ido.el, usability when saving a new file

ido.el, usability when saving a new file

[Phillip Lord]

I have a question about ido.el. 

In general, I find it works very well and am a compulsive
user. However, there is a problem when saving a new file. 

Be default it offers something like


~/emacs/theNewFileToSave.txt

which is fine if it's where you want it to go. But otherwise, 
you have to delete "theNewFileToSave.txt" and then navigate to the
directory that you want. 

When you get there, say

~/scratch

you now have to type the file name in again (if you select ~/scratch
alone, ido asks you if you want to overwrite the file which already
exists.

Funnily enough, the windows selector dialog used to have the same
problem, although they have fixed it now. 

Anyone got any suggestions. Am I missing something?

Cheers

Phil

Re: ido.el, usability when saving a new file

[Kim F. Storm]

Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk> writes:

> I have a question about ido.el. 
>
> In general, I find it works very well and am a compulsive
> user. However, there is a problem when saving a new file. 
>
> Be default it offers something like
>
> ~/emacs/theNewFileToSave.txt

Really?
I can't remember how the old version worked...

But I don't see this with ido from emacs' CVS.
Below is how it works with the latest version from CVS:


> which is fine if it's where you want it to go. But otherwise, 
> you have to delete "theNewFileToSave.txt" and then navigate to the
> directory that you want. 
>
> When you get there, say
>
> ~/scratch
>
> you now have to type the file name in again (if you select ~/scratch
> alone, ido asks you if you want to overwrite the file which already
> exists.

When I use C-x C-w with ido, it gives me the option to select the
directory where to save the file so I just navigate to the desired
target directory, and press C-j.  Ido then saves the file with the
current file name [unless I have entered another name].

So doing what you want is trivial with ido.



In general, if you want to find the current file in another
directory, you can do it with the following keystrokes:

 C-x C-f      - ido-find-file
 <navigate to target directory>
 C-w           - insert current file name (C-w C-w may be needed)
 RET or C-j    - open file.


If you have entered a file name, but realize that it is not
in the current directory, you can "push it away" and navigate
to another location like this:

 C-x C-f      - ido-find-file
 xyzzy        - enter a file name
 M-b or M-v   - push entered text or first matching item
 navigate using M-BS and M-SPC 
 M-f          - pop
 C-j or RET   - 

> Anyone got any suggestions. Am I missing something?

And of course, you can just M-x cd before using C-x C-w...

Re: ido.el, usability when saving a new file

[Phillip Lord]

>>>>> "KFS" == Kim F Storm <no-spam@cua.dk> writes:

  >> which is fine if it's where you want it to go. But otherwise, you
  >> have to delete "theNewFileToSave.txt" and then navigate to the
  >> directory that you want.
  >> 
  >> When you get there, say
  >> 
  >> ~/scratch
  >> 
  >> you now have to type the file name in again (if you select
  >> ~/scratch alone, ido asks you if you want to overwrite the file
  >> which already exists.

  KFS> When I use C-x C-w with ido, it gives me the option to select
  KFS> the directory where to save the file so I just navigate to the
  KFS> desired target directory, and press C-j.  Ido then saves the
  KFS> file with the current file name [unless I have entered another
  KFS> name].

  KFS> So doing what you want is trivial with ido.


Hmmm. This is not the behaviour that I an getting. I have just tried
this with emacs -Q. I am getting the following...

1) Open ~/documents/books.txt
2) C-xC-w   offers ~/documents/books.txt
3) navigate to ~/scratch
4) C-j to save (I didn't know C-j before so I have learnt something
   here!)
5) File is saved in ~/documents/books.txt


I am guessing that this is, then, a bug. Incidentally, this does
reset the default-directory for books.txt buffer to ~/scratch


  KFS> In general, if you want to find the current file in another
  KFS> directory, you can do it with the following keystrokes:

  KFS>  C-x C-f - ido-find-file <navigate to target directory> C-w -
  KFS>  insert current file name (C-w C-w may be needed) RET or C-j -
  KFS>  open file.

Okay, I will try these out.

  KFS> If you have entered a file name, but realize that it is not in
  KFS> the current directory, you can "push it away" and navigate to
  KFS> another location like this:

  KFS>  C-x C-f - ido-find-file xyzzy - enter a file name M-b or M-v -
  KFS>  push entered text or first matching item navigate using M-BS
  KFS>  and M-SPC M-f - pop C-j or RET -

  >> Anyone got any suggestions. Am I missing something?

  KFS> And of course, you can just M-x cd before using C-x C-w...


yep, I've worked this out now and it works very well; except if you
sending lots of emails with attachments from the same directory --
then you have to use M-x cd in the *Group* buffer.


So, it looks like there is a bug here somewhere. I am using the CVS
version as supplied by EmacsW32. As I said, I've run this using -Q,
although I have had to do

(setq tramp-default-method "ssh") to fix a recursive load bug that I
was having.

I shall try updating my emacs and see if that changes things. 

Cheers 

Phil