[Geany] Enabling save after no changes

[Enrico Tröger]

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:28:41 -0500 (EST), Greg Smith
<gsmith at gregsmith.com> wrote:

>I'm paranoid and I save files I'm working on a lot.  Since I'm stuck
>with multiple platforms and programs I edit things with, I've settled
>on Alt-F to reach the file menu and S to save as having the broadest
>compatibility there.
>
>This doesn't work well with Geany, because "Save" is grayed out if you 
>haven't modified the file yet.  So if you haven't made a change yet,
>that combination of keys leaves one stuck in the menu structure,
>likely to cause mayhem if you keep typing without noticing what
>happened.  I find applications that change how the menus work in a
>modal way like this any more than absolutely necessary frustrating,
>and I'm not aware of any other GNOME applications that work this way.

Please note: Geany is NOT a Gnome application.


>There's multiple use cases this doesn't support too.  I might want to
>save a file just to update its timestamp, or just to confirm that I
>have appropriate permissions to change it before I actually begin
>editing it.

For those things I would do in a console:
touch filename
or
ls -l filename

which is more informative and (for me) faster.
But well, that's just me :).


>Is there any way to change this behavior?  What I normally expect from
>a programming oriented editor is a visual indication of
>changed/unchanged, but not for save to ever be disabled.  I'm sure

Well, I never expected anyone wants a Save action available if there is
no need to. To me, it would be just confusing if an editor would allow
me to save a file which has no changes. The disabled Save actions and
Save All actions are a neat way to indicate that there are no changes
(this is especially true for Save All).


>there are people that prefer the current behavior, so some sort of

Yes, me.


>settings option ("Disable save if document unchaged") to toggle
>between the two would seem the ideal way to handle this.

Sigh. Yet another option.
If we add something like this, I'd prefer it to be a hidden option as
it will be probably unlikely that many people will use it.

Regards,
Enrico

-- 
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