Simple "undo" function

Any wishes
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mike
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Re: Simple "undo" function

Post by mike » Fri Nov 10, 2017 2:10 am

Hi akust,

I understand your point.
No progress here in current version, maybe I'll get on with undo management in next one, but won't promise anything.

If this feature was crystal clear on how to implement it
- without many architectural hacks, i.e. maintainable
- without loss of generality, i.e. extensible
- without contradictions on myriads of edge-cases, i.e. predictable
- without lots of compromises along the way,
it would have been already written.

akust
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Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 7:44 pm

Re: Simple "undo" function

Post by akust » Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:01 pm

Hi Mike,

Thank you again for your fast and honest reply!

I got and get used to NC more and more every day, great, fast and handy.
Except sometimes my heart freezes for a moment if something happened by accident (e.g. uncontrolled clicks and moves cause by trackpad). I 'feel' something changed but don't see what exactly. What I'd expect I can do: undo - problem un-done, continue after 500ms. In NC case: ..bad luck, just avoid such clumsiness. Now go and investigate yourself what went wrong. Actually I had an honest problem already. Missing Undo makes NC kind of 'unsave'.
Correct me if I'm wrong: isn't that "little" unpleasant undo function part of every app every dev must come through, uncomfortable but a must-do like tax declarations..?

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darek
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Re: Simple "undo" function

Post by darek » Fri Nov 10, 2017 5:50 pm

Undo is like that "classic" theme -- do it now, regret for years later! ;) But seriously, it would be tricky to build and maintain, very difficult to get right (with external tools impossible to achieve 100% undo) and will limit what you can do in the future. This is a feature I definitely wouldn't even attempt at this point. Think of it this way: linux powertools don't come with undo, but Finder does. Is NC's target more of a power user or a casual person?

sasha
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Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 4:59 pm

Re: Simple "undo" function

Post by sasha » Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:33 pm

Feels a bit like we're running in circles with this topic. Are we talking about the same thing here?

Yes, it's hard, in some cases technically impossible to create a bullet-proof undo function, covering all operations NC is capable of. Mike made that clear from dev point-of-view. But this functionality is not requested. NC is not Finder and certainly no database where all operations have to be ACID.

Yes, Linux power tools don't come with undo. But you can't compare a command line tool with a GUI tool. Who needs undo in a shell script?

NC is a macOS GUI application and as such users expect some sort of undo function. It's not my opinion, it's design guidelines and other OFMs like ForkLift 3 support it in one way or another.

What's a reasonable level of undo I would expect of NC? Probably something like undo moving a bunch of files on my local file system when this was the last operation performed (if something else was done after moving, bad luck). Best case, if no other application was meddling with the files, a perfect undo can be done. If some items were changed in the meantime, they are simply excluded from the undo. Just tried it with Finder and ForkLift, this is how they handle it. This would already cover 99% of cases where I would need an undo. I believe, this is also what @akust has in mind, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Sure, one should be able to look up somewhere what is covered by undo in NC (and maybe also what is not).

akust
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Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 7:44 pm

Re: Simple "undo" function

Post by akust » Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:30 am

thank you @sasha, well written and I fully agree with you.

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