"Save All" needs a soft barrier to prevent accidental use

[altenbach]

As briefly outlined here already, The "File...Save All" menu entry is currently very dangerous and can lead to unintentional damages that are difficult to repair.

The "Save All" entry is very close to the "Save As ..." entry which looks similar, but is used if we don't want to overwrite any existing VI, i.e. exactly the opposite functionality! A small inaccuracy of the mouse can easily select one for the other, with potentially damaging results.

If you don't believe me, create a new VI and place e.g. exponential fit on the block diagram. Double-click the subVI for editing and move one of the terminals by a few pixels. Now go to the toplevel VI and select "file...save All". Notice that the system VI has been re-saved without warning with the changes you just made. If the changes would have been more serious, the entire LabVIEW installation would be corrupted, because it now contains a subVI with altered or broken functionality.

• "save all" is not used very often, so a confirmation dialog would probably be OK.
• "save all" should exclude everything in vi.lib unless specifically told not to.

Here's how the suggested default confirmation dialog could look like.

Idea Summary: The "Save All" menu item should be renamed to "Save All..." and should open a confirmation dialog before the final action is carried out. 

[CMal]

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altenbach wrote:

• "save all" is not used very often, so a confirmation dialog would probably be OK..

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I actually use save all very frequently by using the ctrl-shift-s shortcut.  Inserting a confirmation dialog whenever I do this would be a major annoyance.  I would be fine with the option of popping up a dialog if LabVIEW is about to save anything in vi.lib.  In fact, it might be good to have this for any files under the LabVIEW folder.

[altenbach]

> I would be fine with the option of popping up a dialog if LabVIEW is about to save anything in vi.lib.  In fact, it might be good to have this for any files under the LabVIEW folder.

I agree, this is needed even if this idea is rejected.

Of course the dialog could show up the first time, with a option to not show it anymore unless vi.lib VIs have been modified.

[Hooovahh]

I also use Save All regularly but I do so from the Project Explorer.  Should that too have a confirmation or not?

[Darin.K]

Save All (this project) = awesome [even though it still says project when using a library or class]

On the other hand I use Save All about as often as I tile windows which means ideally never but sometimes the finger or mouse slips.

Why such awesomeness is parked dangerously close to such annoyance is beyond me.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

As a LV R&D member, this is totallly doable.

As a LV user, I don't like this idea.

> "save all" is not used very often, so a confirmation dialog would probably be OK.

I almost never use "Save". I *only* use Save All. It keeps all my VIs in sync with libraries and typedefs. If I want to fork a VI, I use Save As before I start making any edits. If it is a temporary change for testing, I still save it, I use the diagram disable structure to keep the original code and a note next to it that gets caught when I try to check changes into source code control. Why do I save it? Because I close windows very frequently.

> The "Save All" entry is very close to the "Save As ..."

And one small slip of the mouse the other direction hits "Save", which has the same effect. Do we need a dialog box for Save also?

> "save all" should exclude everything in vi.lib unless specifically told not to.

I wouldn't like this, but I admit I'm a special case. 🙂 About the only time I program in G is when I'm modifying *something* in vi.lib. I'd be ok with a dialog box that only appeared if the VI you were about to save was in vi.lib (regardless of whether you used Save or Save All) -- I'd have a config token to eliminate it. But a general dialog box that appeared all the time? No thanks.

[altenbach]

Valid points...

> And one small slip of the mouse the other direction hits "Save", which has the same effect. Do we need a dialog box for Save also?

I am talking mostly about the scenario where we hit "save all" in a different VI, e.g. the toplevel one we actually want to save in the described scenario. We get no notification that a system VI that we maybe tried to debug a few days ago, hidden 20 windows below with temporary changes is also saved.

[crossrulz]

I fully agree that we should not be able to save VIs inside of the LabVIEW folder (yes, I want to include user.lib and instr.lib in there for not being able to save).  A simple fix right now would be for NI to set all of the VIs shipped with LabVIEW to "locked".  That would still allow us to look at code, but prevent us from accidentally changing something.

[ToeCutter]

Don't support this as I also use 'save all' regularly. Why not add the dialogue as an option, disabled by default, then verybody wins.

I like the idea of a dialogue warning if you try to write to the LV libraries.

[bmihura]

I'll cast my vote for the optional dialog box.

[LordNobady]

The problem in this Idée is a real one. The main problem in my opinion is that you can to easy save a system VI.
This still should be possibly but not without warning. 
The topic is good. Only I don't like the proposed solution to much.