[cap-talk] Handling Save actions

[David-Sarah Hopwood]

Bill Frantz wrote:
> alan.karp at hp.com (Karp, Alan H) on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 wrote:
> 
>> When you double click on the icon for a file associated with an editor,
>> such as a Word document, the system can infer that you want to grant the
>> process read authority.  When you click the Save button, the system can
>> infer that you want to add write authority for that file.  When you
>> click the Open button, the system can infer that you want to add read
>> authority to the file you designate in your  power box interface.  The
>> same inferences can be drawn from command line input.
> 
> This level of inference would defeat a technique I sometimes use on
> MacOS. I mark files, like originals of photographs, R/O to world,
> group, and owner. With this marking, Photoshop will not be able to
> save the changes I made, and I will be goaded into assigning a new
> file name, keeping my original unchanged.

I imagine that most applications would use a common framework library
for this functionality, and it would be that framework that keeps track
of the "current" document file in a given window. When the user selects
either 'Save' or 'Save As', the application gets an event from the
framework that specifies a capability to the file that it is to be
written to. Usually in the case of a 'Save', this will be the current
file. However, if it's not possible to save into that file, then the
framework can put up a powerbox dialog to prompt for a new file, as
though 'Save As' had been selected, and then specify that in the
application event.

-- 
David-Sarah Hopwood