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> I agree with Microsoft/Google/KDE's order.

I don't. I want string sorting to be string sorting. Filenames are strings.

I wouldn't mind if there was an option to tell the file manager to do this "wrangle numbers out of strings and treat them as numbers" thing--so that I could turn that option off, and others who want that behavior could turn it on.

But for this to be the default, without even a way to change it (except in Dolphin, it looks like)? That seems daft to me.

Btw, I use Trinity Desktop, and I just verified that in TDE's version of Konqueror, the sorting of filenames is the same as for ls on the command line, e.g., 'item-10.txt' comes before 'item-9.txt'. Another good reason for me not to have switched to a more "modern" desktop.

> The author's situation is extremely rare

I don't think it is. But that's really beside the point. The computer is my tool. If it doesn't do what I want or expect it to do, it's a bad tool for me. And designers of tools shouldn't be making assumptions about how I want to use it. They should be giving me ways to tune it to how I want to use it.

> "mind-reading" is really helpful in ways we take for granted, like autosave.

I don't use autosave either. I don't want the computer to assume when I want to save a file. The computer is too stupid to know that.



I generally agree with your points (and love TDE) but

> I don't use autosave either. I don't want the computer to assume when I want to save a file. The computer is too stupid to know that.

That’s why, with auto save systems, you flag/name a version as your canonical save point.

Rather like a video game, I’d rather have the autosaves and not need them, because I generally save the game myself, than not have them at all.

A computer can be helpful and obedient at the same time, when it’s done correctly and puts the user in control.


> with auto save systems, you flag/name a version as your canonical save point.

You mean each saved version is stored separately, like a version control system?

A system like that would be fine (in fact I use version control all the time for this kind of thing). But that's often not how auto save is implemented; the auto save just clobbers the last version you saved. That's the kind I don't use.


I’ve never used an autosave system for general software like that, overwriting the file but keeping no history, before. Which one behaves like that?


How long have you been using computers? Once upon a time, all autosave systems worked like that. That's why they were rarely used.


> How long have you been using computers?

Since the 1990s, and I've never used an autosave system that worked that way.




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