Re: File menu changes (suggestions)

[John S. Yates, Jr.]

It seems quite clear to me that given the semantics
of Emacs' file-open there can never be a happy choice
between New and Open.  This is because in the CUA
world these operations have clear implications about
the existence or non-existence of the argument object.

New and Open have readily understood and internalize
failure semantics.  Users do not view such failures
as inefficiencies or a lack of DWIM in the interface.
They experience it instead as a confidence building
feature: either their expressed intent is successfully
carried out or they receive an indication of a failure.

OTOH Emacs' file-open offers no way to express such
detailed intent.  Instead it smears the distinction
that separate New and Open present.

One solution might be to add an optional tri-valued
argument to find-file: CLASSIC, NEW, EXISTING.

/john