From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,80b3e504140e89fd X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-06-24 08:06:38 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.socal.rr.com!cyclone3.kc.rr.com!news3.kc.rr.com!twister.socal.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3D173599.C515EE53@san.rr.com> From: Darren New X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Config_Files proposal References: <3D0FAC67.A4861809@san.rr.com> <3D10B6B1.AFE9D4E8@san.rr.com> <3D10E046.E604231D@san.rr.com> <3D1204B5.4620F160@san.rr.com> <3D1215A8.719D39C5@nbi.dk> <3D123852.1040508@san.rr.com> <3D1289D2.9090107@telepath.com> <3D134669.5070000@san.rr.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 15:06:36 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.75.151.160 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: twister.socal.rr.com 1024931196 66.75.151.160 (Mon, 24 Jun 2002 08:06:36 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 08:06:36 PDT Organization: RoadRunner - West Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:26654 Date: 2002-06-24T15:06:36+00:00 List-Id: Stephen Leake wrote: > That's what happens when you run two copies of the text editor, change > the same source file in both, and save from both. One set of changes > is lost. Well, maybe in *your* editors, based on file systems as horrificly bad as UNIX. ;-) > Why should config files be different? Because reading a config file and writing a config file are both invisible operations, as far as the user is concerned. > Hmm, one answer is "because the config file is hidden". That makes > sense; we can expect the user to be aware of loading the same source > file into to copies of the text editor, but not immediately aware of > sharing one config file between the two copies of the text editor. Exactly. And there are commands to save the files and to load the files. > But I still think the right answer in this case is one of: > "use a better (multi-document) text editor". > "use the registry for resources shared by multiple processes". > "use separate config files for separate instances of applications" What's wrong with #4 - merge changes into the most recent config file, rather than just overwriting it? How about when you go to save the new config file, you check the size/date/checksum/contents/whatever against what it was when you loaded it, and you throw an exception if it's different, *unless* the overwrite flag is set? Then those who want to merge the changes can do so "manually" in their code? -- Darren New San Diego, CA, USA (PST). Cryptokeys on demand. ** http://home.san.rr.com/dnew/DNResume.html ** ** http://images.fbrtech.com/dnew/ ** My brain needs a "back" button so I can remember where I left my coffee mug.