[Tfug] Managing data

[Zack Williams]

> I'm trying to figure out how best to manage the data for my
> dissertation, and I was wondering if anyone on the list might have
> some ideas.  Here's the deal: I like keeping my data as plain text for
> a variety of reasons (primarily that it's easy to maintain and that I
> can keep it under version control).  The structure of the data,
> however, is fairly complex so I keep the data normalized (i.e., spread
> across a number of different tables) and the ability to join tables in
> a SQL-like fashion would be great (i.e., inner and outer joins, rather
> than having to code it up in awk, which is my current strategy).

Databases tend to hammers that make everything look like a nail...

Depending on the nature of the data, would a version control system
(subversion, git, etc...) be appropriate?

Those also can solve the backup problem if you keep the repo off-site.

- Zack