4 ms·

I’m both old and old fashioned, but I’ll take auto-save any day over manual save, especially something that required manual save without support of auto-save.

I’m both old and old fashioned, but I’ll take auto-save any day over manual save, especially something that required manual save without support of auto-save. I’ve lost enough work prior to auto-save being common that I never want to deal with an app that doesn’t somehow save my work pretty frequently.

atoav 5y ago
I like autosaves as well, but as a "I didn't save manually but there is always an autosave"-option. Saving is also a file managment choice.
- dylan604 5y ago
  It really depends on what the app is though, yeah? If I'm in document processing or spreadsheet where you might be working for long periods where a 5min auto-save kicks in could be convenient. However, when I'm writing code that then needs to make rapid changes like updating CSS/JS/etc to be refreshed in browser, then I'm not waiting 5 mins for an autosave. Cmd-S, Cmd-tab, Shift-Cmd-R, boom. However, Cmd-S is so engrained into the muscle memory, that it's almost instinctual to hit it after every press of a semi-colon.
  - IgorPartola 5y ago
    If I type in rm -rf / and pause for a moment trying to remember if I’m trying to delete /var/log/apache2/ or /usr/local/var/log/apache2/ in a dev environment that auto-executes code when I save it I would strongly prefer that it wait until I manually save.
    - atoav 5y ago
      Which is why I like Autosaves that save a copy. Blender for example autosaves project files into it's own location (and keeps that location clean). If you have a crash you can still go for that autosave file and it works in most cases – but it isn't saved in the folder you are working in. For certain programs this would be overkill of course, but for others it would be quite cool.
      - IgorPartola 5y ago
        It’s interesting. I use vim which has auto-recovery built in. But I also compulsively save. vim is so much faster than most conventional IDEs that it’s just not worth it for me to look for an alternative to that pattern.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    > However, when I'm writing code that then needs to make rapid changes like updating CSS/JS/etc to be refreshed in browser, then I'm not waiting 5 mins for an autosave. Cmd-S, Cmd-tab, Shift-Cmd-R, boom. VSCode has an autosave that's triggered when you change a file.
    - glenneroo 5y ago
      I would guess that they swiped that idea (among many of the core features of VSCode) from IntelliJ a good 10 years after they implemented it. Too bad they can't steal more sane ideas from JetBrains' IDEs, I might actually consider switching ;)
      - Zababa 5y ago
        I doubt IntelliJ invented the "save on change" feature. > Too bad they can't steal more sane ideas from JetBrains' IDEs, I might actually consider switching ;) Not being an IDE is what I like about it, my experiences with JetBrain's IDEs weren't good.
oefrha 5y ago
> I’ve lost enough work prior to auto-save being common And you didn’t develop the habit of compulsive Ctrl-S every five seconds? ;)
- Akronymus 5y ago
  multiple ctrl-s' per few characters typed/whenever I stop writing something.
TillE 5y ago
There are reasons for manual save to exist, but I think it's unlikely to stick around as a distinct GUI element which requires an icon. Experienced users will use a keyboard shortcut, others will rely on autosave or find the File > Save menu. Alas, I suspect the floppy disk icon is doomed.

atoav 5y ago

I like autosaves as well, but as a "I didn't save manually but there is always an autosave"-option. Saving is also a file managment choice.

dylan604 5y ago
It really depends on what the app is though, yeah? If I'm in document processing or spreadsheet where you might be working for long periods where a 5min auto-save kicks in could be convenient. However, when I'm writing code that then needs to make rapid changes like updating CSS/JS/etc to be refreshed in browser, then I'm not waiting 5 mins for an autosave. Cmd-S, Cmd-tab, Shift-Cmd-R, boom. However, Cmd-S is so engrained into the muscle memory, that it's almost instinctual to hit it after every press of a semi-colon.
- IgorPartola 5y ago
  If I type in rm -rf / and pause for a moment trying to remember if I’m trying to delete /var/log/apache2/ or /usr/local/var/log/apache2/ in a dev environment that auto-executes code when I save it I would strongly prefer that it wait until I manually save.
  - atoav 5y ago
    Which is why I like Autosaves that save a copy. Blender for example autosaves project files into it's own location (and keeps that location clean). If you have a crash you can still go for that autosave file and it works in most cases – but it isn't saved in the folder you are working in. For certain programs this would be overkill of course, but for others it would be quite cool.
    - IgorPartola 5y ago
      It’s interesting. I use vim which has auto-recovery built in. But I also compulsively save. vim is so much faster than most conventional IDEs that it’s just not worth it for me to look for an alternative to that pattern.
- Zababa 5y ago
  > However, when I'm writing code that then needs to make rapid changes like updating CSS/JS/etc to be refreshed in browser, then I'm not waiting 5 mins for an autosave. Cmd-S, Cmd-tab, Shift-Cmd-R, boom. VSCode has an autosave that's triggered when you change a file.
  - glenneroo 5y ago
    I would guess that they swiped that idea (among many of the core features of VSCode) from IntelliJ a good 10 years after they implemented it. Too bad they can't steal more sane ideas from JetBrains' IDEs, I might actually consider switching ;)
    - Zababa 5y ago
      I doubt IntelliJ invented the "save on change" feature. > Too bad they can't steal more sane ideas from JetBrains' IDEs, I might actually consider switching ;) Not being an IDE is what I like about it, my experiences with JetBrain's IDEs weren't good.

oefrha 5y ago

> I’ve lost enough work prior to auto-save being common And you didn’t develop the habit of compulsive Ctrl-S every five seconds? ;)

Akronymus 5y ago
multiple ctrl-s' per few characters typed/whenever I stop writing something.

TillE 5y ago

There are reasons for manual save to exist, but I think it's unlikely to stick around as a distinct GUI element which requires an icon. Experienced users will use a keyboard shortcut, others will rely on autosave or find the File > Save menu. Alas, I suspect the floppy disk icon is doomed.