Bug 130352

Summary:	(data safety) protect any changes made by user in any context
Product:	HIG	Reporter:	Maciej Pilichowski <bluedzins>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Celeste Lyn Paul <celeste>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	celeste, fabian
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	openSUSE
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:

Description Maciej Pilichowski 2006-07-06 12:32:18 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.3)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

I found only topic about recovery after errors, but not anything else about data safety.

General KDE policy should be like this, that no app can loose user data, and such behaviour (loosing data) should be considered as major bug, almost as important as crash.

More technical explanation: every object modified by user (text document, web page entries, audio playlist, audio file, directory with its files, etc etc) should not be lost, unless the user explicitly made such decision. Application should either warn user about possible loss or "autosave" the contents.

Risk examples:
* file copied into directory should not disappear all of the sudden
* changes to text document should not disappear just because user quit the editor

Positives examples:
* Konqueror warn about modified web page entries before closing modified page
* KGet autosaves the download list

It should be stated clearly in KDE HIG that policy "we put your work at risk -- nor warn you neither autosave data" is simply unacceptable.

Comment 1 Frans Englich 2006-10-09 20:02:28 UTC

I believe this is a good suggestion. I think the difficulty lies in making this as concrete as possible. That is, that the HIG goes beyond a generic clause, but specifically states how widgets should behave wrt. this.

Comment 2 Maciej Pilichowski 2006-10-09 21:09:51 UTC

Thank you. It is important for me to include this in HIG because then I would have more powerful basis to state that app is buggy -- amarok is good anti-example but currently I have to deal with developers policy "we work that way, use JuK if you don't like it". After changing HIG it would be clear violation of how KDE app should behave.