Output file handling

Aaron Batty abatty at sfc.keio.ac.jp
Tue Mar 8 02:48:39 UTC 2016


Thomas: Thanks for picking this up!

Inline:

> 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?
>
> could this be made quicker by checkboxes in the dialog? something like
>
>  "There are unsaved changes in this session. Please check if you would
>   like to keep them:
>
>     [ ] Save workspace
>     [ ] Save output
>     [ ] Save script files
>
>   [Save chosen changes, discard the rest]   [Cancel]"
>

In this case, would all of that go into a handy folder?


> 1c) On a more general note: Will we retain the option to save/load
> > output _independently_ of an R workspace? How exactly?
>
>  file -> export -> save current output (HTML)
>

The issue with this, though, is that all the graphics are still saved in an
invisible directory in the user directory. You're not really exporting the
output at all. You're exporting the textual elements of the output. And
you're exporting everything you have ever done since last time you flushed
the output.

The current output is more like a tickertape than something to be used for
reporting results, etc. It's a record.

As for loading an output independently, I am still basically arguing that
the output should be tied to a workspace.

I guess I just think that if you want to save your output, you should save
your workspace.



> > 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?
>
> if they're not saved, i'd vote yes.
>

Seconded.



> > 2b) When saving over an existing workspace, will we also overwrite the
> > associated output (without additional prompt)?
>
> that is what i would expect if i checked the "save output" option.
>
> how do you propose to store the files? additional separate files?
> personally,
> i would prefer having everything in one file, like somehow appended to the
> .RData file or all files in one zipped archive (except the scripts,
> although i
> also like the idea of being able to store a "session-to-go" archive i could
> send someone, including all currently open script files).
>

I was thinking that instead of just spitting out two naked files (.RData
and .rworkplace), saving should create a directory that includes those two,
plus rk_out.html, and then maybe an images directory for the graphic
outputs, just to clean it up a bit. Clean and organized, but everything
gets its own file, so it's easy to go digging in there if one has to (I
don't like archives or databases... I like to be able to dig.).



> we could save every
> result to a separate HTML file, so that the current TOC would link to those
> individual files and not jump between sections in one large file. this
> would
> also make it easily possible to discard individual results from the
> "global"
> output. maybe the TOC could be replaced by the file browser, by adding a
> new
> shortcut button there to the current output directory. or something more
> fancy.
>

That is a really cool idea.
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