Enable session snapshot and periodic backup?

qcybb

How come it’s not possible to enable “Enable session snapshot and periodic backup” and disable “Remember current session for next launch”?

It would be really nice if those 2 options were not connected.

Ekopalypse

@qcybb see here how to make a feature request at github repo.

Alan Kilborn

So here is a summary of what the OP means:

You either have:

Or you have:

Or even:

Enable session snapshot… seems to be the one that lets you exit and keep your files as unsaved (red disk icons on the tabs).
Maybe with that context it makes sense that you’d want to Remember current session… as well; otherwise, wouldn’t your unsaved changes be, well, hard for N++ to keep track of?

Michael Vincent

@Alan-Kilborn said in Enable session snapshot and periodic backup?:

Maybe with that context it makes sense that you’d want to Remember current session… as well; otherwise, wouldn’t your unsaved changes be, well, hard for N++ to keep track of?

Agree, not looking at the code, but just interpreting what that settings seem to mean, “Enable session snapshot and periodic backup” seems like a subset of “Remember current session for next launch”.

Again, without looking at the code, I believe “Remember current session for next launch” saves the current session on Notepad++ exit, whereas “Enable session snapshot and periodic backup” saves the current session on the time interface specified and at Notepad++ exit. In that respect, it’s more like a background auto-save in case of a “crash”?

Cheers.

gstavi

@qcybb
These options are tightly connected and dependent.

Enable session snapshot and periodic backup is not a very good name because it describes how the feature is implemented rather than its goal. I would name it Remember file modifications. One method to remember file modifications is to periodically make backups of them in a session snapshot.

So basically a user has 3 choice for how he wants Notepad++ to start

Empty.
With all files that were open when Notepad++ closed, as they are saved on disk.
- On Notepad++ close user must decide about modified files – save or lose.
- On restart: deleted file will not appear.
- Files that were modified by other application will have their new content.
With all files that were open when Notepad++ closed including modifications and new files.
- I don’t use this so I am not sure what the behavior is.
- On Notepad++ close do not ask user anything – everything is “remembered”.
- On restart: deleted file? Does not appear? Appear as red tab?
- Files that were modified by other application??? Old content? New content? Merged content?

The user interface exposes these 3 options in a very reasonable way. Option 3 is by definition an extension to option 2.

In my opinion option 3 is meant to satisfy lazy people that are always surprised at some point when they lose 3 weeks work that they never explicitly saved.
As I demonstrated, there are quite a few tricky corner cases with this approach that are bound to surprise users when they first encounter them.

Alan Kilborn

@gstavi said in Enable session snapshot and periodic backup?:

In my opinion option 3 is meant to satisfy lazy people that are always surprised at some point when they lose 3 weeks work that they never explicitly saved.

Also generates a nasty surprise when the “NUL problem” strikes.

Alan Kilborn

Some more info on how the features under discussion work may be found HERE.

I.zi.bia

@Michael-Vincent said in Enable session snapshot and periodic backup?:

Again, without looking at the code, I believe “Remember current session for next launch” saves the current session on Notepad++ exit, whereas “Enable session snapshot and periodic backup” saves the current session on the time interface specified and at Notepad++ exit. In that respect, it’s more like a background auto-save in case of a “crash”?

I have run some tests with npp v8.4.8, and my observations are different:

“Enable session snapshot and periodic backup” only enables periodic snapshot. It has nothing common neither with sessions nor with config: I tried to kill notepad++.exe and I noticed no changes of config.xml and session.xml.

Remember current session for next launch has two effects

it allows that session.xml is (re)written on npp close
it allows that session.xml is loaded on next startup of npp
(of course, 1. and 2. happens only if all conditions are met.)

(Unchecking Remember current session for next launch doesn’t delete existing session.xml, and so it may6 be activated later by config.xml edit)