Referring to data, documents, or software that is not tracked or managed through a version control system. It implies a lack of history of changes, revisions, or different iterations of the subject matter. Consequently, there's no ability to revert to earlier states or compare different points in time. This term highlights the absence of versioning features, making it harder to collaborate, track errors, or ensure data integrity across development or revision cycles. Data is generally static and less recoverable if lost or corrupted.
Non-versioned meaning with examples
- The company's original website code was non-versioned, a major issue for the development team. Whenever a bug appeared, there was no clear path to revert the files to a previous, working state. This led to much slower progress, making collaboration between developers difficult and inefficient.
- The project's initial design documents were managed in a non-versioned manner. This resulted in several conflicting requirements, because team members couldn't track design changes or collaborate effectively. This made it hard for each team member to understand the recent improvements.
- Using non-versioned spreadsheet software, the financial analyst lost track of previous calculations. Without the ability to see the incremental improvements, it proved difficult to trace the origins of data errors and resolve them. The whole work was considered a black-box.
- Data backups of a non-versioned database were inadequate. If the database corrupted, there was only a single, most recent snapshot. This could cause data loss, and did not offer the opportunity to rollback to a previous stable state. The whole system could be considered unreliable.