mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Henri Lesourd <address@hidden>]

Andrey G. Grozin wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Mar 2006, Henri Lesourd wrote:
>
> > Kamaraju Kusumanchi wrote:
> >
> > > For every file.tm, texmacs creates a backup file called file.tm~ . The
> > > default configuration is that file.tm~ is stored in the same directory
> > > as that of file.tm . How can I configure texmacs so that all the
> > > backup files are stored in a separate directory? Is there any option
> > > like that in the first place? If not, do you think this option
> > > qualifies for a wish list bug? I can file the bug myself, but not sure
> > > whether such a functionality is already in place or not!
> >
> > It depends. Traditionnaly (i.e. emacs), the ~ files
> > are stored in the same directory. As far as the
> > feature you propose is concerned, I'm pretty sure
> > it doesn't exist yet in TeXmacs, so feel free to
> > fill a wish. As for me, I hate these ~ files, so
> > I use another feature that disables their creation
> > in the first place, namely Edit/Preferences/Autosave/Disable.
>
> I use emacs all the time, and I find *~ files extremely useful (if I 
> forgot what changes I made last time, I just do
> diff foo~ foo
> ).

Different people, different patterns of using the software...

> I see a problem with the proposed feature to put backup files to a 
> separate directory. Different files from different directories can 
> have identical names, and the backup file from editing one of them can 
> overwrite the backup file from another file.

This is a real problem ; thus the spec of this new feature is in
fact not clear...

> I think this is not acceptable. With the current (emacs-like) 
> behaviour, this is not possible, because all files in a single 
> directory have distinct names, of course.
A possible workaround would be to name the ~ files using a dot : we would
have foo and .foo~, for example. This way, the ~ file doesn't usually appear
when using ls.

The real point about these ~ files would be to gain a better understanding
of what are the benefits and the problems with this feature. Currently,
I see :

1. [BENEFIT] one can recover the last version, and use it to go back
  to the last version, or do various things with it (diff foo foo~) ;

2. [PROBLEM] it is not very clear **when** the ~ file is recorded. Because
  of this, one cannot really count on it to recover old versions, etc. To
  state it differently, the ~ system is not a guarantee that you can always
  recover old (or the last interesting) versions. As a consequence of this,
  if you want such a guarantee, you must rely on another mechanism (i.e.
  doing backup copies of your directory, using CVS, etc.), and the ~ is
  then redundant. Anyway, the point is that the ~ mechanism is not reliable
  for the purpose of recovering old versions. Sometimes it works, sometimes
  not. But it is true that in some cases, it saves your life. Thus it
  remains very useful. But it is incomplete ;

3. [PROBLEM] the ~ naming mechanism interferes badly with the
  shell : it doubles the number of .tm files that appear as
  an output of ls (or inside a file explorer under X) ; on
  the other hand, it disturbs the TAB completion mechanism ;

But there are perhaps other problems : in particular, it would be
interesting to know the problems met by other people ;

Kamaraju : what are the things you dont like that leaded you into
looking for a solution where the ~ files are stored in a separate
directory ? Is it because of interferences with the shell (point 3
above) or is it because something else ?