Re: [Tb] Fundamental usability issues & bugs

From: Lee Phillips <lee__AT__lee-phillips.org>
Date: Tue Dec 20 2005 - 17:34:02 EST

> symptoms that Lee describes, while frustrating, don't seem buggy-- if
> the *file* has no Text Export Template set, then when you get into
> the Text Export / Nakakoji View, the notes don't have a template set.

OK, unless they were set as attributes of the individual notes, no?

> Another way to explain this: Tinderbox notes inherit their
> attributes, including their export template choices, in this order:
>
> Tinderbox Preferences (in the Edit Menu)
> Document Preferences (in the Edit Menu)
> Prototype note
> Note
>
> If any one of those doesn't have a value, it looks to the line above
> it. While that makes sense for attributes you make or assign,
> there's a piece missing in this discussion: those top two items, the
> Preferences, will have a value that is more like this:
>
> /MyHardDrive/Users/Documents/My_Tinderbox_Stuff/My_Thesis/textexport.txt
>
> while the bottom two items, the notes, will have values that look like this:
>
> anothertextexport.txt

No, they have values that look like this:

myvolume:Applications:Tinderbox2.2.0:Sample templates:Text export templates:text export with headers

In other words, the full path in the old-fashioned, pre-unix Mac format,
non-portable between machines (but that's a side issue here). I just copied this attribute from one of my notes.

> Basically, Tinderbox uses the file's default text and HTML exports as
> the 'root' file when it notes the other templates to use. Which
> means that if you don't have a default export template set, then it
> doesn't matter that in the dialog to choose a template, you
> effectively tell Tinderbox "use the file called myexporttemplate.txt
> in the same folder as my default template." Because there is no
> 'same folder'.

I think this is wrong, but I might not be understanding you correctly.
In the text export view you click the button to pick an export template
and get a file chooser dialog; you don't just type in a string. The
file chooser dialog lets you _choose a particular file_: this is not
relative to any predefined path. The bug that Andy Dent described and
that I verified is that after you choose the template and hit the
update button, nothing happens.

> That said, the UI is a bit awkward for that window. It would be nice
> for the window to default to "selected notes only" rather than "all
> notes" to avoid the slowness that Lee describes.

I think this would be a good change, you're right.

> I'm curious what the shell/mutt solution you're thinking of is... is
> it tab-completion?

Context-sensitive tab-completion combined with editable history,
that's about it.

> OS X gives Tinderbox that sort of functionality
> in the drop-down menus... pull up the menu, type a few letters and
> the nearest item to what you typed is highlighted. You can then use
> the arrow keys to move up and down the list.

Nice - I tried it with the key attribute selector and it works as
you describe. But it doesn't work with the attribute window.

>. Are user attributes at the top of the
> list (KAtts in the margin), at the bottom of the list (KAtts in the
> CreateNote) or in their own menu (Atts in the Attributes
> palette/window)?

I just looked at this and in the CreateNote I see the user Attributes
at the top of the list.
Received on Tue Dec 20 17:54:39 2005

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Thu Jan 05 2006 - 13:10:47 EST