Dear All,

 

I got a stomach sinking email today from a member who accidentally overwrote an almost completed solution in Magic120Cell.  17000 moves had been done.  MC5D and Magic120Cell do not make any automatic backups of log files (something I now plan to change).  When using MC4D, I've always made copies of my log files at milestone points from paranoia, and I think this is a good habit when investing so much effort in a solution.

 

As with many programs, be aware that using "Save" instead of "Save As..." can be dangerous if you are not making log file backups yourself.  What happened in this case was that the puzzle type was switched to investigate something (which reset the state in the older version of the program being run), then "Save" was used.  In the version that has been online since September, you'd have to go more out of your way for an accidental overwrite like this because changing the puzzle type no longer resets the state.  You'd have to manually reset the state from the options menu, then save.  That behavior is perhaps reasonable, but I will also make the program more defensive by making "Save" do a "Save As..." if the puzzle has been reset.

Thoughts on other ways to improve the defensiveness are welcome, but I wanted to send out this notice to help avoid this happening (I really hope to avoid this kind of grief again).  I also encourage people to make sure they have the latest versions if they are actively working on solutions.

 

Take Care,

Roice