Simplify load/save/file icons and metaphor

[Esshahn]

As you already mentioned, I agree that this might be a bit of an overkill. What comes to mind first:

• what is a workspace (and how is it different from loading/saving a file? And why should the user know/bother?)
• why is loading a workspace a folder, but saving a floppy?

Ideally, there's

• load
• save

where load smartly identifies the file format (Marq, Petmate etc.) and asks if you want to merge the data with the current data (if there's any) and save asks you for the desired export format.

(I know I'm greedy here :) )

[nurpax]

So in a lot of editors (ST3, visual studio), video editing SW, etc there's a concept of a workspace or a project. The idea is that this is the native save format for an app. I.e., whatever state you have that you want to persist, will be saved into this file.

Then these apps separately include an export option which is to save a copy of the edited data but into some non-native format (examples: quicktime export to different formats, export a .png copy from a .psd file in Photoshop, Word export to pdf).

The idea is that export (and import too, sort of) will be lossy. Some data can be thrown away when you load that file back into the editor. In my case, I may be saving some extra data like screen order (when I add dragging support for ordering them), maybe a set of brushes the user has defined, etc etc.

So I need some format that's native to Petmate. I now call them "workspaces" or just .petmate files.

Right now the menu "Open/Save" will save a .petmate file and these are what I call "workspaces". Maybe I should just rename the tooltips in the save/load icons to "Save/Load .petmate"?

[nurpax]

Closing this. Hopefully my explanation makes sense and the UI with app menus also make the save vs. export distinction more clear.