Moving open files

[Dotan Cohen]

2008/7/8 Kim Goldenberg <kgoldenberg at oit.state.nj.us>:
> Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>>
>>> Neither are the user's files, for all he understands. He knows that HE
>>
>> opened it, HE moved it, HE edited it, and HE saved it. Now, why aren't
>> the changes in the file?
>>
>> You and me understand why without silly analogies, but the description
>> above is how the user sees it. No analogy needed.
>>
>>>>> 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.
>>>
>>> I think the application had a file handle it was manipulating, not a
>>> file.
>>>
>>> You get similar weird behaviors if under Windows someone has permissions
>>> to create a file but not alter the file. They can create a document and
>>> open it under Office, but not actually save anything to it once the
>>> initial file is written out since they can create but not alter it.
>>
>> I understand that Windows has it's quirks. But I've never seen the
>> situation where one can create but not alter a file. I don't think
>> that is a situation a user who only does word processing and internet
>> browsing with his machine will get himself into.
>>
>
> While I feel for your user, I wonder if (s)he was thinking through what they
> were doing. To follow through on the binder analogy, I'm going to change it
> to a file folder. Your user instructed a secretary (OOo) to take the
> document out of the folder and make changes to it, dictated by the user.
> While the secretary is working, the user moves the document to another file
> folder and doesn't tell the secretary. When the secretary is finished, the
> document is put back in the file folder it was taken from. The user then
> emptied that folder as it is assumed that there is nothing of importance
> left in there.
>
> The secretary (OOo) is just following the instructions the user gave. If the
> user wanted the document saved somewhere else, that should have been
> communicated (Save As..).
>
> While that is not the way your user intended it to work, and may not be the
> way Windows would allow it to be done, that is what happened.
>
> In 31+ years of data processing/computing/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, I
> have seen enough ways to do the same thing to see that there is no one right
> way. The MS Office designers took one route and the
> StarOffice/OpenOffice.org designers took a different approach. Which is
> right or correct? They both are.
>
> Good luck.
>
> Kim
>

There is no secretary. The user is the only one using his computer.
Adding a different Alice or Bob for each program in these analogies
will not make things any different. _I_ understand how things work.
The non-CS user does not. So far as he is concerned, he is the only
one in the office.

Dotan Cohen

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A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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