Re: Gratuitous user interface change risks losing user work

[Nick Roberts]

 >     I just got bit by this and I bet others will too. In previous versions
 >     of Emacs C-x C-v (find-alternate-file) used to prompt you if you hadn't
 >     saved the work in the current buffer and you used to have to press 'y'
 >     to discard it.  *Now* it prompts you asking if you want to *save* your
 >     work. So if you use it to revert the buffer to the last saved version --
 >     something I do quite frequently and have become accustomed to hitting
 >     'y' quite quickly -- the default action is to *overwrite* your work!
 > 
 > Does it really happen that way?  I just tried that case, and it used
 > yes-or-no-p to ask for confirmation for overwriting.  So if you type
 > `y RET', it should ask you again whether to save.
 > 
 > Did you respond semiconsciously by typing `y e s RET', thinking
 > "Dammit I said yes"?

y alone doesn't seem to work and it does seem to need `y e s RET'.  This is
a bit silly anyway if we have to make find-alternate-file foolproof when
                                           ^^^^^^^^^ 
the user wants to revert the buffer to an older version of the same file just
                                                               ^^^^ 
because it used to work a certain way.

I can see that you can lose data if your backup is older than your last saved
state because you lose all the undo information but, hey, if I hit myself
over the head with a hammer it hurts.  Perhaps Emacs should carry a health
warning, just as everything else does these days.

-- 
Nick                                           http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob