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Those are not "copies" of your reports - those are your reports. The image in your browser or the pieces of paper coming out of your printer are representations of those reports.
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Is it safe? That is up to you. Those are your reports. Sesame does not delete any file without your permission. If you have no use for any of the reports you have run - then delete them. For many customers, deleting a report is the same as deleting their financial or tax history - so we don't delete them. They do not contain the report design, nor will they be used by sdesigner or sesame runtime again.
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It is trivial to delete these files. If you have no use for reports you have generated, simply select 'em and delete 'em. Or if you prefer command line, navigate to the directory and DEL *.htm.

We cannot delete these files upon generation because we have no way of knowing when you are done using them. Many customers generate monthly / weekly (etc...) reports and expect to be able to retain these forever as a permanent record. Many may be generating a report to mount on the web as a web page, or are using a sesame report as part of a larger document. In any case there is no way for Sesame to know when you no longer have use of a report.

Reports in Sesame, like virtually every other program, are a file - not something made of paper.

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Veeery interesting Spenser,
I never knew that either. Must have missed it in the manual. 
Thanks!
Walt

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You did indeed miss it in the manual. It is on page 397 of the user's manual:
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One thing you might also consider doing is sending your reports to a different folder so you don't "accidentally" delete an important file in the same folder as the reports (there IS a story behind this bit of knowledge).

Add the following line to your autoexec.bat file (or create a sesame.bat file depending on your OS):

SET SESAME_REPORT_PATH=u:/Reports                         (or whatever drive letter and folder name is right for you)

We delete our reports all the time. If we need it again - just re-run it. Although being html files, they take up very little room on the hard drive.

Spencer,

I would agree with NICEBERG, in that the best way to deal with the reports is to set "SESAME_REPORT_PATH" system variable to a dedicated directory that is used just for Sesame reports.

The only thing is that I set mine using the info in Appendix 2 of the Sesame User Guide, rather than with a batch file.

Carl

Mark -

Well, at least now, I know "what" I said and, once again, I apologize.  To me, it was just a bit of "tongue-in-cheek" humor.  So that you can better undestand, I have been having construction done on my house - on and off - for the past few years.  I've simply gotten in the habit of "labeling" many different things "droppings."  The electrician leaves and I find little bits of wire all over the house ("electrician droppings"); the carpenter leaves and I step on a nail on the floor ("carpenter droppings") and on and on it goes.   So when I ran accross the hundreds of copies of reports "report droppings" just seemed to fit right in with my current "mode."  I certainly didn't mean to be derogatory in any way.  I will try to be more "sensitive" to the way I word my comments in the future.

Now, having said that, I still think it is important that consideration be given to alternative options.  I do not like the reports being left on my computer and I do not like the idea of having to resort to "the olden days" using bat files and other things to circumvent how a program inherintly performs.  I haven't used an Autoexec.bat file in so many years, I would have to relearn it.

I think Sesame is an incredible program and I, personally, want it to succeed beyond everyone's expectations.  To do that, however, I think it must be responsive to the people who use it.

For the past 20 years I have used only 2 database programs (until Sesame):  Q&A DOS and Microsoft Access.  Neither of those programs ever saved reports.  Nor does Access do it now.  Even in Quicken which is a financial program where history is probably more important, reports are not saved automatically.  There is a menu choice so that I can save it if and when I choose to do so and I can either over-write a previous report or save it with a new name.

There were only a few comments from other users; however, they simply seemed to echo my sentiments.  Walt was not aware they were there either - so obviously he didn't need them and the only other discussion was about how to move them from where they were or remove them.  Niceberg said Quote:
 Once again, it simply requires an extra effort on the part of the user and I certainly agree that re-running a report takes much less effor than having to remove it.

One approach to making everyone happy is to simply have an overall "preferences" option where you could either select to save reports or you could choose not to - blanketly accross the board - unless and until you choose to change your peference.

The other would be not to save report but to give the user the option of saving it with a simple menu choice.

Another alternative would be that prior to closing a dabase, the user could be given a message "Your reports during this session are about to be deleted.  If you prefer to save them, click here.

The last thing I want to say is that I make these suggestions - and ask for them to be considered - simply to make Sesame a better product for all users.

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Thanks for the clarification. Checked pg. 382 in my manual and recalled that I had indeed read the reference at least twice but simply spaced it out because I was stumped on its relevance and ramifications.

As I understood it (per my notes), unlike Q&A, everytime the user previewed or printed a report a copy would automatically be saved, whether or not it was wanted. I was stumped with how to get all our potential application "customers" to periodically give their system an enema. Just one more thing for them to remember and overlook so I decided to move on until I got to this point in the design.

I have to agree with Spenser and cbt_sj that saving should be offered as an option rather than the default because its not realistic to expect our "SOHO" (small office / home office) users to purge these files on their own, and NONE of them have "system or database administrators" to rely on.

I'm also aware that you've introduced several (?) manual revisions but have refrained from printing any of them out since I haven't had the time or inclination to print out some 700 to 800 sheets and transfer all my notes each time another version appears.

I partially agree with Spenser: "I think Sesame is an incredible program and I, personally, want it to succeed beyond everyone's expectations.  To do that, however, I think it must be responsive to the people who use it."

Where Q&A achieved its fame by including a database manager, word processor and report printer all within one seamlessly integrated package, Sesame still has only the database manager, thereby limiting its simplicity of use and consequently its appeal. Well, there's always version 2, or 3, or 4.  One can hope.