Moving open files

[Dotan Cohen]

2008/7/7 Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca>:
> Well, not really.  First, there was no loss of data.  I'm sorry the user
> couldn't find it, but really it isn't rocket science to figure that if OO
> opened a file in location A and somebody proceded to move it to location B,
> OO may not know anything about that move.

Actually, there was data loss. The user was cleaning out their
Desktop. They opened the file to see what it was, discovered that it
was important, and then moved the file (with it still open in OOo) to
their directory of saved files. Then, remembering something important,
he wrote that data to the open OOo file, saved it, then closed it.
After going through the Desktop and saving all the important files, he
erased all that was left. So far, all a logical workflow for a
computer user. However, his changes were not saved in the file's new
location, as he had suspected. And the new copy (in the original
location on the Desktop) had been erased.

When a human moves a stapler from one drawer to another, he has no
reason to suspect that any modification to the stapler (such as
refilling it) would cause a duplicate stapler to appear in the old
drawer. Likewise with the movement of open files. This seems to be a
real 'gotcha' or trap that one could very easily fall into.

> That said, if OO kept the file
> open, then mv could move it elsewhere, but OO would still write to the
> _file_ not create a new file with the original name.  Plus, it really is
> badly behaved if it writes a "new" file - when it should know it's
> modifying an old file - and doesn't bother to inform the user that the file
> moved.  _That_ should be fairly simple to both fix and get attention for.
> --
> derek
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-users mailing list
> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>



-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?