RCS and SCCS

[Eduardo Krell]

In article <290 at intelisc.UUCP> joel at intelisc.UUCP (Joel Clark) writes:

>Can anyone explain to me how a program could store `the most recent version`
>such that each line in the file does not need to be examined to determine
>if it is in the most recent version?

You store the most recent version at the beginning of the file in clear
text followed by the reverse delta to get the previous version
(followed by the reverse delta to get the version before that, etc.).

Time to get the latest version is thus proportional only to the size of
that version. Time to get version N is proportional to the size of
the last version plus the size of all deltas necessary to get from there
down to version N.
    
    Eduardo Krell                   AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ

    UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell		ARPA: ekrell at ulysses.att.com