Output file handling

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

Hi!

I'll start by quoting a comment Aaron made some time ago:

> This, I suspect, is a much bigger fix. What I would love to see,
> though, is that output HTML file and the associated images be in a
> folder with the workspace if saved, similar to how it works in SPSS,
> but less locked down and headache-inducing. So perhaps you open
> RKWard up to just play with some ideas, as I often do, and then opt
> to discard the workspace on close. While you're working on an unsaved
> workspace, the behavior is the same as now, but when you close it,
> the output files are also discarded. If you save the workspace,
> however, it creates a folder containing the R and RKWard workspace
> files, the same as now, but also a folder containing the outputs.
> Loading that workspace later will use that output folder instead.
> This solves the problem of an endless scroll of everything you've
> ever done with the software because if you even need one thing in
> there, you can't flush it, and makes it much easier to find things
> later. The current HTML-based output system is wonderful in that it
> can be opened in your browser and all the graphics files are already
> "exported" to PNG, but since they are locked away in an invisible
> directory, and necessarily chained to everything else you've ever
> done, it makes it very hard to get information out of it. 

I think Aaron is right in essence, and I'd like to tackle address this,
soon. However, I'm not so sue on some details, so I'd like to ask you
for input.

1) Handling of output not associated with a workspace
Aaron essentially suggests to simply discard such output, and often
that will be desirable. But that will not _always_ be the case.
1a) We're already asking whether to save the workspace on exit. If user
choses to save, we'll save the output along with the data. Easy.
1b) What if the user choses not to save the workspace. Will we prompt
about the output, separately (as we do for script files)? Or better,
yet, what would a _unified_ do you want to save
workspace/output/workplace/files dialog look like?
1c) On a more general note: Will we retain the option to save/load
output _independently_ of an R workspace? How exactly?

2) Semantics of saving
Currently, output is save, implicitly. It is written to file, directly.
If we change from a "global" output file to associating output with a
workspace, do we want to change?
2a) When loading a workspace, doing work, then closing it, without
saving, all data changes will be discarded. Would we also want discard
changes in the output file, then?
2b) When saving over an existing workspace, will we also overwrite the
associated output (without additional prompt)?

Also, on a very general scope: Will we be ok with a 1:1 relation
between workspace files and output files, or will we want to have the
option to associate more than one output with a single workspace (or
more than one workspace with a single output)?

Regards
Thomas
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/rkward-devel/attachments/20160307/59ff0c5b/attachment.sig>