Re: Newbie question: forcing data format during saveDocumentTo:
Re: Newbie question: forcing data format during saveDocumentTo:
- Subject: Re: Newbie question: forcing data format during saveDocumentTo:
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 10:01:58 -0700
First a practical issue and then some more on the design issue of Save
As vs. Export:
I still would like an example of the use of an accessory view in the
save panel. No matter what path I take, I will need to modify the panel
a little bit. I can see easily enough how to add my own accessory view,
but I have not identified how to use the results from that view in the
rest of the save process.
I have spent the last few days looking at many different software
packages on many different platforms. If there is such a thing as a
universal standard on software, it is that after you do a Save As, you
are editing the document you just saved, not the original. I could not
find a single exception to this rule on Mac Classic, Mac OS X, and
various flavors of Windows. Consequently, I could not find a single
program that included write-only file types in the Save As dialog,
since that would break the rule.
Once I started looking, I realized that there are many programs that
create write-only data. Interestingly, while Export was the most
common, it was also the least descriptive name for the action.
Macromedia, for instance, has been wrestling with what to call the
creation of runnable-only files for a long time; for now they seem to
have settled on "Publish". Other names for actions that create
write-only data included Package, Archive, Compile, and Build.
Obviously, increasing the transparency of the writing of the data
hinges on finding a name for the action that is intuitive and obvious.
No one would even consider using Save As...object file as the way to
compile a source file.
Unfortunately for me, I have not been able to come up with a
dramatically better name for the action in my program than "Export". I
have modified it to say "Export Text", but that feels like upgrading
the description of Earth from "harmless" to "mostly harmless". It
doesn't really make it as intuitively obvious as "compile" does. Of
course, naming the action "compile" assumes your user is familiar with
the name of the process for creating an object file.
Jerry
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