Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cos!smith From: smith@COS.COM (Steve Smith) Newsgroups: comp.emacs Subject: Re: auto-saving of files (good or bad) Message-ID: <592@cos.COM> Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 13:22:25 EST Article-I.D.: cos.592 Posted: Thu Dec 3 13:22:25 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 7-Dec-87 03:54:51 EST References: <217@yetti.UUCP> Reply-To: smith@cos.UUCP (Steve Smith) Distribution: na Organization: Corporation for Open Systems, McLean, VA Lines: 28 In article <217@yetti.UUCP> steve@yetti.UUCP writes: >Our version of GnuEmacs (18.47) presently saves the auto-save file even >when theuser specifically requests that he/she doesn't wish to save that >file. Thereafter, when editing the file the message "Auto save file is >newer; consider M-x recover-file" will appear. Is this what we want? >Certainly other editors, notablyEDT on VMS does not save a journal file >when the user wishes to not save his present file. The real purpose of >auto-save files (it seems to me) is to recover afile after a system >crash. I have had problems, also with the auto-save function. In particular, GNU does an auto-save every "n" characters, regardless of what is going on. This is extremely annoying if I am doing some hot & fast editing and suddenly everything freezes while I get an "auto save" message. The ideal way do handle auto-saving (from my point of view, of course) is to wait until the keyboard is inactive for "n" seconds. I don't think most people can maintain full speed typing for long enough to cause trouble. BTW - helpful hint. You will have less trouble sending mail and articles if you limit your lines to 80 characters. -- __ -- Steve / / \ / "Truth is stranger than S. G. Smith I \ O | _ O \ I fiction because fiction smith@cos.com / \__/ / has to make sense."