Re: Default Directories for filetypes when saving

[Tim X]

flebber <flebber.crue@gmail.com> writes:

> On Jul 3, 8:50 pm, Hadron <hadronqu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> "Sayth Renshaw" <flebber.c...@gmail.com> writes:
>> > This is probably a very basic question, but can I put anything in my 
>> > .emacs to specify that when I save a file, say *.html that it would save 
>> > to ~/html by default and *.py to
>> > ~/python and so forth for various filetypes or that *.css could also to 
>> > ~/html.
>>
>> > Just trying to keep things a little tidier, since I am not the worlds 
>> > tidiest as it is.
>>
>> That really would not make things tidier.... all HTML files do not
>> belong together. Emacs is already clever enough IMO. It assumes "current
>> directory" - where current directory is last file location.
>
> I guess, but it just leaves me with a montage of files in my home
> directory. I guess I can just specify the directory or create a new
> directory when I open or create a new file.....
>

I have to agree with the other reply, your idea is flawed because you can't
just stick all files of the same type/extension together. For example, you may
want to setup a web site which consists of .html, .gif, .pdf, .css, etc.
Likewise, packages often (us8ually) consist of various filetypes, code,
documentation in various formats etc. 

There is no automatic or reliable method for keeping your data well organised.
Maybe, when the natural language understanding problem is solved, you will be
able to get something that can really help, but until then its down to you to
develop a technique and the discipline to apply it yourself. 

There are a few techniques that many people find useful. Of course everyone's
milage differs. Appropriate use of directories, symbolic links and the '.'
files can really help. I've also written a couple of simple 'filing' scripts
that will put files in specific places. for example, I have an install-doc.sh
script that stores a document based ono arguments passed on the command line.
It also creates symbolic links to a 'toRead' directory that contains links to
all the stuff I want to read (someday!). It also can create text only versions
so taht I can easily access the contents from within emacs and so that I can
index the material for my search engine etc. 

I do the following -

I avoid putting stuff in my home directory. My home directory is the 'root' of
my personal data tree, which has key branches for specific purposes (cvs, docs,
downloads, projects, etc). 

Any file in my home directory which is not a cnfiguration file is something
I've yet to 'file' in a more appropriate place. I try to go through this stuff
once a week.

I structure my directory tree into two or more branches based on backup
requirements. For example, really important data is in a tree that is managed
by subversion (version control) and which is incrementally backed up every
night with a full backup one per week and backups on a 3 month rotation. 

Less critical data is incrementally backed up once a week with a full backup
once per month on a 6 month rotation.

low critical data is in another branch that is backed up every two months and
on a 12 month rotation. 

Backups are done to disk and then to tape on a different server. 

However, all of this only works if I follow some basic rules and apply a bit of
discipline. computers can help, but they are only dumb tools that are good at
sorting, searching and a bit of basic math.

Tim 

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au