Re: rename, append--please help

["Mervyn E. Bennun" <mebennun@nospam.icon.co.za>]

Marjorie,

You have amply and overwhelmingly proved the importanceof
making backup copies of important data, and you story should
send ripples of horror through every member of the List who
are all the sort of people to whom one would wish only well,
serenity in age,  wisdom in youth, and peace at all times.
If any have not at least two completely separate copies, up
to date, of their Ibidem datafiles and for that matter of
any other data files which they have worked throughout their
productive  lives to create, I beg them to stop what they
are doing and to make them. Remember Marjorie!!

Remember that a  file is not safely backed up unless it is
on a quite different medium which is kept physically
separated from other copies: a floppy at work, an identical
one at home, one on each hd of the computers you use, and
another in a vault to which you can gain access only by a
successful application to the Supreme Court is a good start.
I live in the most remote, fertile, lush, distant reaches of
Paranoia Valley; my attitude even to my shadow is one of
total suspicion: if it's so trustworthy, then why is it
behind me just when I'm dazzled by the sun and can't see if
it's about to stab me in the back, huh?

If I understand your situation correctly - and even if I
don't  - I think that the simplest answer is to to start
__completely__ anew, and this is what I'd do. You have a
copy of the data file, so after you have made another just
to make sure, delete the  database and then the contents of
the entire Ibidem subdirectory, then create a totally new
Ibidem database using the original name, and copy into its
subdirectory the good, correct, original data file. Then run
Maintain and re-index etc etc to rebuild the system files.
Don't try to repair the damage. Start from anew from
scratch.

The reason for using the same names is to ensure that the
links between your text files and the Ibid database are
maintained.

I also think that this incident demonstrates another point
that I am critical of, which is the disadvantage of baroque
and complex patterns of computer use. I know that j-p
explained the other day why he has sub-sets and several
databases, but I am of a quite different view. I think that
the more powerful a computer and the software are, the
easier it is to do things simply because one does not have
to take complex routes to achieve simple results - remember
the days when memory was limited, speeds slow, and so forth?
Sometimes one had to break things up onto little steps, and
things got so complicated.... Today, it's more and more a
case of "You wanna do something? Then just do it..." and all
the complications are behind the scenes.

I am not persuaded even by JP that the only solution to his
methodological problems is to have more than one Ibid
database, though I can see that he certainly has work
patterns which need to be catered for. I just think that one
database with regular deletions would be simpler. I ask you
the same question I asked him: do you really need subsets?
Ibid works like lightning with a modern PC; what would youi
be unable to do without making subsets?

Mervyn
________________
Mervyn E. Bennun,
29 Marmion Road,
Oranjezicht,
Cape Town 8001,
SOUTH AFRICA.
mebennun@nospam.icon.co.za
Tel/Fax: +27 (0)21 461 5535

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marjorie Pryse" <mpryse@nospam.nycap.rr.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE"
<notabene@nospam.piper.hamline.edu>
Sent: Monday, 17 December, 2001 20:29
Subject: rename, append--please help


> Notabene colleagues--
> I have messed up in a major way, I think.  After our
recent discussion of
> subsets and databases in Ibidem, I did what I thought was
a simple
> thing--renamed my general database.  Subsequently, I
couldn't get into
> either the original database or the new one.  Error
Message: couldn't open
> "lock file."  I tried a few things, impossible to
reconstruct at this point.
> One thing did work, or seemed to initially: I appended my
disk copy of my
> original database to the newlynamed database.  Results:
both original and
> new database now open, but with (of course, should have
known) about twice
> as many record numbers.  Clearly, in appending the file, I
simply added
> duplicates to the existing database (and may have
renumbered them all, as
> far as I can tell).  (I have always been wary of the
caution in the Ibidem
> help file about "can't undo" append function, and guess I
found out why.
> Here's where more "text" in the help screens would be
helpful.)  Of course I
> don't want to remove records from this new data file
arbitrarily, because my
> entire book manuscript only opens for editing on original
database (although
> the manuscript itself, including original record numbers
in codes view,
> seems intact, so I have a history there if I can use it or
need to in order
> to reconstruct original database.  But whether those files
would still open
> with a reconstructed database now seems unlikely to me.).
> Here's my question: how do I start over?  My original data
file is still on
> my computer; it's just that I can't get Ibidem to access
it.  For example,
> when I tried moving the new appended data file to the
recycle bin, keeping
> only the original data file, I no longer could get access
to the data base
> through Ibidem.
> I would like to remove renamed database and move
appropriate files to
> original name database so that it could all be as it was.
(Sigh.)
> Any thoughts?  --Marjorie
>
> Prof. Marjorie Pryse
> Chair, Department of Women's Studies
> Professor of English and Women's Studies
> University at Albany
> Albany, NY 12222
> <mpryse@nospam.nycap.rr.com>
>
>
>
>