Moving a File

[Dave]

On 7 Mar 2007, at 04:18, Stephen Barncard wrote:

> Again, I don't see that big a reason for complaining and I don't  
> think it's a bug.

Well, it's not really a complaint (well a bit I suppose!) but really  
I was posting because I was shocked and thought that it might save  
some poor soul loss of a file or worse still their job/contract!

> I would have a hard time with a function that might give me a  
> dialog asking me if it's ok to overwrite or not. I would rather  
> have the primitive and do the dialog and checking myself, as you have.

I agree I wouldn't want a dialog box either, but it would be good if  
it either just refused to delete the file silently, returned an error  
code and/or threw an an exception that could be "caught".

> You're right in saying the docs could reflect more about this,  
> however. And the naming conventions -- don't get me started -- look  
> at "destroystack". That's the most misleading.
>

Yeah, I know there are lots of places where the documentation could  
be so much better and it could be done so easily. Take this problem  
for example, if the online documentation had a note warning that   
file could be overwritten it would be something at least. Especially  
since when you consider that the documentation does have this to say  
about rename:

Caution!  This command can be used to rename or move files and  
folders your stack did not create. Of course, a stack should not  
rename or move files and folders it didn't create without obtaining  
explicit confirmation from the user.

I don't know about you but most of my Apps access files that are not  
created by my stack. I can't see what the problem is with this and  
why the author would think to caution us about it, especially when it  
will actually delete files!!!!!  A fact which they are quiet about!  
It's a bit like saying:

Caution: Being near an H Bomb Explosion can cause slight discomfort!

The whole system just seems crazy to me. It would literally take  
someone 5 minutes to change the documentation in this case (and in  
the case of the "array" entry) , but you have to fill in a bug report  
etc. all if which takes longer that just changing the docs! I'm not  
saying that filling in a bug report is wrong, just that if for things  
like this that are easy to fix and just affect the docs it would be  
good if the change could go into quickly rather than waiting for the  
next release where it might or might not be fixed.

> cool ......  "The Wilds of Kent".

It is nice here, I'm near the River Medway and there is a Cold War  
Russian Submarine complete with a hammer and sickle moored nearby  
where I am staying!

All the Best
Dave