Re: File menu changes (suggestions)

[John S. Yates, Jr.]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:28:53 -0400, you wrote:

>> People pointed out that "New File" might be confusing
>> since it does not in fact make a new file.  I think the name
>> "Visit New File" will help show that this isn't the same as the usual
>> "New File" operation.
>
>Rather than change menu entries's names to less "standard" ones, we should
>change their behavior to better match what users expect.

Exactly the attitude I advocate.

>E.g. find-file might require confirmation before opening
>a non-existent file.  I'll love such a new feature, seeing how often I do
>"C-x C-f emacs/src/rege TAB RET" only to find myself in "regexp." rather
>than in the "regexp.c" that I intended to open.

I love it.

>As for the "New File" entry, there are several options.  One is to just
>create a new buffer called "New Document" and not attached to any file.
>This mimicks many "CUA-style" systems.  It sucks because it does give us
>a chance to choose a good minor mode, and because we won't be able to
>autosave the file [this latter point could be fixed, of course].

(Miss "not" near end of 3rd line?)

>Another option is to prompt for a file name and require confirmation if the
>file already exists.  It's a slightly different behavior than those other
>"CUA-style" systems, but unsuspecting users should hopefully not find
>it confusing, which is all we really care about.

Yes! A very nice solution.  It alters the timing of when the user
supplies the ultimate file-name but preserves essential Emacs models.

In fact I suspect that one would be very hard put to find a user of a
CUA-like system who would argue that giving new documents an initial,
application-generated name and path, only to later have to remember
to use SaveAs.. instead of Save is a virtue to be preserved.  Thus I
believe that Stefan's suggestion would be quite palatable to the CUA
community.

>I guess I'm just repeating what Miles and Eli have said.

No.  You have made a concrete suggestion that has not been aired
before.  I heartily endorse both the suggestion and your attitude
of how to respond to the not-yet-Emacs-users community.

/john