codeq VS restore

This is a well composed idea. This reminds me slightly of (Rich's?) (Codeq)[https://github.com/Datomic/codeq] although this is really outlining code and scm logic and not syntax trees etc. I think I was always codeq would add something like this (for doing what you are doing to validate forms) but the input mechanism probably needed more hammock time

He is referring to codeq: https://github.com/Datomic/codeq which has a last commit on 2014. But there have been recent rumours (https://medium.com/@sfyire/can-codeq-2-solve-clojures-weakne...) that Hickey is working in a new version of it. Fingers crossed!

I made a GUI version of that command-line utility called Restore.

https://gitlab.com/jcfields/restore (download)

Mac OS has a built-in file versioning system (separate from Time Machine) that works with any program that uses the standard document saving APIs. Most Mac users probably aren't aware that their computer stores potentially hundreds of previous versions of their documents (in evictable space, of course). The interface for it is kind of trash and isn't accessible in every app, though.

(Over the summer, I made a command-line (https://gitlab.com/jcfields/versions) and a GUI program (https://gitlab.com/jcfields/restore) for accessing this system outside of the standard UI, if anyone's interested, though the binaries are not notarized so the OS will show a scary warning the first time you use them.)

Granted, it's not exactly the same thing since you're not making commits at discrete and meaningful points like in a software version control system and since it works on an individual file level, which might not be ideal for every workflow, but it's still really useful when you realize you need to roll something back to an earlier state.

For Windows, I think modern versions use the Volume Shadow Copy service stores backups of files at given snapshot points (such as when your computer runs a scheduled backup or creates a System Restore point), which can be pulled up in the file properties. I use to use NTBackup to do basically the same thing in a more crude way back in the Windows XP days. This isn't as nice as the Mac Versions feature since it requires setting up periodic backups, but it's something.

I'd be curious if any of the free desktops have come up with a simple and user-friendly solution to this.