From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
To: Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>, 2058@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
Cc: emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org
Subject: bug#2058: 23.0.60; bewildering behavior when visit new file throw.pdf
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:02:36 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20090127120236.GB2116@muc.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87tz7lt6n7.fsf@thinkpad.tsdh.de>
Hi, Tassilo,
On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 10:55:40AM +0100, Tassilo Horn wrote:
> "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:
> Hi Drew,
> > emacs -Q
> > I did C-x C-f throw.pdf, with no existing file throw.pdf. The ensuing
> > messages and interaction were bewildering.
> Is that really a use-case?
No, it's an error case. The user wanted to visit throw.ldf, which is a
text based document format used only in his own company. But he mistyped
it. He also knows nothing about png images, and really doesn't want to
have to learn.
> > An extremely long message appeared in the echo area:
> > "No image (png) support available or some conversion utility for pdf
> > files is missing. Type C-c C-c to switch to an editing mode or C-c
> > C-t to open a buffer showing the doc as text."
It's particularly long and confusing for a non-existent document. Emacs
shouldn't alarm users.
> > But the new, empty file throw.pdf appeared to be visited with no
> > problem. I tried to type into it. That threw me back to the previous
> > buffer I had been in (Dired), and crazy error msgs were displayed.
> The buffer was in doc-view-mode which has its own keymap, and most
> probably you've hit k or q, which kills/buries the buffer.
What on earth is doc-view-mode? Hmm. C-h f doc-view-mode <CR>. ;-(
> > I tried again, and this time I tried to type `C-c C-t', since the
> > message indicated that that would open the buffer as text. That too
> > led to errors.
> Yeah, in the background it tries to run pdftotext on the pdf, to extract
> the plain text contents.
> > I don't know exactly what happened, but you will, as soon as you try
> > it. ;-)
> Sure. So what's your advice how to handle this situation? Check if the
> file is existent (and non-empty) and if not, print a message and
> fallback to fundamental mode?
Whatever is done, don't force the poor bewildered user to make a
decision. Perform whatever error handling is appropriate and display a
message, and let her get out without further ado.
"... to switch to an editing mode " is particularly bad. It should be
less vague, stating the mode (text mode?).
"... to open a buffer showing the doc as text" would be better as "to
show the doc as text".
> Bye,
> Tassilo
--
Alan Mackenzie (Nürnberg, Germany).
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2009-01-27 12:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 13+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <mailman.5816.1232925816.26697.bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2009-01-27 9:55 ` bug#2058: 23.0.60; bewildering behavior when visit new file throw.pdf Tassilo Horn
2009-01-27 12:02 ` Alan Mackenzie [this message]
2009-01-27 12:43 ` Tassilo Horn
2009-01-27 14:42 ` Alan Mackenzie
2009-01-27 14:46 ` Tassilo Horn
2009-01-27 16:03 ` Tassilo Horn
2009-01-27 16:20 ` Drew Adams
2009-01-28 8:48 ` Kevin Rodgers
[not found] ` <mailman.6064.1233133417.26697.bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2009-01-28 20:28 ` Tassilo Horn
2009-01-27 15:44 ` Drew Adams
2009-01-27 22:58 ` Richard M Stallman
2009-01-28 7:45 ` Tassilo Horn
2009-01-25 23:09 Drew Adams
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