Moderation Process Reminder

Versioned Data Storage

Hi and welcome to another of my articles. This time around I'm going to be covering a couple of topics. The first is pretty obvious from the title... versioned data storage, or to be specific, a simple method of allowing your software to provide a level of backwards compatibility with older versions of its data whilst simultaneously allowing it to update the store to reflect the format of the latest version *Deep breath*
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Welcome to Tripping The Class Fantastic

Welcome to the first of what I'm hoping will be a fairly regular programming column. I'm not going to stick with one subject, I'm going to try and cover a variety of topics, some will be more detailed than others but they will all be based on my personal experiences.

So who am I and what qualifies me to write about software engineering? I guess a lot of that is answered by the interview Eriken did with my partner in crime and I. In terms of employment, at the moment, by day my official job title is 'Research and Development Engineer'... sounds good, but translated... I write software to control and manage cash handling/ticketing machines (Tools- Delphi 7, MySQL and others), I assist with the development of prototype machines (Tools- soldering iron, screwdrivers, nut runners, crimp guns and a bag full of other bits and pieces) and most enjoyable of all, I get to go out on site and repair/upgrade machines (Tools- patience, mobile phone, and a nice fast company car). By night however, I work on The Outer Reaches. A multiplayer browser based space strategy game that runs entirely on our own web server platform.

I've been a software engineer full time since 1995, prior to that I was doing contract work whilst studying Computer Science. I don't consider myself to be a guru, so I may make mistakes. If you spot one, please let me know and lets have a chat about it. Only by realising your weak points can you fully understand what you need to learn.

If you have any questions or comments (or, heaven forbid, you find an error) you can drop me a mail at athena at outer hyphen reaches dot com.

So, introductions over, I'm going to start off with a short ...