thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) (02/21/90)
Reply-To: thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Stanford University Keywords: Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files for the user. (most useful for word processing) I know FullWrite Pro supposedly does that, but I'm not about to buy a new word processor for just that feature, and lose all of the time I spent learning Word 4. I womost interested in something similar to the thing done in CMU (Carnegie Mellon U.) 's Pascal Genie or in the Karel Genie. It periodically autosaves for you with- out destroying the "original file" on disk by saving a file called AutoSave of <filename>. This is useful since you might not really want to save your changes you just performed. Anyways, is there such a thing? (I would prefer shareware/freeware) And if not, I would think it would be a neat thing for a lot of the talented prog- rammer's out there to tackle. This "utility" would be useful to millions of students across the country who get very annoyed when they computer crashes while writing a paper. Thanks in advance. --Derek Fong fong@cive.stanford.edu thewho@portia.stanford.edu
meldal@ithink.Stanford.EDU (Sigurd Meldal) (02/21/90)
In article <9362@portia.Stanford.EDU> thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: >Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files for the >user. (most useful for word processing) Using the periodic macro of QuicKeys + QuickTimer will do autosaves for you. The tricky part is getting it to punch save only when you are in applications where you want periodic saves (looking for the save menu item under Finder every ten minutes would be a nuisance). The tactic is to define the periodic macro as a null one in the universal keyset, and the appropriate one in the keysets of applications you want to do a particular thing periodically. -- Sigurd
long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Richard C. Long) (02/22/90)
In article <36@ithink.stanford.edu>, meldal@ithink.Stanford.EDU (Sigurd Meldal) writes... [about an "AutoSave" function] [suggests using the "periodic" function of Quickeys and Quicktimer, but] [notes the problem of a universal versus application specific macro] >tactic is to define the periodic macro as a null one in the universal >keyset, and the appropriate one in the keysets of applications you >want to do a particular thing periodically. Right. This works fine, but note that the key equivalent used for the universal periodic macro must be the same as the key equivalent for the application specific macro. For mine, I use Shift/Command/Option/Control-* (extended keyboard). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /'') /'~ / | long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com | Ramparts are parts of a /''\ /,, /,, | ...!decwrl!mcntsh.enet.dec.com!long | ram. People used to Richard C. Long | long%mcntsh.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com | watch o'er them.
clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) (02/22/90)
In article <9362@portia.Stanford.EDU> thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: >Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files for the >user. There is a cdev called Autosave II which will do this. It can be configured to ignore certain applications [so "Send XMODEM..." won't be invoked every 5 min. while you're in ZTerm] and the delay time can be user-specified. However, I cannot find the publisher just now. I know Egghead software carries it, and it is very reasonably priced. Alternatively, I have seen ads for a cdev/INIT called "Shadow" which lives below the Standard File world and automagically, whenever you select "Save..." maintains a second file, in a ddition to the one you explicitly create and name. <chaz> -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chaz Larson - clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu "Great Scott! This 9 foot alien woman is a swinger! ...and she has the hots for me!!!" - Flaming Carrot
thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) (02/22/90)
In article <1206@ux.acs.umn.edu> clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) writes: >In article <9362@portia.Stanford.EDU> thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: >>Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files for the >>user. > >There is a cdev called Autosave II which will do this. It can be configured to >ignore certain applications [so "Send XMODEM..." won't be invoked every 5 min. >while you're in ZTerm] and the delay time can be user-specified. However, I >cannot find the publisher just now. I know Egghead software carries it, and >it is very reasonably priced. > >Alternatively, I have seen ads for a cdev/INIT called "Shadow" which lives >below the Standard File world and automagically, whenever you select "Save..." >maintains a second file, in a ddition to the one you explicitly create and >name. > ><chaz> > Thank you to everyone who has responded to my inquiry. Most everyone has recommended to me AutoSave II, including the author himself. :) However, it does not seem to fit the bill for what I'm looking for. Shadow seems to. Does anyone have any experience with it? Again, what I