[Geany] Re: Geany Digest, Vol 18, Issue 9

[François Cami]

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:06:55 -0400
"John Gabriele" <jmg3000 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 4/24/07, François Cami <fcami at winsoft.fr> wrote:
> > On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:32:08 -0400
> > "John Gabriele" <jmg3000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On 4/24/07, Mikhail Savitsky <mikhail.savitsky at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Add to file menu "Save copy as..."
> > > >
> > > > This used to be common on many Mac IDEs. Very useful e.g. when editing
> > > > a system file,
> > > > when you want to save an original.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Well, there's already a "Save As" menu item. What exactly do you want
> > > "Save copy as..." to do, and how would it be different from "Save As"?
> >
> > "Save As..." opens the saved file afterwards.
> > "Save copy as..." would not open the copy (the original file is still in
> > the editor).
> 
> So, you open a file, you make some changes to it and the editor
> indicates that it's been modified but not saved. You choose "Save Copy
> As", pick a file name, and after that new file is saved, the editor is
> still showing you the original file -- still indicating that it's been
> modified and not saved?

Yes, you just took a snapshot of this file when editing it. A backup copy.
VMS had this feature directly in its filesystem, each write to the current
file created a new version.

> If that's the case, I'm not sure what the point is. To get the
> original file back to its previous state, you either have to close it
> and don't save, or else undo your way back. Why wouldn't you just cp
> the original file beforehand, then edit that copy directly?

Reverting to the previous state is not the issue. The file saved through
the "Save copy as..." is identical to the file in the editor. The file in
the editor is not reverted to its saved state.
Using cp would be too slow. Not that I mind using the CLI, but a
"Save copy as..." feature is probably faster.

> What I could see maybe being useful would be to add these checkboxes
> to the "Save As" dialog:
> 
> [_] Open saved-as file in new tab
> [_] Reload original file
> 
> (where the 2nd one only becomes active if the first one is checked).

Nice, but I do not think that reverting to saved state is the idea there.

Cheers

François