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Gripe about new FSEDIT Command Set in Rel 8.0



  I'd be interested if any other sites have problems with the new FSEDIT
  command set like we are experiencing.  Under Genera 8.0, MOUSE-MIDDLE
  in the File System Editor was redefined from "Close Directory" to
  "Delete File".  (I know this can be turned off by SETQing the variable
  TV"*USER-NEW-FSEDIT-COMMAND-SET* to NIL and we finally resorted to doing
  just that).  Under the new comand set, it VERY easy for a novice user to 
  "ACCIDENTLY" delete a file.  If this file happens to be located on a 
  "non-symbolics" machine, the delete operation may not be undoable and the 
  file is lost for good.

  At our Site, we not only develop our applications on Symbolics machines
  but actually deploy on them.  We also use many Non-Symbolics machines
  on our network to remotely store files. Most of our users don't know LISP and 
  typically use only features of the machine they can access from within
  our applications.   One exception to this has been the File System Editor.
  Most of our experienced Lisp developers use DIRED but everyone else uses
  FSEDIT to manipulate files.  Redefining a mouse click from an operation
  that was non-destructive to something that is very destructive should
  NEVER have been done.  I agree that FSEDIT is slightly more useful to experienced
  developers but this could have been done much better by using CONTROL-
  MOUSE-MIDDLE or META-MOUSE-MIDDLE for this operation instead.  The extra
  usefullness is nullified by the verification menu prompt anyway.  Closing
  directories, an operation that is done MUCH more frequently at our site than 
  DELETE-FILE, is now much more difficult than it was.)  To close a directory
  under the new command set, you must find the root directory that was open 
  and MOUSE-LEFT.  Previously, any MOUSE-MIDDLE from any file in an open directory 
  collapsed the directory.  Now that OPEN and CLOSE are multiplexed onto
  a single key, you must wander up the screen to find the actual directory 
  that was opened (it may have scrolled off the screen) and close only that 
  directory. 

  Having this type of operation Enabled or Disabled by different users (via setting
  a variable in their init-file) is very dangerous.  We've tried setting various
  users init files and logout-lists so the value is NIL for novice users and T for
  experienced users, but all it takes is one person to forget to login or logout to
  screw things up.  User training is also much more difficult when common key
  clicks while in standard system utilities do different things for different
  people.  I'd vote strongly for having Symbolics change the way this in done
  in Release 8.1 to go back to the old way and move the delete operation to
  something like META-MOUSE-MIDDLE.  If this is done, the "are you sure you
  really want to delete this file" verification menu could be optionally disabled
  (perhaps via a SETQable variable) so that experienced users could delete files
  quickly yet be assured that novice users don't screw up files.

                                                         Jim Dumoulin
                                                         NASA / Kennedy Space Center