am looking for is something like that seen in CMU's Pascal Genie or Karel Genie or in fact, in UNIX itself which saves an alternate file for you periodically. For example, if I am working on a file called "paper" it would periodically save to a file called "autosave of paper" (as with the Carnegie Mellon (CMU) programs) or as "paper.bak" or "paper*" as in Unix (I believe Unix does it in one of those formats although I hardly pay attention to it). Having this type of autosave might leave you hard drive with extra files, until you trash them after you have completed you work. But it provides an actual SECOND copy and in case you have made changes which you don't like, they won't be save on your original file's name. Ok, so, does Shadow do this? Am I wrong in thinking that Autosave II can't do this? Does the Quickeys combo init/cdev (mentioned by a few people) do this? Or is there something out there like that? OR (my last one), does anyone one of you great programmer's out there willing to work on such a Cdev/ Init/or whatever to accomplish this? In fact, I'm curious why more programs don't implement this feature. I like the way CMU made this option settable in their programs. Since it might be a hassle for some people to have their disk riddled with Autosave files. In any case, maybe I'm wrong and this is a hard thing to create as a program. I know I can't personally make one myself, but I hope that some one can. I think such a program would be very useful. Final note: I think the price being charged for Autosave is great ($29 from what I have heard), but it would be nice if I could find a program doing what I really want it to do. Thanks for all of the air time on the net. And thanks in advance to anyone who can help me. ---Derek Fong fong@cive.stanford.edu thewho@portia.stanford.edu
a6ey@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Adam C. Engst) (02/26/90)
In article <9426@portia.Stanford.EDU>, thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: > In article <1206@ux.acs.umn.edu> clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) writes: >>In article <9362@portia.Stanford.EDU> thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek Fong) writes: >>>Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files for the >>>user. >> > For example, > > if I am working on a file called "paper" it would periodically save to a file > called "autosave of paper" (as with the Carnegie Mellon (CMU) programs) or > as "paper.bak" or "paper*" as in Unix (I believe Unix does it in one of those > formats although I hardly pay attention to it). > > Having this type of autosave might leave you hard drive with extra files, > until you trash them after you have completed you work. But it provides > an actual SECOND copy and in case you have made changes which you don't like, > they won't be save on your original file's name. > ---Derek Fong > fong@cive.stanford.edu > thewho@portia.stanford.edu Both WordPerfect (the much-maligned) and Nisus offer this sort of backup, which in my opinion, is the only sort that is of any use. At one point I was working on a paper on floppy with WriteNow, using two copies and using the Autosave DA on every 4 minutes. Unfortunately, WriteNow erases the old file before it saves the new one, so when one disk ran out of room when I was doing a manual save as (this was a large paper), WriteNow erased the second file, realized there wasn't enough room to write the new one, crashed, and damaged the file that was open on the first disk. After some work with FEdit, I went back towork with a four floppy system with two always out of the machine for extra safety. That's the main reason I llike to use WordPerfect, and hopefully Nisus soon. It's just too dangerous to work with Word or WriteNow if they crash without that second backup automatically taken care of.
Leo.Bores@f14.n114.z1.fidonet.org (Leo Bores) (02/27/90)
In an article of <20 Feb 90 21:47:48 GMT>, thewho@portia.Stanford.EDU (Derek
Fong) writes:
DF>Is there a DA/Cdev or something out there which will autosave files
DF>for the
DF>user. (most useful for word processing) I know FullWrite Pro
DF>supposedly
DF>does that, but I'm not about to buy a new word processor for just that
DF>feature, and lose all of the time I spent learning Word 4. I womost
DF>interested in something similar to the thing done in CMU (Carnegie
DF>Mellon U.)
DF>'s Pascal Genie or in the Karel Genie. It periodically autosaves for
DF>you with-
DF>out destroying the "original file" on disk by saving a file called
DF>AutoSave
DF>of <filename>. This is useful since you might not really want to save
DF>your
DF>changes you just performed.
DF>
Why don't you just use AutoMac (which came with Word 4.0) and assign a key
combination to do it as you type? AutoSave SOUNDS good but cam mess you up on
occasion. I find that tapping a key works much better.
Leo Bores
--
Uucp: ...{gatech,ames,rutgers}!ncar!asuvax!stjhmc!14!Leo.Bores
Internet: Leo.Bores@f14.n114.z1.fidonet.orgmds20665@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (03/02/90)
Another fairly painless thin you could do is simply to use a Macro program such as QuickKeys, that will allow periodic, fairly complex tasks such as saving and saving as... in the background every so often.