[time-nuts] Maintaining boatanchors (was Capacitor Failures)

[Hal Murray]

> We all start out saying, "This time, we're going to archive things in an
> orderly way, and do it as we go along, and it's going to be a exemplary
> situation" and pretty soon, as schedules get tight and budgets tighter,
> that good intention goes by the wayside. 

Modern source-control systems make things a lot easier.

Part of it depends on culture.  If everybody expects to find everything they 
need in the local file system, then it becomes a habit to collect things like 
copies of data sheets.

I tend to be paranoid about putting everything into a make file.  Even if 
some piece of crap software doesn't have a command line mode, I'll put 
something in the make file to print out directions.

If you are sufficiently paranoid, you also keep track of the software that 
you used to build things and maybe even the OS it runs on.  That includes 
utilities as well as compilers, linkers, and CAD systems.  You might even 
stash away an old PC, just in case.




-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.