Bug 87648 - save-icon should stay inactivated after successful saving of document and nothing having been changed (wishlist)
Summary: save-icon should stay inactivated after successful saving of document and not...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kate
Classification: Applications
Component: kwrite (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: unspecified Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KWrite Developers
URL:
Keywords:
: 78363 105350 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2004-08-21 00:59 UTC by markus
Modified: 2005-05-10 17:09 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description markus 2004-08-21 00:59:48 UTC
Version:           4.3 (using KDE 3.3.0,  (3.1))
Compiler:          gcc version 3.3.4 (Debian 1:3.3.4-7)
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.4.24-pre1-xfs

This issue is related to Bug 87540
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=87540

The save-icon should display the information if the document _needs_ saving. If the document has been saved and nothing has been changed, the icon should be grey and inactive. 

Instead the icon is always active and is thus not a means of feedback to the user. It is "just" a place to click on. There is only the indication in the title bar that says "modified". The latter disappears when the document is saved. Though, this information in the title bar is a little off-focus. 

If we want to provide maximum usability and ease of migration for former windows-users, we should implement a similar (or in this case identical) user dialog: The icon must display if the document needs saving.
Comment 1 Christoph Cullmann 2004-08-21 17:32:05 UTC
it will be kept enabled the whole time, it is often very useful for a texteditor to just save the file again, e.g. if the file was altered by outside and the detection doesn't work (e.g. on unices without fam/dnotify/...), therefor it will be kept (even without that, it is nice to "touch" your file just by pressing save for example to trigger recompile, ....)
Comment 2 markus 2004-08-22 15:16:42 UTC
Christoph,

> it will be kept enabled the whole time, it is often very useful for a
> texteditor to just save the file again, e.g. if the file was altered by
> outside and the detection doesn't work (e.g. on unices without
> fam/dnotify/...), therefor it will be kept (even without that, it is nice
> to "touch" your file just by pressing save for example to trigger
> recompile, ....)
Sure, giving the user the ability to save just as he wishes, is OK. But the 
user can do this by clicking on the menu entry, also. 

This issue is about enriching the application with a little feedback to the 
user. In other terms, the "[modified]" in the title bar is too little, 
because the title bar is simply out of focus. 

I really appreciate this sort of feedback under kaddressbook and many other 
applications. The user experience in Microsoft apps is also like that and 
there should be a smooth as possible migration by providing the same user 
experience, especially by such small things. 

Comment 3 Christoph Cullmann 2004-08-22 23:23:25 UTC
*** Bug 78363 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Maksim Orlovich 2005-05-09 16:04:29 UTC
*** Bug 105350 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Anders Lund 2005-05-09 17:52:48 UTC
Just to repeat: this will not be changed. Kate allows you to save at any time, and the toolbar button represents the save action. Applications using the kate editor component (katepart) should show the state of a document by other means, for example in the title and/or status bar.
Comment 6 Iñaki Baz Castillo 2005-05-09 21:08:49 UTC
I use Quanta with many files opened, and for me it's really usable to see the state of the "save" icon in each file, because I can know quickly if the file has been modified without saving or not.

I don't understand the possibility of Kate to save the file at any time, including without the file modified (what is the utility of this?).

Anyway, my wish was for Kwrite but it has been moved here. I don't know the relation between Kate and Kwrite, I thouth they were different text editors.
Comment 7 Anders Lund 2005-05-09 22:18:03 UTC
Monday 09 May 2005 21:08 skrev ibc:
> I use Quanta with many files opened, and for me it's really usable to see
> the state of the "save" icon in each file, because I can know quickly if
> the file has been modified without saving or not.


It is up to quanta to visualize the 'modified state' of a document. Kate 
provides an icon in the status bar if the file is modified, as well as in the 
file list and the default KDE change of the title. So if you are unhappy with 
quanta, file a bug with them.

> I don't understand the possibility of Kate to save the file at any time,
> including without the file modified (what is the utility of this?).


This is like touch(1). And it's a user request, and also makes sense in many 
cases. And once more: the toolbar icon is *NOT* there to show the 'modified 
state' of the document. Applications should make that visible using other 
means.

> Anyway, my wish was for Kwrite but it has been moved here. I don't know the
> relation between Kate and Kwrite, I thouth they were different text
> editors.


Kate, kwrite, quanta, kdevelop and several other applications that provides 
text editing uses katepart to do so. Bugs for katepart goes here.
Comment 8 markus 2005-05-09 23:13:27 UTC
As the submitter of this ticket I also found the current behaviour rather 
strange. Unfortunately I have the impression, that's something the developers 
have firmly decided on and there's no way to reach a deviating decision. 

