Saving

This page describes what the IDE does when a save cannot write, what it keeps of your work outside the project’s file, and what it does not keep. Saving and exporting describes the commands.

A save that fails

When the compiler cannot write the project file, the IDE shows an alert, a plain dialog with one OK button. It reads:

save project failed, result code 2, GetLastErr: ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED

Check that the file path is accessible and writable, and that you have the necessary permissions to write to it.

The result code and the Windows error change with the cause:

Cause The alert gives
The file is read-only, for Save or for Save As over it ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED
Another program holds the file open with no sharing ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION
Save As into a folder that does not exist ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND
The disk is full ERROR_DISK_FULL
Any other error its number

The alert is the only sign. The IDE writes no line to the DEBUG CONSOLE, and shows no other box. The project stays open and stays marked as changed, with its dot in the title bar, and the file on disk is as it was. Nothing is lost. Choose OK, remove the cause (clear the read-only flag, close the other program, make the folder or free space), and save again. If you cannot, use File → Save Project As… with a path that works.

The same alert comes from Save Project As and from the saves that other commands make. Other commands that save lists them.

A failed Close

Note BETA 1034

When you choose Save in the question that Close Project asks, and the save fails, the alert opens and the close is dropped. The project stays open and changed. Fix the cause, and choose Close Project again. The same holds for Exit and for the close box of the window.

A failed Save As

Note BETA 1034

A Save Project As whose save fails still makes the new path the project’s path. After the alert, the title bar names the new file, which does not exist, and a plain Save goes to that path. While the folder is missing, Save fails again; once the folder exists, Save writes the project there and leaves the original file as it was. To save to the original again, use Save Project As… with its path. Check the title bar after any alert about a save.

When the compiler does not answer

A save that gets no answer from the compiler ends in a time-out box instead of the alert, after 10 or after 20 seconds. When the compiler does not answer lists the boxes.

No autosave and no recovery

The IDE does not save by itself, and it keeps no backup of your edits and no recovery file. If the IDE ends, whether by a crash, by a power failure or because you ended it in the Task Manager, the edits since your last save are gone. The IDE offers nothing when you open the project again. Save often says it for the editor.

These protect your work:

  • The question that Close Project, Exit and the window’s close box ask when the project has changes: You’ve made changes to this project. Save now?
  • Restart the compiler, which starts from the IDE’s memory and keeps unsaved edits. See What a restart keeps and loses.
  • Safe Mode, which lets you read and edit the project’s files and save them when the compiler’s services are not working. See Safe Mode.

When the compiler will not come back, the editors stay open. Copy the text you need into another program before you end the IDE. A linked package’s missing file describes the one way into the editors when the IDE is stuck on Please wait….

A project’s state, and where it lives

Apart from its files, the IDE remembers how you left the project: the open editors with their carets and folds, the selected tab, the bookmarks, the watches, the history of the console and of the find boxes, and the layout of some panels. This is the project’s state. The IDE saves it every five seconds, and not with the project. For a project that has a file, it is a value in the registry, one for each project path, under ProjectState beside the IDE’s settings. Where the IDE keeps its settings lists the keys.

  • Delete the project’s value, and the project opens with no tabs, no bookmarks and the caret at the first line. The project itself is not touched.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M writes the state into the project too. The floating message says Saved project meta state to file. A hidden entry, .meta, joins the project’s root. The Project Explorer does not draw it, and the project becomes changed. After the next save, the .meta entry is in the .twinproj file, and a project that opens with no state in the registry, for example on another PC, gets its tabs, bookmark and caret from it. The command is on no menu.
  • A project with no file has no value in the registry, and its state is kept in the project as .meta.
  • .meta does not survive the Import / Export tool: the export leaves it out, so a project that is exported and packed again loses it.

See Also