This is the oddest thing I've seen in any text editor in the three OSes I've used since buying my first home computer in 1993.
Short version: "where's the switch?"
the xed GUI (version 1.0.6) appears to have no Option to keep it from creating backups (~-marked files) if a text or ASCII file is let open for 5 minutes or more, or edited without saving for about that long. Neither Pluma, gedit or kate/kwrite (which I also use, though far less frequently) do this, and I know gedit and the two KDE editors at least have an Option to prevent it from happening.
I like the idea of backups in word-processors, but as I only script (and don't code; I make an 'old-school' distinction there), I see no reason for them in other types of writing or editing. When writing scripts I much prefer Geany, mainly for its color scheme in shell scripts. In xed etc, I normally write the lists and what-have-you my scripts use as input.
Any Google hit I've followed that describes this option, ie enableBackups, doesn't explain as to where to write it. Is it necessary, as with wget or curl, to create a config file the app will read as it launches? Will it, in version 1.0.6, see such a file as valid?
I should probably post these questions to the appropriate forum on github, but I've honestly not been able to find the "front door" of any of those, even Google-ing for them.
wrong