[TRLog] Next release /backups

[Tony and Celia Becker]

Hi Tree!

At 08:51 AM 11/1/98 -0800, you wrote:
>The NEXT release will adopt some new thinking about how the files and
>directories are arranged.  We have talked about changing this for a 
>couple of years now, and finally, my brain focused on a solution.

>Instead of having LOGCFG.DAT, there will be a file called something
>like ARRL_SS.CFG.  Along with that file, there will be ARRL_SS.LOG,
>ARRL_SS.TMP and ARRL_SS.RST.  The .RST file replaces the old RESTART.BIN
>file.  There is a unique file prefix for each contest.

>This means ALL of your files can be located in one directory.  When
>you startup TR, it will show you a menu of the different .CFG files
>it finds, and you can select one - or press ESCAPE to access the 
>contest menu to setup a new one.

Just one problem; each new year the new log will overwrite the previous
year log!

We could manually move the log files into another directory after finishing
with POST but I would often forget to do so until its too late.  

Why not support separate subdirectories by year?  This is the common
practice for multi-year log archives.  The menu routine could scan all
subdirectories for *.cfg files and present the *.log and *.tmp files found
therein for selection.

eg.  c:\log
           \ss96cw\ae0m.log
           \ss97cw\ae0m.log
           \ss98cw\ae0m.log
		etc.

I also find myself checking and merging large numbers of separate logs from
multi-tranmitter operations quite regularly with POST, and sometimes I
accidently overwrite a file or forget to clean up all the files the day of
the test.  

How about supporting a separate path for the backup log.dat files?  The old
floppy backup method is too slow to use with high rates anyway.  

Something like:

	BACKUP LOG FILE FREQUENCY = 10
	BACKUP LOG FILE = D:\CONTESTS\SS98CW\AE0M.DAT

add an automatic save of the backup file on program exit or ALT-U and make
it easy to recover from human error.

What say all?

AE0M, Tony Becker - becker@sprintmail.com - Silicon Valley, USA

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