Moving open files

[Kim Goldenberg]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 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.
> 
But he is not; he has let a computer into his office. It only does what 
he tells it, but it is very simple-minded in that. He tried to get it to 
do two things at once and it both succeeded and failed. Some of that was 
aided and abetted by himself for not knowing the consequences of his 
instructions.

Kim
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