Re: Document-based applications

[Liam Quin <liam holoweb net>]

murrayc usa net (2001-04-12 at 1645.45 +0100):
>  * Overwriting:
>  Ask the user to confirm before replacing an existing file.
>  e.g. 'Do you want to overwrite the existing file?' [Yes] [No]
>  If [No], ask for another filename. Only stop when the user clicks cancel in
>  the file selection.

Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero wrote:
> Argh... how many times will that appear? It must be [Overwrite] [New
> Name] [Cancel]. Never [Yes] [No] [Cancel] if right verbs exist.

Agreed. Some obvious choices are:
[1] don't write out the file at all
[2] yes, replace the contents of that file
[3] no, I want to write out the file under a different name
[4] yes, I want to use that name, but I want to back up the original first
[5] eek, I forgot which document I was saving

(5) is particularly important -- make sure that, if there is a document
    name, it is prominently displayed, along with the application name.
    If you type "save" into the wrong program by mistake, the application
    name and the document name there can really help.

You might end up with:
    PoetryEditor 4.2 Saving "Kubla Kahn"
    The file "Ancient Mariner draft" already exists.
    * save as a new file instead [choose...]
    * don't save anything yet
    * replace Ancient Mariner draft with Kubla Kahn
    * rename Ancient Mariner draft first [to...]

The last of these options is afforded in Windows by the mini-file-manager
that appears in Save As dialogues.

I'd like to see experiments with having an icon that represents the document,
on the title bar or menu bar or toolbar...
clicking it would bring up a file manager window...
you'd navigate to the right place, then drag the icon into the nautilus window
to save it.

To make this easier, i'd also like a "drag lock" mechanism - e.g. you hold
control down when you start dragging, or it's a user preference...
with a drag lock, the drag doesn't stop until you press ESC, or you press
the mouse button again to drop it (or press space/return to drop if you
are using the keyboard).

There's no real reason to present people with lists of filenames today,
undifferentiated by icon, file type, etc. :)

>> * File|Exit
>>   Should show the 'File | Close' functionality for each document in turn,
>>   bringing the document's instance to the foreground before doing so.
>>   There should *not* be a 'Do you really want to close this application?'
>>   dialog.

> Or maybe it should if the apps is a viewer. There is nothing more fun
> than seeing an app close all cos you hit the wrong key (ie Netscape).
> Or at least a config option "Always confirm before exiting?". Viewers
> do not save anything, but reloading lots of things, specially non
> local, is not fun.

Freehand has a "There are unsaved documents, quit anyway?" dialogue,
which offers,
    * quit without saving
    * review the unsaved documents
    * don't quit

If you choose Review, it shows each document in turn, and yuo can choose
whether to save it, to abandon changes, or not to quit

Again, when you have multiple documents, make sure the appropriate window is
on top and visible (not obscured by another application), and that the
dialogue shows the doc name.

> As extension, periodic backup saving would be pretty nice too, if you
> are going to save a backup at the end, why not each X min or X chars
> too? Of course, previous version could also be kept, just in case the
> user want to forget all changes done in the working session.

I used to use a mailer (Sun's openlook mailtool) that remembered which
messages yuo had deleted, by message-id and number in mailbox, so if
you lost power, or your system was rebooted, or whatever, you could
carry on where you left off.

>> * Misc:
>>   The document's filename (not the whole path) should be shown in the
>>   application's title bar. See also * 'Modified' indicator.
> >   If it has never been saved, then the title bar should show 'Untitled'.
> >   Maybe the untitled documents should be numbered.
> >   'Read-only' status should be indicated somehow as well.
> 
> Apple has a nice list of info about this. IIRC is was "untitled" with
> lower case, and the numbering was "untitled", "untitled2", "untitled3"
> and so on, never using a number for the first. So the name is plain
> and "descriptive", and never changes (never adding 1 to the first).

I'd suggest
application: filename changedmark folder
where changemark is a * if the document is edited, blank otherwise.
For example,
    Text Editor - Kublah Kahn (edited), in ~lee/poems/
or
    Poet 1.2: Kublah Kahn * /home/lee/poems/

Putting the folder last means that less important information is lost if
the window isn't wide enough.  There's something to be said for using
lee localmachine:~/texts/ in a networked environment.  If there was
a high-level API for this, it could be a global preference.

Not all window managers display window titles, but the task list applet
does, as do otehr similar window-list menues etc.

Lee

-- 
Liam Quin - Barefoot in Toronto - liam holoweb net - http://www.holoweb.net/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net www.valinor.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org
author, The Open Source XML Database Toolkit, Wiley, August 2000
Co-author, The XML Specification Guide, Wiley, 1999