[Spambayes] Update to 0.81 deleted md db

[Tim Peters]

[Skip Montanaro, to Kenneth Hart]
> You seem to think Mark is getting rich off SpamBayes.

What, he's not?!  The lying bastard <wink>.

Kenneth, Skip is right:  you're not paying any of us, and nobody else is
either, to work on this.  Open source software is about scratching your own
itches.  It's generally futile to try to convince someone else that the itch
you have is also their itch.  You can scratch your own, though, and
contribute the work back to the project.  Then everyone with your particular
itch gets relief.  Mark has been scratching a lot of my itches, and me his,
so we get along famously.

Problems with corrupted databases have been frequent and mysterious and
disruptive enough that *maybe* making backups is a decent short-term hack;
problems with installation seemingly deleting a database remain unique to
you.

> ...
> I don't know if Mark is using WISE or InnoSetup to create the
> installer for the Outlook plugin.

He's using InnoSetup, which is also free and open source.

> In either case, I'll bet you a quarter that it's in CVS, right where
> you can check it out and change it.

Yes.  All the code for the Outlook addin lives here:

    http://cvs.sf.net/viewcvs.py/spambayes/spambayes/Outlook2000/

and can be checked out by anyone via CVS.  The InnoSetup files live in the
installer/ subdirectory of that; the .iss file is "the installer" (the input
to InnoSetup), and fits on a page.

> If you contribute the change back to the project (use the patch
> submission form on <http://sf.net/projects/spambayes/>) I suspect
> your change will be incorporated into the installer.  At minimum, you
> will have to
>
>     * ask the user if they want to back up the database
>
>     * if yes, ask the user where it is (the location is configurable,
>       not static)
>
>     * figure out where to copy it

I don't know whether it would be accepted -- we'd have to see.  We're aiming
more at mass-market users than sysadmin types in the Outlook addin, and have
made some real progress in that direction.  My sisters don't understand
software backup schemes.  They do understand me buying a box for them (an
external hard drive), plugging it in, and pressing the "backup now" button.
They're confused when, e.g., Quicken tells them it's time to back up their
data file, and the first time their Quicken data fails to fit on a single
floppy they never back it up again.