[IPython-dev] IPEP 15: Notebook autosave

[Aaron Meurer]

I think it's a great idea. The traditional save model really makes no sense
because the "default" behavior (what happens when you exit without saving)
is not what the user wants to happen 99% of the time. I have a question and
a suggestion.

What happens when the browser window is closed? Does a save occur? A
"checkpoint"? Is it possible to reliably do any action?

My suggestion is to add undo support. This is generally how the "poor man's
VCS" that you describe is usually implemented. Traditionally undo history
is cleared when the program restarts (though this isn't a requirement), but
this is fine because it just serves the need of "oops I didn't want to do
that," of which I think the "I don't want to keep any of the changes since
I last opened the file" of reverting to the last checkpoint is a special
case of. "Reverting to checkpoint" would then just mean performing undo
until the checkpoint. Having further actual checkpoints is unnecessary. The
undo points would serve as them, and as long as performing multiple
undos/redos is easy, that should be enough.

Also a comment. Regardless of whether you do undo or revert, you should
think about how to word it/present it to the user so that it is clear that
only the notebook document is being changed. The kernel state necessarily
stays the same.

Aaron Meurer

On Apr 6, 2013, at 7:42 PM, MinRK <benjaminrk at gmail.com> wrote:




On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 6:35 PM, Aaron Meurer <asmeurer at gmail.com> wrote:

> The second bullet point seems incomplete.
>

yup, fixed.


>
> Aaron Meurer
>
> On Apr 6, 2013, at 7:13 PM, MinRK <benjaminrk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've sketched a proposal<https://github.com/ipython/ipython/wiki/IPEP-15%3A-Autosaving-the-IPython-Notebook>for autosave in the Notebook.  Have a look, discuss, etc.  It's a much more
> webapp-centric approach than emacs / MS Word-style autosaved backups.
>
> -Min RK
>
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