Auto-save when switching away

dcrocker · Post by **dcrocker** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:52 am

When using TextPad as the default editor for a software development system with an IDE, it would be very useful if TextPad could be configured to auto-save all changed files when switching away from TextPad. Otherwise, a user can switch to the software development system to re-compile, only to find that the compiler picks up the old versions of the files. [Multi-Edit has this feature].

ramonsky · Post by **ramonsky** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:18 pm

Of course this should **NOT** be the default. No way do I want TextPad (or any other program for that matter) overwriting my saved document with an in-progress version without my explicit consent. That would be disasterous.

That said, I'd go with it as an option (default off) that you could switch on in Preferences.

dcrocker · Post by **dcrocker** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:39 pm

I agree, it shouldn't be the default. Ideally, it should be configurable on a per-file-extension basis. However, Multi-Edit just provides it as a global on/off setting, and I don't find this a problem.

Post by **MudGuard** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 5:29 pm

That's quite dangerous.

Imagine some system popup or your email program notifying you of new mail with a popup or someone sending you a net send message or ...

All these would take focus away from Textpad and therefore save all files.

No, I definitely do NOT want this feature!

ramonsky · Post by **ramonsky** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 5:38 pm

As a matter of principle, no program - Nothing apart from me - should EVER take the focus away from me without my consent. I am (or at least, should be) the ultimate authority on what is in focus at any time. For this reason, I do not allow popups on my machine, AT ALL.

So ... in defence of dcrocker's suggestion ... for the benefit of people who do NOT see popups appearing on their machine, I see no harm in allowing this as a prefence item, so long as it's off by default.

Jill

dcrocker · Post by **dcrocker** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 6:04 pm

Text Pad already has an "Auto save every 10 minutes" option. If you are the sort of person who already uses that, then having TextPad save whenever you switch away from it shouldn't cause you any problems - even if you are not always switching to an IDE to compile your newly-edited file(s).