I find that strange, also. It just seems like, either compact continuously (and don't make me worry about enormous dbs because of hidden files, and the trouble

I find that strange, also. It just seems like, either compact continuously (and don't make me worry about enormous dbs because of hidden files, and the trouble that can happen when it gets too large (> 1/2 disk space, so I understand)), or give easy access to the versions. I'd prefer the first, but from a user perspective (although maybe not a db-designer perspective), either-or makes sense. That's the fallout of eventual concurrency, though.