On Thu, Sep 14, 2006 at 04:14:46PM +0200, Helge Hafting wrote: > Well, it can be automatic of course. Still, there are times when > it is useful *not* to save. The cat walked across my keyboard, > but it doesn't matter for I wasn't going to save this. > Well, we could remove "save" and keep "revert", or even rely on > "undo" for this sort of thing.
/Now/ you're starting to think seriously :) A decent undo system is indeed the way to deal with these issues. The book expands on this idea at length. > There is still the case of "I want to save *now* so I can mail > a copy somewhere. But I don't want to close the document > for I'm also going to work on the next revision. > > This seems hard to do as long as: > * Lyx don't have its own "mail/scp/ftp/... this document" functionality > * Updating the disk on each and every editing operation is too slow. > > Well, I guess it _can_ be done with decent performance. Writing the > entire document will be too slow, but it sure is possible to log actions > like "mark from here to there, cut, mark from here to there, apply > character style, insert 5 lines of text, start enumeration style...." > A proper lyx file could be rewritten now and then, so the document don't > grow enormous with time. Yep. Unfortunately for really decent support we need some facilities within the desktop environment... > "memory hierarchies", calling disk memory is common. You don't need to tell me about memory hierarchies ;) > >Hah, yes it does! The File->Save paradigm forces them to know about RAM. > > > Not really, they just need to know that the stuff in the window > isn't persistent. Take a step back and think about how absurd that really sounds. > Seen isolated, no save is needed here. Lyx can "save" on close, > as well as after 5s of inaction to be on the safe side. > > But I have thought some more about this, and I see problems. > If I send the document somewhere (mail, ftp, scp, copy it > to another folder) then I want to know what I get. Most other > software will indeed grab a "file" and send it off somehow. This is the sort of thing I mean by DE support. > The email program may be up and running, the message written > already. I put some finishing touches on the document and may > be able to attach the file and send it faster than the above mentioned 5s > autosave. After all, I am good at sending attachments. So, did I send the > document with the latest changes or not? But your email client is plugged in - it knows you've asked for "the current version of the file", not some previous snapshot. It'll show you a preview of what you're sending. > Lyx can change, getting rid of another menu entry. It still have to > interoperate well with other software. In all seriousness, I don't think we can implement something like this unilaterally. To my lasting sadness. regards john
