Create file if it doesn't exist on save

[vv9k]

This PR fixes a crash on startup when the document that should be opened doesn't exist. For now the file will be created at launch, and will exist even if the user doesn't save it.

Closes: #25

[sellerie98]

My personal opinion would be that it's better to create it as soon as the user saves the file instead.

[vv9k]

I do agree, perhaps I submitted it too fast. I'll try to come up with a solution that will first create a buffer and later, if the user wishes to do so, it will save the file (just like any other sane editor behaves).

[vv9k]

I updated the code, now it will first create an empty buffer and if the user writes to the file it will create it.

[pickfire]

Title should be updated to create file if it does not exists on save, another behavior I would like is to create the parent directories if they don't exists. I wish neovim have this, or maybe if that's too intrusive, maybe we can prompt.

[vv9k]

Do agree on the title, but I think creating parent directories seems a bit too intrusive. Perhaps in the future there could some sort of a prompt asking user if the parent directories should be created with y/n choice.

[vv9k]

All done, tested and it works as expected on absolute, and not absolute paths.

[archseer]

What happens if the intermediate path doesn't exist? I'm not sure if :write shows a warning for that.

i.e.

hx does/not/exist/file.txt

[vv9k]

It returns an error, but at the moment write errors seem to be silently ignored.

[pickfire]

Why \n but not new rope?

[archseer]

The document sort of expects at least one trailing new line or things break -- that's why pressing d in a new buffer makes the line number vanish.

[archseer]

Hmm, we probably want to address that: You should check if path.parent() exists and return early here with the error.

helix/helix-view/src/document.rs

Line 189 in 3071339

let path = self.path.clone().expect("Can't save with no path set!"); // TODO: handle no path

Places that use save can then use set_error: editor.set_error(format!("invalid filepath: {}", err));

[vv9k]

Sorry for the delay, I've been on vacation for a bit.

Hmm, we probably want to address that: You should check if path.parent() exists and return early here with the error.

That is correct, done. I also don't think we should error out in Document::set_path when the parent directory doesn't exist. This way someone can still open the buffer and potentially see the error only on write.

Places that use save can then use set_error: editor.set_error(format!("invalid filepath: {}", err));

Currently Document::save is spawned as a tokio task and I couldn't easily figure out how to later set the error after the tasks finishes.

[pickfire]

Currently Document::save is spawned as a tokio task and I couldn't easily figure out how to later set the error after the tasks finishes.

Yeah, there are no error on this when it failed to save, like if there are a directory. I don't think we can pass editor in to save. We could probably solve this in another pull request. We could do like a channel to show status and have a thread or task to manage that.

[pickfire]

Wait, doesn't this already create the file? Currently it already does that.

[vv9k]

It does create the file, that’s correct

[vv9k]

I’m not sure what you’re getting at, could you explain the question further?

[vv9k]

I’m also thinking there should probably be an explicit error type so it can later be handled for example to show the prompt asking the user if the directories should be created.

[pickfire]

Okay, I guess I will merge this since current it fails when the file doesn't exists.

[archseer]

Thanks! 🎉