Re: Q: a way to enable save/over?

[Michael Meeks <michael helixcode com>]

Hi Dan,

On Tue, 28 Nov 2000, Dan E. Kelley wrote:
> Hi.  I'm loving using gnumeric, and have found only one snag: the
> disabling of "save over" for excel-format files.

        This was intended for your protection :-)

> Q: is there something I can put in a dot-file to permit me to 
> save-over into existing files?  I ask because I need the security of
> having backups of my work.  Right now I have to keep going over to a
> shell window, 'mv' the file, and then go back and click on
> gnumeric/save.  Sure, that's not too difficult, but there is a good
> chance of messing up.

        It would be possible to allow this to happen; there are a number
of issues with testing it to ensure that it works reliably, of course, a  
simple approach would be to move the file away and create a new one of    
the same name, then unlink the old one.

        The problem is; that there is no hard and fast garentee that your
excel file will load in excel again afterwards; whilst this is our aim, it
is by no means garenteed.

> Gnumeric is a great thing, and it's probably at the stage where user
> comments may be a valuable resource.  (I *know* I can recompile it,
> with the feature turned off, of course.)
  
        Sure :-) code is appreciated too; of course, it shouldn't be very
hard to hack up the feature, the issue is testing it and working out a    
sensible and complete approach. eg. once you wander into this area,
locking suddenly seems a good thing to implement etc.
  
        Regards,
  
                Michael.

-- 
 mmeeks gnu org  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot