Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!nwd
From: nwd@j.cc.purdue.edu (Daniel Lawrence)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: MicroEmacs is dangerous!!
Summary: uEMACS 3.9
Keywords: File naming and write protect. Reading Manuals.
Message-ID: <8883@j.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 3 Feb 89 13:50:26 GMT
References: <1028@sdcc15.ucsd.edu>
Reply-To: nwd@j.cc.purdue.edu (Daniel Lawrence)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 66

In article <1028@sdcc15.ucsd.edu> pa1343@sdcc15.ucsd.edu (pa1343) writes:
>Beware!  Emacs 3.9 is dangerous.  If you don't name a file it can't
>save it until a name is given.

	Perhaps reading the manual would help here.  First off if you
would have stated your edit session by typing:

	emacs <newfilename>

	Then uEMACS would have supplied you with a named buffer and had
been ready to write your file out.  Second, the command ^X-^W
(wriite-file) would have prompted you for a file name.

>Worse yet, in mess-dos if a disk is write 
>protected, the program can't write to it and bombs with Abort, Retry, Just 
>Give it up.

	First, intercepting the DOS critical error handler is generally
not done with MSDOS programs and can cause some very serious problems if
anything goes wrong.  Second, MSDOS 3.0 and above has another option on
this prompt, (F)ail.  If you type this, MSDOS will return a failure on
the open and EMACS will report "[Can not write file]" on the command
line.

>   These bugs need to be fixed.  Suggestion:  if file does
>not have a name, ASK for one.  Second, check for write protect in mess-
>dos and for permission in UNIX and allow alternate save paths.
>
	Write protect problems in MSDOS? Did you consider pulling out
the disk, unwrite-protecting it, re-inserting it and hitting "R" for
retry?  Under UNIX MicroEMACS does check for protections and will return
proper error messeges for that.

	Also, as always, macroes can be used to do anything you care to
like this:

23	store-macro
	!if &seq $cfname ""
		set $cfname @"File name to save to: "
	!endif
	save-file
!endm
bind-to-key execute-macro-23 ^X^S
bind-to-key execute-macro-23 FND
	(or
bind-to-key execute-macro-23 FN0
	under the new 3.10 bindings)

>-- 
>+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
>|		    John J. Marco -- pa1343@sdcc15.ucsd.edu		       |
>|uunet!altnet!vsi1!ubvax!ames!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!sdcc15!pa1343|
>+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

	I am unhappy that someone would post a note to usenet decrying
the dangers of a program of which they have probably not opened the
manual to.  Any tool or program can be mis-used if you do not attempt to
learn how to use it.

	If the place you recieved MicroEMACS from did not supply a
manual, tell me and I will mail you one.

					Daniel Lawrence
					(317) 742-5153 nwd@j.cc.purdue.edu
					The Programmer's Room Fido 1:201/10
					(317) 742-5533