Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!littlei!intelisc!joel
From: joel@intelisc.UUCP (Joel Clark)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: RCS and SCCS
Message-ID: <290@intelisc.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jun 88 17:28:47 GMT
References: <890@fig.bbn.com> <710@ubu.warwick.UUCP> <661@pyuxe.UUCP>
Reply-To: joel@intelisc.UUCP (Joel Clark)
Organization: Intel Scientific Computer, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 47

In article <661@pyuxe.UUCP> mayerar@pyuxe.UUCP (80132-A Mayer) writes:
>In article <710@ubu.warwick.UUCP> maujd@warwick.UUCP (Geoff Rimmer) writes:
>>Which out of RCS and SCCS do people prefer?  
>>
>>Geoff.
>
>One good point of RCS is that it stores the most recent version and 
>uses deltas to get back to the previous versions.  SCCS stores the
>original version and uses deltas to get to the most recent version.
>
>		Andrew J. Mayer
>		BELLCORE
>
>{ariel,burl,clyde,floyd,gamma,harpo,ihnp4,mhuxl,rutgers}!pyuxe!mayerar

Even though I have written software with similar functionality as SCCS,
I have never understood this argument about storing the most recent
version as opposed to storing the original version.  For example given
the following actual SCCS file:


I 1
/*
 * module control port settings
 */
D 2
#define NPGM_DONE	0x01
E 2
I 2
#define RRCV		0x02
E 2
#define RLSRCV		0x02
#define	NPROGRAM	0x80
E 1

We see the original and the most recent stored in the same manor, line
by line.  Any program trying to a extract version still has to look at 
every line to decide if that line is in the desired version or not.

Can anyone explain to me how a program could store `the most recent version`
such that each line in the file does not need to be examined to determine
if it is in the most recent version?

Joel Clark
Intel Scientific Computers			joel@intelisc.uucp.com
Beaverton, OR				{tektronix}!ogcvax!intelisc!joel
(503) 629 7732