Re: [HIG] instant saving

[Gregory Merchan <merchan phys lsu edu>]

On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 05:39:45AM -0500, Dave Bordoley wrote:
> Ok, we know that instant saving in apps is better (isn't instant apply
> always better). Unless there is a technical reason not to support it,
> why don't we just go ahead an explicitly recommend it? thoughts.

This is usually (afaik) called auto-save.

I suspect that for some apps this needs to be a gradual change.
Something like an addressbook could probably get rid of the save command
right now, but (say) AbiWord would have more difficulty.

The "standard" menus aren't arranged to accomodate auto-save. I think,
but I'm not at all sure, that we'd want the File menu to be more like
a file icon menu - e.g., with Move and Copy. I am really not sure though.
Another thing to worry about is versioning - I suspect that right now
people who want versions of a document use Save As... to make them.
I don't even know how that'd be handled on disk - this ain't no VMS.

Apps will also need code to save periodically. I can only guess what
that might involve. One obvious question is, "When should the program
save the file?"  It could be at regular intervals or maybe even based
on some signal from the OS.

There is so much I don't know about implementing this, that I'm uneasy
recommending it; even for the simple cases like an addressbook.

What I would feel comfortable recommending is a check item on the File
menu to enable auto-save. Programs that have it should (of course) have
code to do it. There will probably be a few implementations and many bugs
to work out at first, but eventually there should be good common code
in a library. I am opposed to forever having an auto-save checkitem and
I am opposed to making UI changes that will just be undone later, but
with this change we get needed code written; so I think we have a net gain.

Emacs just told me "Auto-saving...done"  :-)

Cheers,
Greg Merchan