, if you aren’t smart enough to have backed up this information, I don’t think it is likely you would have developed cold fusion in the first place.

I agree; but it definitely helps if the software makes things a bit easier with autosaves and stuff. As far as I understood, ADM made things rather difficult, no?

Personally, I have nothing against ADM—other than its looks- as I don’t even use it; however, disclaimers or not, there’s lots of software out there that one _can_ indeed trust.

I still use an old mail client called Calypso. It has more than five years worth of e-mails in its files. Yet everytime my PC has crashed or I’ve had a power cut, Calypso has faithfully checked file integrity and rebuilt indexes; I never once recall having missed an e-mail whose deletion I hadn’t manually confirmed.

I would like this to be the rule; now then, is that too much to ask?

alx

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