[TxMt] Save files when focus is lost - to a temp file?

[oli studholme]

On Aug 11, 2005, at 12:04 AM, Allan Odgaard wrote:

> On 10/08/2005, at 4.45, Oli wrote:
>> [...] "Save files when focus is lost" [...] I think it'd be even  
>> better for the file (if not yet saved) to be automatically saved  
>> as a temp file
> The idea behind the feature is that people who (manually) switch to  
> their test environment (e.g. Safari or Terminal) don't have to also  
> manually save modified files.

copy that. Great functionality - I wish every program did this by  
default!

> I don't see how saving to a temporary file helps anything?!? Better  
> then simply to skip untitled documents (if you dislike the sheets).

The auto-save feature only works without user intervention after the  
file has been saved by the user. When a new file hasn't been saved,  
Textmate doesn't know where to save to, and brings up a save dialog/ 
bounces the dock icon. I would personally prefer if Textmate either  
didn't attempt to save "Untitled" documents, or even better saved  
them to a temp file until the file was saved/given a name by the  
user  [1].

>> [..] in a similar way to using command-enter from other programs
> What does command-enter do?

Select text in any program (Safari form field, Apple Mail, anything)  
and hit Cmd-Enter. Your text is warped into Textmate, all nicely  
color-coded, ready for editing. While you're editing the text is in a  
temp file at /private/var/tmp/folders.502/TemporaryItems/ with the  
name "Data from <application>.txt". When you're finished, save and  
close, and Textmate sends the new text back to where it came from,  
and deletes the temp file. Now while you're editing this text, if  
Textmate looses focus the auto-save feature still works - your  
changes are saved to the temp file. I'd like it if Untitled files  
were also automatically saved as a temp file until the user saves  
them for the first time, allowing the auto-save feature to operate  
without user intervention.

Btw, you can also just select any text in say Safari or a PDF and Cmd- 
Enter to get it into a Textmate file, as long as you remember to  
immediately Save As... It's a little faster than a copy/change to  
Textmate/make new file/paste, although if you don't immediately Save  
As, you'll loose changes when your muscle memory takes over and you  
mash Cmd-S ;-)

One final point, the Cmd-Enter thing completely locks the application  
the text came from, which I've found frustrating if you're writing a  
comment in Safari but want to copy something from another tab. Oh  
well, I guess that's just a limitation of the method huh.

peace - oli


[1] This comes up in a great article by Matthew Thomas about  
interface cruft btw - first example 1 page down
http://mpt.phrasewise.com/stories/storyReader$374