How do you guys keep track of your files?

[Pete]

I recently out together a utility that archives my builds and purges the exe files generated by those older builds. It just keeps the current build and its exe in the QB64 folder.

How do the rest of you handle housekeeping with your programs?

Pete

[SMcNeill]

Usually I have a few sub folders under QB64:  “Programs”, “Libraries”, “Works in Progress”.  “Archives”

Anytime I grab the latest, greatest new build of QB64, I extract it to a folder with the date stamped (like QB64x32 12-15-2018), and I move those old sub folders over to the new QB64 folder.  After that, it’s a quick test/examination of whatever’s actually in the old QB64 folder itself, to sort the old contents to the new sub folders so everything stays all neat and organized.

Sometimes I’ll delete the old folders completely once I have all I want to save from them, but not usually.  Usually, I just let them sit for testing various errors that may have popped up, to track when the glitch worked it’s way into QB64.

[johnno56]

Any examples that YOU guys produce, I put into a folder, with your name. All of my stuff are filed using, what I call, the Chaos Principle. I do not produce anything worthy of its own folder... Obviously I have to improve... lol

J

[Bert22306]

Like you, I also don't produce anything "worthy of its own folder." Plus, I tend to not archive older versions of the same program. Unless there's a good reason to, I only save the up to date version. I suppose people behave with their computer files the same way they are with everything else in their lives. Both my wife and I are the opposite of hoarders. If we don't need stuff, we either give it to charity or toss, depending. Always try to keep things from piling up, over time.

With QB64, my scheme is to copy the qb64 folder (latest development build) as a subfolder of my MyPrograms folder. All my .bas and .ini files are in the MyPrograms main folder. Whenever a new version of qb64 comes out, I simply delete the old qb64 subfolder, along with all of the .exe files of all of the programs I compiled with the previous version, copy in the new qb64 folder, and then go from there. Anything I need to run gets recompiled with the new qb64. That automatically keeps the list of .exe files to a minimum.

Makes for a largish MyPrograms folder, but I'm most likely not the software geek that many others on this list are. So it remains manageable. The name of each program explains what it does. I often have different variants of the same tool, to apply to different projects, so the project becomes part of the filename, easily sorted that way.

[pagetelegram]

Last two years been practicing good version control, beyond that I'm a bit of a messy keeper of *.bas files and other project files. Many projects I have lost.

So I will be looking to this thread for ideas to help my organization inadequacies.

[luke]

Everything lives in a comp directory in my home folder. In there I have a folder for each project I've worked on (non-QB ones, and few larger QB programs), each a git repository. There's also programs_qb which holds single-file, shorter QB programs both by me and copied off the internet. qb64 itself lives in a folder git_qb64 and is just a clone of the QB64 repository on github - I use the same instance for regular QB64 work and for compiler development, sometimes with judicious use of branches and stashing. This directory tends to accumulate bits and pieces which I periodically delete (qb64 has a penchant for having things in the same directory as itself).

Aside from qb64 and a vwatch binary, I generally only keep source files.

I also take regular backups of my entire home directory on network-attached storage should anything happen to this laptop (hardware failure, theft/loss etc.).

[pagetelegram]

Luke, I need to "git" it together, exactly my issue is loosing stuff due to hardware failure....been writing BAS programs since 1990 and I only have today about 4% of my total creations.

What method do you use for git? Does curl exist for Windows? If so I might find a way to write a batch program to curl my stuff to git. What git hosts you recommend/use? And what is an example using git methodology.

I have a github somewhere that I need to learn to use.

Thanks

[robpugh0829]

I usually make a folder for the programming language that I'm using and then under that folder I make sub folders for each project and keep all of my files in there. I keep the main folder somewhere either under a programming folder on the c drive or under documents or something like that.

[EricR]

Projects:
I have one folder per programming language and then have separate folders for each project as a general rule.  Sometimes I break this rule though.   

QB64 itself:
I have QB64 in three folders.   
A) QB64  32bit  Official IDE & compiler plus minor off shoot projects and cutting edge source code
B) QB64  64bit  Official IDE & compiler plus minor off shoot projects and cutting edge source code
C) QB64  Common        Mixed QB64 files that are common to all QB64 projects and QB64 itself
D) Compressed QB64, Compressed QB64 Tools, posts, MinGW, and many older QB64 zip/7zip archieves 
I will keep the most modern source code and 2 maybe 3 earlier incarnations of it.   Older source code can and does get wiped. 
I do not bother with anything other than the most modern compiled code. I will seldom backup that exe as I can always recompile the source code.

