Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!dan
From: dan@Apple.COM (Dan Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: AutoSave
Keywords: AutoSave, HyperCard 2.0.1???
Message-ID: <24977@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 89 23:46:35 GMT
References: <11985@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 41

In article <11985@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> xxiaoye@eleazar.dartmouth.edu writes:
>beginning to write stacks.  One of most annoying feature in Hypercard
>is autosave.  AutoSave is often nice when I am in the typing mode,
>
>Does anyone know if apple has thought about modifying this, how about
>Silicon Beach with its SuperCard ???

Autosave, as you call it, is not just a simple little feature that we
threw into HyperCard: it is the only way that this HyperCard will ever
work, i.e., HyperCard is written in such a way as to consider buttons,
fields, scripts, cards, backgrounds, and stacks--in short,
everything--as persistant objects that sometimes live in RAM and
sometimes live on disk.  When you change something in RAM, HyperCard
updates the disk VERY shortly thereafter.

Only if HyperCard was totally rewritten could such a behavior be taken
out of HyperCard.  I think its benefits far outweigh its disadvantages.

Now what we could do is provide for a way to undo script editing, and to
bring back the last button you (perhaps accidentally) deleted, and the
like.  Such feature enhancements would probably make you and most users
happy.

Having persistent objects took a lot of time to get working right.
Having a built-in object manager allows HyperCard to be fast and
flexible.

BTW: Save a Copy simply does a raw block read/write of the existing
stack to a new file.


Dan Allen                **    dan@apple.COM (Unix mail)
Software Explorer        **    ALLEN.DAN (AppleLink)
HyperCard Team           **    20525 Mariani Ave. MS 22AE
Apple Computer           **    Cupertino, CA 95014
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