On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 8:49:27 AM UTC-5, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <0fc2fca8-4ab4-46aa...@googlegroups.com>,
> Steven Schweda <sms.an...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > It's not too "general"; it's too confused. If you have one sort
> > criterion (say, modification date+time), then you have one sort
> > criterion. And a sort criterion should be a sort criterion, and, as
> > such, should not change content selection.
> Ideally, one could have several sort criteria, and items would be sorted
> in order of the first one, then the second one, and so on, like
> SORT/KEY:
>
> You can specify up to 255 key fields in a sorting operation. If
> you do specify multiple keys, decide which is primary, which is
> secondary, and so on; then, in the command string, list them in
> the order of their priority.
>
> By default, Sort assigns 1 to the first key specified in the
> command line, 2 to the second key, and so on. If you do not list
> the keys in the order of their priority, specify the order of
> each with the parameter NUMBER:n.

Then the various versions of a file will be scattered in the list, making it difficult to deduce if the one you are looking at is the current/highest/whatever version. Unless you use version number as your primary key! Which would be pretty silly.

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 2:02:34 AM UTC-5, Steven Schweda wrote:
> > How do y'all handle multiple versions of files when sorting by date or
> > size and such?
[...]
> Define "current version". And _not_ show all the files requested by
> the user?
>
> If the user wants only the highest version (which might not be the
> latest), then there's a syntax for that: ";0" (or ";"). So far as I
> know, there's no way to specify "latest".

Yes, there is. When you do a commands like
DIR A.A;
A = F$SEARCH("A.A")
you get the current version. Or you could call it the latest version, or the highest version, or the version with the largest version number.
When you give a file-spec with just ; in the version-number field, or without anything in that field, you would get the version with the highest version number. Seems to me that that would make it the current version.

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 8:47:19 AM UTC-5, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-02-09, Steven Schweda <sms.an...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > What to do with versions in some /REVERSE sort scheme might be worth
> > some thought, but "in most cases" generally means "not always", and
> > "highest" and "latest" are spelled differently for a reason.
> In this case, the version is just another component of a unique filename
> that is unconnected to any other filenames that have the same filename
> and filetype but a different version number.
>
> Showing versions of a filename strictly in the requested sort order,
> without regard to any other versions, is the correct thing to do.
>
> For example, a reverse sort by date (with the most recent first) would
> be output as:
>
> A.A;22 1-Jan-2022 13:03:00
> B.B;5 1-Jan-2022 13:02:30
> A.A;21 1-Jan-2022 13:01:00
>
> Likewise, for a forward sort:
>
> A.A;21 1-Jan-2022 13:01:00
> B.B;5 1-Jan-2022 13:02:30
> A.A;22 1-Jan-2022 13:03:00

This is an answer to my question!
Thank you.
I hope you'd be able to specify ; as the version number, so as to omit the older versions (those with lower version numbers).

>
> Simon.
>
> PS: Steven, is it possible for you to use a NNTP client which includes
> the name of who you are replying to when you quote a posting ?
> --
> Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

AEF

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 11:43:52 AM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 2/8/2022 8:45 PM, alanfe...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Not intending to reply here to anyone specifically. Just a question.
> >
> > How do y'all handle multiple versions of files when sorting by date or size and such?
> >
> > Do you let them just fall where they may based on what you're sorting by? Group them together? Only process the current version of each file?
> File version is part of file name, so I think the least surprising
> when sorting after something that is not file name to let them fall
> whereever.
>
> Arne

Another answer! Thank you.

On 2022-02-09, alanfe...@gmail.com <alanfeldman48@gmail.com> wrote:
> I hope you'd be able to specify ; as the version number, so as to omit the older versions (those with lower version numbers).
>

The syntax and pattern matching options for selecting filenames is unchanged.

The sort would be done _after_ the matching filenames have been found.

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 1:45:40 PM UTC-5, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-02-09, alanfe...@gmail.com <alanfe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I hope you'd be able to specify ; as the version number, so as to omit the older versions (those with lower version numbers).
> >
> The syntax and pattern matching options for selecting filenames is unchanged.
>
> The sort would be done _after_ the matching filenames have been found.
>
> Simon.
> --
> Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.
With searchlists, you can easily get the same file listed more than once in the DIR output today.

On 2022-02-09, John Reagan <xyzzy1959@gmail.com> wrote:
> With searchlists, you can easily get the same file listed more than once in the DIR output today.

The sort can always filter duplicates from the list by using the FID.

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.