I had it virtually beat into my head the importance of folders, sub folders, and sub sub folders back in my DOS days. 

[luke]

Pagetelegram: your mention of curl makes me suspect you might not have the full picture with how git works. git itself is just a local tool, all its internals for a project are kept in a .git folder in your project directory. You manipulate this and your project files with the `git` command (or one of the various gui frontends like sourcetree).

git alo has the ability to synchronise with a 'remote', which is just another git repository on a networked machine. This is what github, bitbucket, gitlab etc. are. You can do all your work locally then push (a git command) to send your work to github. Of course if you make it public this has the benefit of allowing other people to clone the repository and work with it.

Git on windows is... a little awkward to setup. On one hand the gui frontends makethe initial process easier, but I find they obscure the core behaviour of git. On the other hand the command line experience in windows is somewhat lacking. The installer gives the option of installing a cygwin shell which I'd recommend if you've any Unix experience, otherwise you'll just have to tough it out with the cmd version.

The basic "workflow" for a simple project: git init to create a new repository, then git add all your files and git commit. Then when you make a change you just add those files and commit to save them.
Syncing to github is just a git push, which uploads your commits. If you want to take a local backup too, all your committed changes are stored in the .git folder.

[TempodiBasic]

Hi
I initially used to download new version, compile some code to test that it is ok and then cancel the old version after moving a folder with interesting code into it from old QB64 folder to the new QB64 folder...

going on in the time, spending more time with this meraveallous tool I put a folder  on an USB key that travels with me with interesting code and Mycode (made and in development)... and on several notebook I have a version of QB64.... in the last times I used to use Dev version....for 32bit also if my machines runs 64bits OSes.
in the time of 2-3 mounths I adjourn QB64 on the machine that I use in that moment.

about the code on the forum after the second long time shoutdown of www.[abandoned, outdated and now likely malicious qb64 dot net website - don’t go there] I have made a folder QB64 forum store in which I put all interesting code posted in the forum... moreover I had begone to read forum (www.[abandoned, outdated and now likely malicious qb64 dot net website - don’t go there]) from the beginning and to save interesting code to observe in a second time... but it has been shutdown for the third time and it seems that it lasts so.
I have loose also different my codes posted there and that I have not saved in other places!  :-(

As they say: Bad practice Bad results

So in this time I have a folder MyQB64, a folder QB64Store and two version of QB64 the standard version and the Dev version.

[pagetelegram]

Pagetelegram: your mention of curl makes me suspect you might not have the full picture with how git works. git itself is just a local tool, all its internals for a project are kept in a .git folder in your project directory. You manipulate this and your project files with the `git` command (or one of the various gui frontends like sourcetree).

git alo has the ability to synchronise with a 'remote', which is just another git repository on a networked machine. This is what github, bitbucket, gitlab etc. are. You can do all your work locally then push (a git command) to send your work to github. Of course if you make it public this has the benefit of allowing other people to clone the repository and work with it.

Git on windows is... a little awkward to setup. On one hand the gui frontends makethe initial process easier, but I find they obscure the core behaviour of git. On the other hand the command line experience in windows is somewhat lacking. The installer gives the option of installing a cygwin shell which I'd recommend if you've any Unix experience, otherwise you'll just have to tough it out with the cmd version.

The basic "workflow" for a simple project: git init to create a new repository, then git add all your files and git commit. Then when you make a change you just add those files and commit to save them.
Syncing to github is just a git push, which uploads your commits. If you want to take a local backup too, all your committed changes are stored in the .git folder.

Thanks Luke,

I will try the CMD version, hopefully it doesn't require cygwin; hate to add overhead to my system; a huge library unnecessary to load if only using less than 1% of it. And I might write a basic shell program for operating the git command and helping to organize my programs better. Might also include a shell out to any number of editors to create the readme.md file on the spot.

[Petr]

I use organized chaos system...

[xra7en]

\QB64
    +--- projects
                +---Project A
                |          +--- Project A sub folders (if needed)
                |
                +--- Project B
                |
                +--- Etc...

I have the compiler, compile in the source folder (or Project x folder)

QB is very simple, unlike some languages, that you need to have an "environment"
This method has worked for me for years from any console programing language, pascal, vb1, qb etc...

I supposed I could add a "working" folder under the project x folder, but would seem an over kill. I have a bat file that zips up my stuff minus the *.bi files and *.bas files. Since I like writing (text)games, this works perfect