RE: [ jEdit-users ] Internal version control system & getting rid of Save

[Alan M. <ala...@op...>]

Reinout van Schouwen wrote:

>However, although this feature fits in the 'IDE' view of jEdit, it should
>still be usable as a simple editor and hence removing the Save option is a
>bad idea IMO.

In his book, _About Face_, Alan Cooper wrote that the computer
should save without having to be told, or why did we type all
that stuff in in the first place?  To non-technical users (you
know, the kind who think they're shutting down the computer when
they're really just turning off the monitor), the concept of 
a document in memory as opposed to a 'saved' document on disk, is
foreign and non-intuitive.  Of course we, the programmers, have 
been working with computers so long that we're not even aware
that we're doing things bass-ackwards until someone points it out
to us (and maybe not even then).  Even when we agree that having 
to save manually is silly, we can't be bothered to write programs 
the other way around, because we're so used to doing things like
reverting to a saved document by answering no the "Do you want to
save?" dialog.  But it's ironic that somebody always objects to the 
idea on the basis that it would be too difficult for the casual 
users to get used to.

--Alan