SUGGESTION

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
york timothy
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SUGGESTION

Postby york timothy » 27 Jan 2009

Hi Marina,
This has happened to me a couple of times, I neglected to save a new workspace and lost all the work. Please consider having MC automatically save workspaces on closing MC. Perhaps I am the only one who has done this but it would preclude forgetful people like me from losing their work. Thank you for any consideration about this request.

Tim

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 27 Jan 2009

go to File> Preferences...

you will see the option to Save on Exit.

york timothy
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Postby york timothy » 27 Jan 2009

Thank you TJ for the help.

Tim

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Postby brendanh » 28 Jan 2009

MC is poor in this area. It should default to automatically offering to save changed workspaces on exit like TS (and almost every application that modifies data files).

At the moment, you have three options:
1. Always offer to save even if the workspace hasn't changed, which is an unnecessary nag.
2. Never offer to save, just save automatically. Potentially dangerous if you have made a change you don't want to save.
3. Never offer to to save, and never save. Potentially dangerous as could lose work as happened in this case.

None of these are satisfactory. The default state should be to only save a workspace if it has changed. Please match TS and general software design standards.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 28 Jan 2009

Hi brendanh,

We are not planning to change the workspace saving behavior in the nearest future.

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Postby brendanh » 28 Jan 2009

Thanks for taking the time to explain your decision. Are all other software vendors wrong and TSSupport right?

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Postby RobotMan » 28 Jan 2009

Hi brendanh,

A technique that I learned from Jimmy Snowden of the "Omega List" (He was an expert with TS2000i and uses MC now and might even be in this forum), is to save workspaces by name and date, then if you screw something up, just re-open a backup. Also, You might try creating a template and everything is instantly set up the way you like it.

I have set MC to automatically save when I shut down. I really like it.

Hope that helps.

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Postby geizer » 28 Jan 2009

This is not an issue. Once a user created the workspace, they save it. They are the responsible for saving it, not the software (maker).

If I consciously change my workspace, and not saved it, it's my problem. But if the workspace changed by accident, then not being asked to save it, is the right software behavior.

Less pop-ups is a good thing.
Please match ..... general software design standards.
The problem with the general design is that you getting general user experience, which is frustration for majority of computer users today. That creates a burden for tech support, eventually driving Up the cost of software. General design standards can be observed in it's full grace here http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/davi ... sells.html.

General design standards are mediocre at best and becoming increasingly obsolete. An example would be a conventional Blackberry interface compared to interface of the iPhone.

I am not affiliated in any way with TS Support by the way.
Cheers,
Last edited by geizer on 28 Jan 2009, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby brendanh » 28 Jan 2009

Bob, it wasn't me that had the original problem. I'm glad you are happy with the auto save option, however I sometimes make changes to workspaces that I don't want to save.

My suggestion isn't earth shatteringly important, but when you open a workspace to look at a chart, then close it without changing it and are prompted to save your changes, it is an annoying nag that reminds you that MC is an unpolished product.

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Postby brendanh » 28 Jan 2009

geizer, I don't understand your point. Are you saying that the general software design standard to only be prompted to save data files when they have changed is incorrect, and we should be prompted every time?

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Postby geizer » 28 Jan 2009

brendanh,

I do challenge the general design standards in a much broader sense - as a paradigm if you will, which is trying to substitute the user ability to do mental work consciously. General software design standards is the result of inability of software companies to make a tough decision about each and every software detail - once, so their users would not face the same tough choice every day. In this context the Multicharts behavior concerning the subject is right on the money.

Users edit workspace once, and use it 365 days.
When you actively creating/customizing workspaces you choose "Save always". When you're done editing you choose "Never Save". In all other cases you're working with real money and take full responsibility for your actions. Such software behavior forces you to take responsibility for your actions, so your computer no longer controls you. You limited to choices, none of which will take away from you the responsibility for your actions.

Perhaps TS Support could add another option like this:
Always ask all users the same pop-up questions assuming users don't know what they are doing.

All I am just saying is this: if software does not ask questions, it assumes that user in front of the computer knows what they are doing. Nothing else.
geizer, I don't understand your point. Are you saying that the general software design standard to only be prompted to save data files when they have changed is incorrect, and we should be prompted every time?

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Postby TJ » 28 Jan 2009

yawn

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Postby brendanh » 28 Jan 2009

I take your point. I'm not denying there should be an option to disable the prompt completely and rely on experienced users to remember to save if they want. It would be dangerous to make this the default though, as new users may forget and lose their work.

In TS, the default is to only prompt if the workspace has changed. So because I usually CTRL-S before exiting a workspace that I'm developing, I rarely see the prompt anyway and it effectively behaves like the no-prompt option. In MC, if I CTRL-S then immediately exit a workspace, it still prompts to save.

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Postby geizer » 29 Jan 2009

brendanh,

Indeed, prompt to save workspace, if modified would be useful for some users. It's seems that TS Support is overwhelmed with existing bugs to be fixed.
Meanwhile I remain waiting for the MC Gold release. See what they will come up with.

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Marina Pashkova
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Postby Marina Pashkova » 30 Jan 2009

brendanh,

Indeed, prompt to save workspace, if modified would be useful for some users. It's seems that TS Support is overwhelmed with existing bugs to be fixed.
Meanwhile I remain waiting for the MC Gold release. See what they will come up with.
Could you please list the bugs we're overwhelmed with?

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Postby geizer » 30 Jan 2009

Marina,
This was just my humble opinion. I could only list those that I reported myself, but will not reiterate, since they have received enough attention from your tech support team. The thing is, we (the users) don't know, which of the issues previously reported on this forum have been already fixed in your developer's Lab and which have not. And we will not know it until the next release comes out. Besides I am using a Beta version, so that is expected, I would think.


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