Re: UNDO--isolating the problem

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Harry Binswanger  on
Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:57:03 -0400

> I want to stress that I can SAve a .BAK file even with BK=1.
> It's only the SA/NV of the .BAK that doesn't work.
> Exactly the opposite of what a user would think to be the case.

You keep looking at effects and calling them causes. Stick to
the facts, skip the opinions. It has nothing to do with /NV.
Do this: turn BK back ON (default bk=1). Clear C:\XY\UD
(CUD/NV). Do a single "SA C:\XY\UD\DUMMY.BAK". Now
issue that command a second time. What do you get? "Filename
already exists - overwrite it? Y/N". Thus you have an
opportunity, on a one-off temporary basis, to *elect* to
override your default BK=1 setting, which reserves extension BAK
to it's own use. /NV simply overrides, period -- you have no
election, and your command is thereby in direct conflict with a
default. Defaults always have higher priority -- they are
uber-commands, Ring Zero. The only way to cancel a default is
to change it. Think about it.

> Does this mean I must choose between having BAK files and using UNDO?

Of course not -- XyWrite can skin that cat many ways. Is
removing /NV a *solution* to the dilemma? No, because UnDo
needs it for DeFined text (= [UNTITLED] docs). UnDo could
toggle BK temporarily, of course. But the simplest solution is
to change "BAK" to "BAQ" or something like that. I'll do that
tonight when I get a moment... Debugging long distance is not
my favorite use of time -- and the reason I (often) get
irritated is, with the thing in front of me this would have been
solved in one minute flat. Instead, I spent a couple of hours
poking around in UnDo.exe, looking for access or timing issues
that don't exist. You remember Joe Friday? "Just the facts"...

> Does Carl have BK=0?

I very much doubt it. Who wants to clutter up their disk with a
backup of every single file they create? For important files,
there are much more sophisticated methods of maintaining backups
(SAVEBAK, etc).

> UNDO would seem to supersede BAKs anyway.

No! UnDo is NOT creating permanent backups! It maintains a
transient capability to UnDo and ReDo -- that's the A and Z of
it. YOU, the user, are not intended to dip into C:\XY\UD
manually and do what you want with those files (which come and
go). You'll screw up the operation of the program. \UD is
*RESERVED* to UnDo -- which means that it's a no-go area.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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