On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 3:47 PM, Kent Tenney <kten...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Perhaps the proper @auto importer could be used > > if that would mean a new @nosent <file> got brought in > with the simple elegance of @auto: > +1 > > I'm not fond of menu->import file->browse->click > ... file appearing parented by > > an 'imported files' node > Thanks for raising these issues. When I awoke this morning I realized that they are subtle, though perhaps not as important as you think. Indeed, automagically doing an @auto import is a "recovery" case. In most cases, the user would naturally populate the @nosent node *before* saving the .leo file. One typically wants to see the @nosent file immediately. There are three ways to create or populate an @nosent node, creating a tree of nodes in the process: 1. refresh-from-disk. 2. import-file. As you say, the import-file command should *not* create an "imported files" node if only one file is being imported. I've made a note of this. 3. Use a recursive import script to create and populate *many* @nosent nodes. I personally create all my @nosent (formerly @file) nodes this way. Note 1: Recursive import scripts use c.recursiveImport. At present, c.recursiveImport doesn't handle @nosent properly. I'll fix this asap. Note 2: When importing multiple files, it *is* reasonable to have all imported nodes be children of a parent "imported nodes" node. A single new root node simplifies the undo logic and minimizes the amount of information needed to undo the operation. So the only remaining question is: what should happen if the user doesn't populate an @nosent tree using either the refresh-from-disk or import-file? If the user saves an empty @nosent node, Leo's "significant file" check will prevent the user from inadvertently overwriting an existing file. This logic warns if: a) the file has never been written and b) the external file exists and c) the @nosent node does *not* contain a significant amount of text. Or something like that ;-) The details don't much matter here. What does matter is that the user is protected. To repeat, the question is what should happen if the user has *not* already populated the @nosent tree before exiting Leo. At present Leo just slurps the entire file into the @nosent node, just as if it were an @edit node. Alternatively Leo could do the full @auto logic. It should be clean. There is already a special case that bypasses the @shadow logic if the @nosent node is empty. This special case could call the appropriate importer instead of setting p.b to the entire contents of the node. But there are two niggling downsides to automatic imports: 1. It is not always clear which importer to use. That's why we have @auto-rst, @auto-vo, @auto-otl. I shall be *so* happy when these wretched hacks sail off into the sunset. Otoh, we shall soon need the corresponding flavors of the import-file command. But these new commands will only tell Leo how to create the outline the *first* time. Thereafter, unlike @auto, the user is in complete charge of outline organization. 2. If the @nosent node is empty, the user might prefer everything to be placed into the @nosent node. There are two commands that populate an @nosent node with a tree. If the user hasn't done either, why assume the user wants a tree? ===== Summary Automatically using import logic to populate an empty @nosent node can be done cleanly. However, it does have drawbacks, and it will rarely be necessary. This discussion is interesting, but it's outcome isn't all that important. I'll be happy to hear your further comments. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leo-editor+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to leo-editor@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
