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When viewing a file that is frequently updated (e.g. web server log file), TextPad brings up a message box saying, "Another application has updated file <file name> Reload it?"

The problem is: When you click No, it appears again 3 seconds later.

This dialog should have a third button or check box that you can check or uncheck that prevents it from appearing again.[/url]

Configure - Preferences - File

Select "ignore" under "When files are modified by another process"

Or, select the Auto-reload option, if you actually want the file to be reloaded.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

Auto reload is not an alternative to the "Another application has updated file" dialog.
When viewing constantly changing log files then the dialog presents valuable information which I don't want to miss, while at the same time I want a chance to browse a certain state of the logfile for some minutes without permanently getting notified.

Currently the dialog needs to be clicked away before scrolling the file, and reappears within 2 seconds before I have a chance to disable the file modification check or scroll and read the file.

Suggestion:
A) make that dialog non blocking like the "F5" search dialog.
The dialog can be moved away and used on demand
or the file modification check can be disabled before closing the dialog.
B) (second best) make the refresh interval configurable.

Georg Goldemund

Thanks for clarifying your requirements. In that case, the closest match is to "Ignore Updates" and use the Revert command on the File menu to reload the file manually.

Keith MacDonald
Helios Software Solutions

I think this is a good suggestion for an enhancement. 95% of the time I don't want to ignore changes. Every once in a while I want to look at a quickly changing file and don't have time to do anything other than respond to the dialog window.

Georg Goldemund wrote:Suggestion:
the file modification check can be disabled before closing the dialog.

I like this suggested implementation. The dialog box would have a check box that says something like, "Do not ask again for this file."

Apart from all that it would be nice to have an undo option if by mistake /chance /tiredness /dumbness or just plain stupidity that the ok button was clicked without thinking.

webM

Another option is an "open temporary copy" file were textpad copies the file to the temp directory and then opens it. When you close the file, the temp file gets deleted.
The temp file shoud be read-only.

Jan Paul

The other thing about the auto reload that I find very annoying is that if the file that is being reloaded isn't the file in focus and it is very large (like web logs as someone else noted) it freezes the editor until it gets reloaded even though you're not currently looking at it. If the file is small it will still cause a flicker as though it restored the windows and then maximized them again. I think it would be nice to have the option to tell the editor to only reload files if they are in focus. Also I like the idea of being able to specify the time interval instead of just having the 2 second option.

I think someone should think about how log files and such are usually used.

There are a number of features we could imagine. For example, (1) by file or (2) filetype setting the warning dialog on or off. In addition, (3) displaying a special icon or (select list colour?) indicator to indicate when a file has been updated. (4), add "tail" capability where you say that you want to "tail" (see the last X lines of a file) the file, not open it, and you can configure the buffer size and polling interval.