Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!skippy!lippin
From: lippin@skippy.berkeley.edu (The Apathist)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: What to Remember, and When?
Message-ID: <26190@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 11 Jul 89 00:53:13 GMT
References: <2184@husc6.harvard.edu>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: lippin@math.berkeley.edu
Organization: Authorized Service, Incorporated
Lines: 42

Recently siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel) wrote:
>
>	I have been considering the issue of remembering state information
>about documents - in particular, text-only files that are edited by a text
>editor. I'd like to remember the state of a document, such as font, size,
>and tab settings; window position and size; scrollbar positions; selection
>range, and option settings.

I'm in favor of using the resource fork for this information.  Keeping
a separate file for these things clutters up the file system, and the
user would be forced to keep track of the second file as he rearranges,
removes, or backs up the original document.

On the other hand, I'm not in favor of the way some programs will
write this information without my permission.  I often will open
documents just to read them, scoll down to the bottom, and leave them
there.  If the scroll position is saved, then the next time I want to
read it, I have to scroll back to the top.  And, even worse, the file
modification date has been changed, just by my reading the file.

I think the appropriate way to go is to ask before saving these
changes, with an alert similar to, but worded diffreently from, the
usual "save changes" alert.  If the document itself is changed, just
use the standard alert, and save all the information if the user says
"yes."

Of course, there are some (e.g., Leonard) who think this would be an
inconvenience to the user.  For them, and for people who just like
their windows to come up in the standard place every time, I'm willing
to have a program-wide option for saving state information, with
values in {always,never,ask first}.

On a slightly related issue, does it bother anyone else that most
programs will put a preferences file in the system folder even when
the user hasn't given any preferences?  I think that if there's been
no change from the default, there's no reason to make the file.

					--Tom Lippincott
					  lippin@math.berkeley.edu

	"Man, you ain't got class, you got linoleum!"
					--Corky Siegel