Signature as version indicator

[bdillahu]

Just as a thought of maybe a future enhancement - use the "Signature" section of the name to indicate a version (i.e. v0 is the original, v1 is the next version, etc.) - I know we can (and many do) keep files in version controlled repositories and things, but sometimes (especially for non-developers who may not use vc much), just making a copy and "tagging" a version is useful.

Most of my career I did IT support for US Legal firms - nearly all document management systems for lawyers "tag" versions of documents with some indicator in the name or the DMS metadata.

Again, just a thought.

It can certainly be done manually now, and I may try that.

[protesilaos]

From: bdillahu ***@***.***> Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2025 18:02:38 -0800 Just as a thought of maybe a future enhancement - use the "Signature" section of the name to indicate a version (i.e. v0 is the original, v1 is the next version, etc.) - I know we can (and many do) keep files in version controlled repositories and things, but sometimes (especially for non-developers who may not use vc much), just making a copy and "tagging" a version is useful. [... 8 lines elided]

So you basically want a command that increments the version number? Are those numbers single digits like `v1` and `v2` or more like `v1.0.0`? I can write some custom code for this and include it the manual.

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-- Protesilaos Stavrou https://protesilaos.com

[protesilaos]

That granted, you can always use M-x denote-rename-file-signature. At the prompt, it retains the current signature, so it is probably not too much work to edit it there.

[bdillahu]

Yes, the M-x denote-rename-file-signature will handle that basic to do it manually.

I guess my "ideal" would be something like:

M-x denote-version-file or something

• choose in mini-buffer what file (or use current file, or file at point in dired, etc.)
• make a copy of the file as it is, incrementing the version number in the signature to one higher than the max
• if no version the existing file would become v0

Would leave the question (that I just thought of) - what if I'm currently in v3 and I make a new version, but there are already v4 and v5. I guess I would copy v3 and make it v6, leaving v4 and v5 in place.

[protesilaos]

Thanks for the explanation! This is something we can cover in the manual. I will flesh it out as soon as I can.