How do I do it? I just use a good DVCS... (Bazaar, but Mercurial and Git are good too).
I used to do the same as you (making copies to be able to go back to a previous version), but this is cumbersome, so I finally took the time to learn to use a VCS (skipping CVS, briefly trying SVN and hating it, jumping on Mercurial, then on Bazaar), and it is time well spent!

Is the behavior you describe a bug? Perhaps not, it might be done this way to prevent users to accidentally loose one of their sketches. At least, it would be in the line of the "gentle to beginners" credo of Processing... which sometime gets in the way of more advanced users.

Workarounds? Plenty, starting with VCS (aka. SCS), but also making an archive of the old sketch (optional) with a version number, then removing manually the directory. Or just renaming the previous AAAcopy. (Might need a restart of Processing, which lists the sketches at the start...) Or naming your new one AAAcopy1 and so on.

Hi Phi.lho,

For me I really crave simplicity. I've used SVN (Subversion specifically) for other software projects and it works - but it is more work.  To date the method I've used is that when saving to a copy - from within the save dialog I manually delete the copy directory so that when I press "Save" the save works as it should.  But I consider that a work-around and I hate work-arounds.

Re making a copy, I only do that for my more involved sketches that I really don't want to lose. I do backups as well but files do still get corrupted and having an extra copy that also gets backed up helps to minimize that. I've had multiple Photoshop files wind up corrupted and have been saved by having made a second copy of the file. Redundancy Saves!

Currently I do use version numbers on sketches and think that it is a good habit. It makes it easy to explore program changes while leaving a path back to your starting point.

The fact that I've experienced this behavior in previous versions of Processing and the fact that I did not find any other discussions raising this issue makes me think that my use of Processing in this manner is not something users typically do. I guess that makes this one of those "grin and bear it" situations.

As always, thanks for your assistance.

Best Regards, Jim

I don't recall for SVN, but with Bazaar, it is not really more work: I code, sometime I do a bzr status to see what changed, a bzr add to add new sketches / files, then a bzr commit with a message to indicate what changed.
That's most of it, it is as simple as manually numbering folders, deleting stale sketches, etc.
I don't try to convince you, everybody has his own working methods, I just try to highlight it is a good solution for people looking to solve similar problem.

For folks interested in investigating version control software, you may find the following articles of interest:

Deciding between Subversion and Mercurial/Git when creating a project:
http://code.google.com/p/support/wiki/ChoosingAVersionControlSystem

and

Popularity of Git/Mercurial/Bazaar vs. which to recommend
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/995636/popularity-of-git-mercurial-bazaar-vs-which-to-recommend



Best Regards, Jim