Mark Allums wrote: > On 5/14/2010 2:41 AM, Andrei Popescu wrote: > > I believe SOP on Windows is to always use a working copy, not the > original file. When it is time to exit the application, the working > copy is "moved" onto the original. The OS handles the move, and how > Windows actually does that is something I'm not familiar with. > > Saving a file does not necessarily overwrite the original file. > Instead, the changes are written to the working copy. It is a matter > of policy, so different programs can act differently. When the file > is closed, though, the saved changes are made permanent. > > So, this OS "limitation" is a matter of differing philosophies. To > get a certification of "Made for Windows", certain practices must be > adhered to. A lesser certification "Works with Windows" is also > available. > > In other words, the behavior of an application is still up to the > author of the program, in spite of the monopolistic tendencies of > Microsoft. Increasingly, though, programmers must jump through lots of > hoops to get the behavior they want. > > One common bad behavior of Windows apps is opening a file and never > closing it. It remains open until the person editing it closes it in > the app. This causes files to remain blocked for the duration and > leads to all manner of disasters. It the event of a serious crash, > all those open files become casualities. (Which is one reason why > the practice of using working copies is so prevalent.) > > I find it interesting that Acroread's behavior is different in Linux. > The programmers of the Linux version seem to be aware of *nix standard > practice. This is a good thing, I think. I totally agree with you. I was so suprised that acroread shown no error under Linux that I thought there was a bug. It often happens to modify a PDF and compile the source files, having forgotten the fact that the PDF viewer is still open with the PDF. I remember that when doing the whole process: latex -> dvi2ps -> ps2pdf under Windows, it was frustrating to notice (too late) that the PDF was still open in a window when ps2pdf wanted to replace it. -- Merciadri Luca See http://www.student.montefiore.ulg.ac.be/~merciadri/ I use PGP. If there is an incompatibility problem with your mail client, please contact me.
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