Well, I can only emphasize once again that the icon bar is wasted space if it 
only serves as a field for clickbuttons. It could also carry some information 
and act bi-directional in this sense. 

I am firmy convinced that applications should have as few dialog elements as 
possible in order to reach maximum usability. A good application is not one 
with many buttons and many different informative gadgets, but instead it is 
sober, reductive in the number of dialog elements and simple to use. 

And this little feature is something we could really copy from M$... 

Hugh, I spoke my part. :-))

Regards
Markus
Comment 9 Roger 2005-05-09 23:20:14 UTC
Then you should go back and take another look at Microsoft's VisualStudio 6.0, 7.0, and their new Visual Studio Whidbey...  The 'Save' icon acts just like Kate does... it remains on all the time.

Having icons serve two purposes (for actions and for status) is sometimes very hairy...  And furthermore, like Anders said, we use it to 'touch' a file to update it's modification time when we so choose.
Comment 10 Iñaki Baz Castillo 2005-05-09 23:30:32 UTC
El Lunes, 9 de Mayo de 2005 22:18, Anders Lund escribió:
|| Monday 09 May 2005 21:08 skrev ibc:
|| > I use Quanta with many files opened, and for me it's really usable to
|| > see the state of the "save" icon in each file, because I can know
|| > quickly if the file has been modified without saving or not.
||
|| It is up to quanta to visualize the 'modified state' of a document. Kate
|| provides an icon in the status bar if the file is modified, as well as in
|| the file list and the default KDE change of the title. So if you are
|| unhappy with quanta, file a bug with them.
Sotty, you didn't understand me. I really like the method of Quanta to show 
when a file has been modified (it shows enable the "save" icon in toolbar and 
shows [ ] containing the file name in the window and panel).


|| Kate, kwrite, quanta, kdevelop and several other applications that
|| provides text editing uses katepart to do so. Bugs for katepart goes here.
OK, thanks for the explanation.
Comment 11 Ryan Dalzell 2005-05-10 13:47:24 UTC
I'm happy with the explanation of the save button here, but I think that the same logic should not be extended to the "Save All" menu item/button. What happens is that all open files are saved. This causes read-only files to throw up dialogs, remote files to go through (unnecessary) expensive network operations, etc.

I think the "Save All" button should only save the files that need saving. I believe this is the only interpretation of the user's intention.
Comment 12 Anders Lund 2005-05-10 14:49:46 UTC
Tuesday 10 May 2005 13:47 skrev Ryan Dalzell:
> I'm happy with the explanation of the save button here, but I think that
> the same logic should not be extended to the "Save All" menu item/button.
> What happens is that all open files are saved. This causes read-only files
> to throw up dialogs, remote files to go through (unnecessary) expensive
> network operations, etc.
>
> I think the "Save All" button should only save the files that need saving.
> I believe this is the only interpretation of the user's intention.


Kates 'Save All' action only saves modified documents, and it should logically 
only be enabled if at least one document is modified.
Comment 13 Anders Lund 2005-05-10 14:55:53 UTC
Monday 09 May 2005 23:13 skrev markus@relix.de:
> As the submitter of this ticket I also found the current behaviour rather
> strange. Unfortunately I have the impression, that's something the
> developers have firmly decided on and there's no way to reach a deviating
> decision.


It is NOT strange- The toolbar button (as any toolbar button) is enabled, when 
the action it represents is enabled. For kateparts save action, that is 
allways.

> Well, I can only emphasize once again that the icon bar is wasted space if
> it only serves as a field for clickbuttons. It could also carry some
> information and act bi-directional in this sense.


You are talking rubbish. The toolbar is a button bar. Each button represents 
an action, and is enabled when the action is. For example the 'copy' button 
is only enabled when there is a selection in the current view, and the paste 
only when there is text in the clipboard. Kateparts 'save' action is allways 
enabled, because you can save the document at any time.
Comment 14 Ryan Dalzell 2005-05-10 15:07:22 UTC
My apologies, in Kate 3.4.0 the "Save All" does indeed only save files that need to be saved. I think I am remembering a deceased bug.

The point about the toolbar button for "Save All" being enabled stands though.
Comment 15 Anders Lund 2005-05-10 17:02:33 UTC
Tuesday 10 May 2005 15:07 skrev Ryan Dalzell:
> The point about the toolbar button for "Save All" being enabled stands
> though.


What point? The buttons state follows the actions state. I ask because I'm not 
sure that the actions state is updated. If not, we could fix it.
Comment 16 Ryan Dalzell 2005-05-10 17:09:53 UTC
Yes, the "Save All" action state is not disabled when there are no modified files to save.