Lost a day's work

This is just a vent - presumably last night's grid problems bit me in the backside badly, so I'm not looking for solutions, just feeling upset, angry and low.

I'd finally got into the right frame of mind yesterday to do some serious scripting work I'd been putting off for weeks. I work very intensely and rapidly when I'm on form, and yesterday was one of those days where I was firing on all cylinders. Just the right time to do this particular work.

Working entirely on scripts in a HUD, I completed far more than I'd dared hope, even though I ran into some pretty awkward problems, and wrote a simple UI client and two rather complex data servers. I was particularly pleased with the server scripts, since these were designed to be able to drop into any scripted prim I wrote that needed their services (and that would be lots), and I'd written them with efficiency and resilience in mind, and designed an API for each server as I looked into them. They were flexible, feature-rich and tested to the max. In short, I was feeling very pleased with myself after about ten hours' work, and looked forward to doing the easy stuff today.

Later in the night, after I'd finished for the day, during the problems that plagued most of us trying to use SL, and unable to log in, I made a mental note to back up the scripts today. Yes, I should have done that as soon as I'd finished work, but I simply forgot.

So today I sat my avi down to do the easy, prettying-up, documenting stuff, only to find that the scripts I'd changed had reverted to their states as of yesterday morning, and the one I'd started absolutely from scratch (one of the two data servers) no longer existed.

And no, it's not just a different copy of the prim, since I was still wearing the HUD when I logged in today.

Even though I know from bitter experience that it's easier to rewrite than it is to write in the first place (you know by now your basic design, any problems you're likely to have and the solutions to those problems), it's damned aggravating to do so, and has none of the creative joy of coding that motivates me to do it.

So today I'm going to do very little. I'll rewrite the things another time, when I'm in the mood.

Thank you for listening. I'm feeling a little better now. Has anyone else had similar inventory problems with this latest out(r)age? Or did SL just pick on me?

What was the question?

Pep (Perhaps: How can I back up stuff and given SL's unreliability how often should I do it?)

Ermm, like I said at the top of the post, it was a vent, not a question.

Can't help you with what has already happened, but going forward...

I do all my scripting outside of SL, in a text editor. I save my scripts on my own hard drive, and thus always have a copy despite the whims of the asshat server. Yes it's slightly more cumbersome especially in the debugging, but alt-tab works fine, alt-tab to my editor, select all, copy, alt tab back to SL, select all, paste. There are a number of offline editors that can be adapted to LSL so that the keywords are highlighted and you get proper indenting etc. There are even some offline programs for checking syntax and so forth.

With scripts (as with textures, sounds and animations) there is no excuse not to keep the originals on your own hard drive so you have them backed up.

-Atashi

Backing up is your friend, to lose 8-12 hours work withourt making a single backup in SL's unstable enviroment is just asking for trouble unfortuanately. And scripts are easy to cut & past into windows notepad too :/

I choose to work within the SL client, then back up to HDD periodically and on completion of a coding session. I'll also work on scripts outside of SL when it's something like a structural problem with a large script (easier when you can see more code at once).

But can I say this - I wasn't asking for a lecture on the need to ensure good backups, nor is the irony lost on my that in my professional life I've designed, written and maintained corporate backup systems.

I was just venting, and don't need a lecture, especially right now!

(Tegg, I never cut & paste a script into a notecard. Instead I copy & paste - it works better )

I hate it when stuff gets reverted back! I tend to stop doing anything creative when the grid shows signs of database problems. I also stop shopping.

Well, you choose to vent in Resident Answers, we choose to provide helpful suggestions on backing up your work. If nothing else, it reminds everyone else to make frequent backups.

-Atashi

Yeah, if the problems had started while I was working I'd have backed up like a shot. As it was, when the problems hit, let's just say I had my mind very much on other things at the time.

Yeah, I should have guessed I'd get lectured. Point taken.

I usually work with LSLEditor on one screen and SL on the other. Flip back and forth as I work. But yes, i have been bitten by a similar experience. All the scripts were in the object i was working on and once completed, when I picked up the object it went ghost with no object in my inventory. The scripts in my inventory were a good 6 hours of work behind and I only had one script up in LSLEditer and it was buggy. So now, I save them 3 ways. One in the prim/object, one in inventory and one on my disk. Once completed and perfect, I just cut and paste to all places. ... and SL hasn't eaten my work since. Blame it on Murphy. The one time you don't make a copy is the time it goes poof; make a copy and you will never need it.

Oh, yes.. I don't script, but it's highly annoying when the asshat server decides to act up while I'm building. And causes whatever I was working on to lose hours of changes in the process. In this case, both the back up(s) and the main were reverted. *sigh*

I wish there was a way to monitor the asset server via your inventory.

