[Gmsh] Save options file upon exit automatically?

[Geordie McBain]

2011/8/6 Christophe Geuzaine <cgeuzaine at ulg.ac.be>:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> We should indeed clarify/enhance the "save options" behavior. At the moment we can choose between three "levels" when saving options:
>
> - "session" (gets saved by default in .gmshrc on exit)
> - "option" (can get saved in .gmsh-options on exit, or is saved there manually when choosing "Save Options->As default")
> - "full" (used when explicitly saving the options)
>
> Maybe we could provide a way to save the options for the current file each time we exit? This could make Gmsh be completely "persistent" per model. Or do you have other suggestions?
>
> Let me know what you think.

Personally I'm quite happy with the current behaviour. The new
suggested option sounds O.K. too, though I can't imagine using it
myself, and can see it being annoying if ever activated accidentally.

I think it might be a good idea to keep the standard default option
settings as the default behaviour, because when newcomers are learning
a program they can sometimes get themselves and the state of the
program into a tangle from which the best step is to quit and restart.
 There is the "Restore default options" recourse , but a beginner
mighn't not find that without help, as happened the other day
<http://www.geuz.org/pipermail/gmsh/2011/006588.html>.

I guess considering the worst possibility in each case:

1. If persistence is the default, a clumsy user can get the state in a mess.

2. If tabula rasa is the default, a clumsy user might spend hours
settting all their favourite options and then lose them.

I'm not sure, but I think the second user would be more likely to
recover and find the remedy, since if they've already found how to set
options, they've had a good chance of finding the option which
controls the saving of state.

But Gmsh is already cleverer than this simple dichotomy and realizes
that different answers to it are appropriate to different variables,
and even has three answers rather than two.  This is good.

Anyway (sorry, I know this is already too long), the only concrete
suggestions I'd make are:

* Expand the little paragraph beginning "Appendix B Options"
<http://geuz.org/gmsh/doc/texinfo/gmsh.html#Options>, as currently it
only refers to two possibilities rather than three, e.g. by cutting
and pasting from your e-mail.

* Mention in "3 Running Gmsh on Your System"
<http://geuz.org/gmsh/doc/texinfo/gmsh.html#Running-Gmsh-on-your-system>
that the state is affected by saved options, refer to Appendix B, and
succinctly tell how to get the system back to the pristine state.

Geordie McBain