[WriteLog] RE: clarification about TQS and saving

[W. Wright, W5XD]

Yes there are things not stored in the TQS file.
These include attachments (i.e. QSOs with the
push-pin icon instead of the blank blue circle),
the time of the QSO is only stored to the last minute
in the QSO file (more precision is maintained in the
WL file) and, for the WAE contest, the QTC information
is NOT stored in the TQS file.

Because none of the above is serious except the
last, there are operators that have developed the habit
of never saving the log during the weekend and depending
on the auto-recovery to work after any failure that
happens during the contest. Then there are frantic pleas 
during WAE weekend about how to recover the QTC info
when the system reboots after a power failure.

The answer is: YES! PLEASE do save your log
periodically during the contest. 

Whether it should auto-save is a little harder for
me to give a definitive answer. There was a time when
the file save operation took several seconds--remember
the 386SX and 30MB hard disks? An auto save made no
sense then because it would lock up the program at
the most inopportune moment. The operation still locks
up the keyboard until it finishes (CW or WAV file
transmission in progress is NOT affected--but you can't
start a new one until the save finishes), so I think
you might notice the glitches if it auto-saved on a
timer. Your suggestion to auto-save on entering every
N QSOs is a good one. But I think it would have to be
a feature that could be turned on and off because having
an non-defeatable auto-save function would make any
playing around that you do to an unsaved logged 
permanent. I know that MS Word, for example, solves
this problem by auto-saving in a background mode to
a temporary file. That's a nice idea. When we sell as
many copies of WL as Bill Gates has sold of MS Word
(or even half as many!) We'll hire someone to put that
feature in for us :-)

Making auto-save a user-controllable feature seems
like a good idea. The only counter-arguments I can
must are (1) where should it be on the priority list
for implementation? and (2) there are already too many
little one-bit control features in the program that
make the program hard to learn to use. Does this
one add more value than it costs in terms of complexity
to learn?

Wayne

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-wl-users@wu3v.net 
> [mailto:owner-wl-users@wu3v.net]On Behalf
> Of Eric Scace
> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 06:43
> To: WriteLog (E-mail)
> Subject: [WL-USERS] clarification about TQS and saving
> 
> 
> Saving the log:  The Help file says "just the QSO date is 
> kept between Save
> operations" in the TQS file.  Is there something which is NOT 
> stored in the
> TQS file?  Is there any reason to do a save in the middle of 
> the contest?
> If so, is there any reason not to permit an automation of 
> this task (e.g.,
> AutoSave after every "x" QSOs)?
> 
> -- Eric R3/K3NA
> scace@uu.net
> 



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