I have lost EVERYTHING...

[sirjuddington]

GhostlyDeath said:

If the temporary directory is read-only or does not exist, then the Windows installation is broken.

Well, that's exactly why it was added - some users, for whatever reason, had no access to that folder, or sometimes even no access to appdata.

I'll probably change it just to automatically use windows temp or appdata if access is available, and only ask for a different temp folder if both can't be accessed.

[Doomkid]

The fact that the temp folder self-destructing can also erase non-Slade things placed in the dir is going to cause the occasional problem for non-guru Doom modders, as this thready clearly demonstrates. This kind of thing will be really uncommon amongst seasoned Doom modders, but not everyone here is. I feel an easy to implement solution would simply be deleting the SLADE related contents of the directory, but not the whole dir itself, just to avoid this happening to new modders in the future. Manual removal of an empty dir takes zero time on part of the user if they really want to anyway, so this shouldn't cause any problems for anyone. Just a suggestion, of course.

Since sirjuddington is now aware I'm sure some sort of change will be present in future releases, or at least maybe a little warning message when setting your temp dir, at the very least. In fact, that seems like best solution. A damn shame your stuff does seem to be permanently lost, Flammable - About 10 years back I lost a lot of work too, at that point it seemed like the worst thing ever, but all that came of it was better maps than what had been lost, so please keep your chin up.

Edward850 said:

And you didn't ask?

Do you honestly ask for clarification for literally every step of every single application you install? Of course not - This is a lesson learned for Flammable though. When it comes to your works in progress - especially if they're particularly precious to you - It's worth taking the time to clarify this kind of thing, even if it seems like a waster of time, it's certainly worth it to prevent permanent data loss.

I'm sure this will be but a distant memory in a short time, Flammable. I know it seems harrowing as all hell at the moment, but rest assured, it will pass.

[sirjuddington]

Doomkid said:

The fact that the temp folder self-destructing can also erase non-Slade things placed in the dir is going to cause the occasional problem for non-guru Doom modders, as this thready clearly demonstrates. This kind of thing will be really uncommon amongst seasoned Doom modders, but not everyone here is. I feel an easy to implement solution would simply be deleting the SLADE related contents of the directory, but not the whole dir itself, just to avoid this happening to new modders in the future. Manual removal of an empty dir takes zero time on part of the user if they really want to anyway, so this shouldn't cause any problems for anyone. Just a suggestion, of course.

Normally clearing the entire folder isn't an issue, as SLADE will create a separate 'slade' folder within the temp folder for the temp files, unless the temp folder was specified manually (as it was in this case)

[Doomkid]

I understand, I suppose this is probably a once in a million occurrence.

It's a shame he had to learn what 'temp' means in such a disastrous way.. Hopefully he'll stick with it and end up making something better as a result.

[Reisal]

If it's maps, a directory like /FlammableMaps/ and non-maps such as /FlammableMods/ with separate /WIP/ subdirectories inside them for future reference. I use /~ChrisMaps/ inside my /Doom2/ main directory and keep personal projects there when done or WIP mods there.

[RestlessRodent]

You could also throw all your WADs in a DVCS and back it up along with having a remote backup somewhere. A DVCS such as fossil, hg, or git. This also permits you to have versioned WADs. Although if you do go for this, I recommend you use it in conjunction with deutex so that you can version control individual resources rather than the entire WAD (more efficient).

[gemini09]

Doomkid said:

I understand, I suppose this is probably a once in a million occurrence.

It's a shame he had to learn what 'temp' means in such a disastrous way.. Hopefully he'll stick with it and end up making something better as a result.

I've had this traumatic experience too.

I can't believe they still haven't fixed this.

I know how violated and sabotaged OP feels.

I managed to recover my files with Recuva, I believe. But the issue is that this should not in a billion years be necessary.

[Quasar]

Creating a subdirectory of the specified directory would probably be a lot safer. Though even that's not necessarily foolproof. Fact is you cannot "trust the user" when it comes to software ever. No matter the precautions taken there will be some "clever" bypass of them made by somebody.

The usual protocol for such temporary directories is to name them with a UUID, so that they cannot possibly conflict with something that already exists (if you're super paranoid, go ahead and write a stat loop checking for existence and regenerate a new UUID though :P )

[Soundblock]

gemini09 said:

I can't believe they still haven't fixed this.

SLADE's made by one man actually. His contact info is in the About tab of the program. Someone who's experienced this personal calamity, should maybe write him a well balanced, non-accusatory email and ask him politely to bring an update where there's a failsafe to protect against this type of accident (as per the sound program Audacity?).

I already wrote him about some minor issue a while back, or I'd write him myself. It'd be better if it came from someone who's had this accident though.

How about it? Gemini or Flammable, why don't you take this opportunity to save some poor souls' wads in the future? Link this thread in the email, by all means.

Just remember, without the guy that made SLADE we'd all be losing our work regularly, using XWE! I'm sure he's a busy guy, but this might just be worth the effort on his part.

[Kappes Buur]

Soundblock said:

SLADE's made by one man actually.

The author of Slade3 is sirjuddington, he has responded several times in this thread already.

[Gez]

The best way to report issues is to do so on the Github issue tracker, and look, it's already done.

[RestlessRodent]

Quasar said:

The usual protocol for such temporary directories is to name them with a UUID, so that they cannot possibly conflict with something that already exists (if you're super paranoid, go ahead and write a stat loop checking for existence and regenerate a new UUID though :P )

Java, POSIX, and Win32 have means to create uniquely named temporary directories. Generally a well coded library/OS would perform a kind of lock on a temporary name to see if it is truly unique.

[Soundblock]

Kappes Buur said:

The author of Slade3 is sirjuddington, he has responded several times in this thread already.

Well slap me silly. Guess I wasn't reading as thoroughly once it became clear the data was gone. My bad.

/slaps self

[Quasar]

GhostlyDeath said:

Java, POSIX, and Win32 have means to create uniquely named temporary directories. Generally a well coded library/OS would perform a kind of lock on a temporary name to see if it is truly unique.

Why write 3 implementations for 3 OSes when one well written UUID routine is sufficient?

[gemini09]

Soundblock said:

How about it? Gemini or Flammable, why don't you take this opportunity to save some poor souls' wads in the future? Link this thread in the email, by all means.

I think he was one of the guys who tried to help me when it happened in the #zdoom chatroom, so he already knows about my incident.

I don't mean to come across as ungrateful for Slade, but I still argue that something like this is a catastrophic error on the program's part, and frankly inexcusable to not have corrected it since the initial reports. Mine was about half a year ago.

[wallabra]

GZDoom Builder is great in that it saves a secret backup of your level when crashing.

After all, what you do when there is a ant on your hand?

[riki2321]

Gustavo6046 said:

GZDoom Builder is great in that it saves a secret backup of your level when crashing.

After all, what you do when there is a ant on your hand?

yeah, thanks that

i kill the ant because ants are retard