TRACE

A print shop application where files come to print and know when to leave.

I built TRACE, a print-shop system designed to give customer files temporary access to the shop's computer. It receives a file into a controlled workspace, sends it to the printer, detects when printing is complete, and then deletes the file and verifies its removal. It also automatically prints a physical evidence slip showing what happened to the file.

TRACE decides that a file can be forgotten when its printing is complete. The system does not decide who owns the file or whether the file should be kept; it treats the file as temporary and only keeps it for the purpose it was brought in for.

what it does not is, whether a file exists somewhere else on the machine, on another device, in a backup, or whether it can ever be completely unrecoverable. It only knows what happens within the controlled space it manages.