Richard Gaskin, An AutoSave Plugin?

[SimPLsol at aol.com]

After 16 years working with HyperCard I've come to rely on autosaving.
I know some people don't like the fact that you can't go back to the 
original. I know it is not the way most programs work. I know that saving an entire 
stack (which is what Revolution would have to do) takes time. But for the type 
of stacks I use (basically moderate-size text files) it is very handy. 
For example, the other day I was preparing a screen shot for Heather to use 
on the new packaging. I had made some changes to the stack and then went to 
print it as a PDF without saving. I know one should save frequently, but printing 
did not seem like a particularly dangerous operation. Well, Revolution 
crashed and, once again, ate all of the changes I'd made. An autosave is handy on 
general programs, it is critical on one which is "stability challenged".
The autosave plugin I envision would save on each closeField, on sorts (where 
the contents of a field or card order in the stack is changed), on puts 
(where one multiplies the quantity times the price and PUTS the result into a total 
field). It should probably autosave changes to scripts, although hitting 
Enter twice to close the editor already accomplishes this.
Because the plugin would be optional, this behavior would be optional. 
Obviously some users and some applications would not want/need autosave. I 
understand that this would require twice as much RAM per stack (enough to hold the 
original and enough to hold the saved stack) - for most applications RAM is no 
longer an issue on modern computers (in the near future we will be able to 
install 16 G!) and modern computers can save moderate-sized stacks almost instantly 
(we are talking RAM to RAM).
Anyway, you asked...
And thank you for asking.
Paul Looney