Re: Emacs bug 37890; killing capture buffer

[Adam Porter <adam@alphapapa.net>]

Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> writes:

> Or (really better IMHO) consider a different implementation where the
> original buffer is not modified until the user explicitly confirms the
> stuff to capture with C-c C-c.

That would be helpful in some ways, but harmful in others.  For example,
consider a capture that is started while in a meeting, on a phone call,
away from one's desk, etc., with some notes in it, clock start time,
etc.  (You can find examples of this workflow in, e.g. Bernt Hansen's
Org config.)  If Emacs were interrupted (crash, power failure, reboot,
etc), the un-finalized capture would still be present in the auto-save
file and could be recovered when restarting Emacs and finding the file
again.

But if the original buffer were not modified until the capture is
finalized, where would the unfinalized data be, and how would it be
recovered into the desired capture location?

The way Org uses indirect, narrowed buffers for capturing is an elegant
use of Emacs features that helps protect user data from accidental loss.