I don't find it easier. Once I am out of the flow of writing, code or (mostly) anything else, I know I can never make a replacement that's as good as the original, even tough the original may be easy to improve. The depression and guilt take over. What was stimulating becomes boring. This is expecially if I have to do it straight away. Better to have a good break.

Interesting. I agree about it being boring, but in my experience the result (if different) is better than the original, and much quicker to write. In this case, it won't be better, since

I'm talking specifically about coding here, though - I don't think I'd say the same about, say, building a house or creating a set of textures.

As for when to do it, I'd say either directly after (while you've still got everything you did at the front of your mind) or after a while when you've calmed down and are in the mood to tackle it. In this case, it's got to be the latter, even though this is holding me back on some other developments that are waiting for the servers.

sorry this happened to you, hope you feel better after venting!

FWIW

The Cool Viewer lets you save and open scripts to/from your hard drive from the inworld script editor.

I'd be lost without it.

This is why I take copies CONSTANTLY.

coco

Edit: Of builds, not scripts.

I do too. Problem was this one time, copies all ALL reverted, including the one that was still rezzed.

What I think happened is I got double whammied with an asset server issue AND a sim roll back, due to a "silent" crash. I logged off, killed some baddies in CoH and when my temper was chilled, I logged back in and went to work again.

"Blessed are the pessimists for they hath made backups..."

Just like saving in Word or Excel.

While those are more reliable than Second Life - the concept is the same.

Works also for RPGs. Save and save often. If you aren't saving every two seconds, you aren't saving enough!

I hear ya....logged on briefly last night only to accidentally detach my AO - and watch in horror as the asset server promptly ate it. It contained two non-copy poses made for me by a dear friend who has since left SL.

I was ever so slightly cheesed off; no chance of ever getting that back.

A friend of mine who is fairly new to SL treated herself to a bunch of Lilith Heart's trees to decorate her new plot of land. She decided to take them all back into inventory to rez a new, larger house on the plot - munch munch, the asset server scoffed the lot.

Sorry about your scripts... ten hours work lost would put me off doing anything in SL for a while.

Ok, this is going to sound cruel and unusual, and I accept you only want to vent but you chose to do it on a public forum in order, I suspect, to illicit some sort of sympathy and postive reinforcement.

I've been in the software industry for 20 years and played all the roles, and to be honest while obviously trying very hard in your post to persuade us of your technical competence you've just left me with the impression of someone who should really go back and retake Development Lifecycle 101.

You didn't backup.. you didn't do any version control. You say you "Tested to the Max".. I'm not even sure what that means, but normally that would include some sort of versioning.. roll back strategies etc. What about program/unit/system/integration testing.. all of which would normally require environment versions.

It's all very well being a hobbyist, and I applaud that. But your situation arose as a result of inexperience rather than anything else. So no, I'm not going to pat you on the back and say "there, there".

To be honest I'm in a wee bit more senior position now and if a freelance developer came to me with your story, even if we'd had infrastructure issues, he wouldn't be paid for the "lost day".

B

Version control in pre-alpha development? Roll-back strategies? Environment versions? You almost make it sound as if I get paid for it! What next? Including detailed comments in my code in case someone else takes over my projects? Keeping source in escrow in case I die suddenly? Paying insurance?

In actual fact, I *am* a hobbyist in the world of LSL, and quite happily so. The only reason I get into coding so much is that it reminds me of the carefree days of the 1970s when programming was exactly that or me - a hobby and no more - and when I truly loved the process of designing and coding. The intervening years, when I did this as a living, knocked almost all the joy and freedom out of the task, and like you, I ended up pretty much leaving it behind as my career progressed. I finally left the software industry altogether recently with a huge sigh of relief (and a concomitant massive drop in income).

SL is a way for me to live life the way I wish I could in RL, not the way I actually do. If I had to include the less pleasant aspects of life (such as detailed planning and control of software development instead of clicking on "New script" and letting it all flow), I'd simply not bother.

I must admit I'm a bit puzzled and disappointed that you feel the need to resort to oneupmanship on this - I'll not rise to that particular bait in RL, still less in SL. And no, I'm not interested in Dick-Waving 101.

Actually I do overcomment my coding. I have a bad habit of years later coming up with a project that needs maybe one little part of something I did long ago + I don't have a great memory for exactly how I coded something. Comments are priceless to me when I go back and try to find that one tiny section I need for something new.

This was not particularly aimed at anyone but I see alot of info here that actually is very good advice to new scriptors and I am sure some are reading. My point is just one more little snippet in that vein.

On the other hand, what's that old addage? Don't get suckered by comments - they can be terribly misleading. Debug only code.