Ticket #471 (Fixed)Sat May 25 16:08:00 UTC 2019
User choices for built in apps should be offered and saved consistently
| Reported by: | Bernard Boase (169) | Severity: | Enhancement |
| Part: | Release: | ||
| Milestone: | Status | Fixed |
Details by Bernard Boase (169):
Of the built in ROM apps which have configurable choices:
!Alarm has an icon bar menu item Choices… and they are saved in Choices:Boot.PreDesk.Alarm
!Chars has an icon bar menu item Choices… and they are saved in Choices:Chars.Choices
!Edit does not offer to set or save choices.
!Draw does not offer to set or save choices.
!Paint does not offer to set or save choices.
And for the other main apps that benefit from saved choices:
!ChangeFSI has an icon bar menu item Save choices, and they are saved in Choices:ChangeFSI.Choices
!SciCalc has an icon bar menu item Choices… and they are saved in Choices:SciCalc.Choices
For greater consistency and ease of understanding by new users:
!Edit, !Draw and !Paint should offer to set choices and by default save them in Choices:Edit/Draw/Paint.Choices respectively.
If Alarm differs in that its choices must be set before the desktop starts, then that has to remain an exception. If not, its choices should be saved in Choices:Alarm.Choices (alongside Alarms).
User Guide Appendix B could then be dispensed with, redistributing it into the Application Preferences sections of chapters 24 (Edit), 25 (Draw), 26 (Paint) and, potentially, 27 (Alarm).
A further clarification could come from rationalising the use of the words ‘choices’, ‘configuration’ and ‘preferences’ all of which are, in fact, the same thing.
Changelog:
Modified by Chris Mahoney (1684) Sun, June 02 2019 - 02:12:36 GMT
Alarm is an interesting one. In addition to saving into PreDesk (which is actually an Obey file that sets Alarm$Options), it also saves into Choices:Alarm.
Alarm doesn’t read the Obey directly, but relies on Alarm$Options being set. I suppose you could move the file into Choices:Alarm and then execute it via Alarm’s !Run instead of at boot.
Modified by Chris Mahoney (1684) Mon, June 03 2019 - 01:59:57 GMT
Thinking about it some more, while saving the Obey file into Choices would be a trivial change, it’s not really a Choices file per se. Is there some sort of policy on whether Obey files are “allowed” in Choices?
Modified by Sprow (202) Mon, March 02 2020 - 22:46:29 GMT
Alarm-2_94 now uses plain Choices, not Alarm$Options
Omni-2_31 now uses plain Choices, not Omni$Options
Edit, Paint, Draw still do.
Modified by Sprow (202) Tue, May 12 2020 - 13:09:22 GMT
Draw-1_40 now uses plain Choices, not Draw$Options
Anyone feel inspired to do Edit and Paint?
Modified by Sprow (202) Thu, May 28 2020 - 08:29:28 GMT
- Status changed from Open to Fixed
> Anyone feel inspired to do Edit and Paint?
No takers…oh well, I’ll have a go:
Paint-2_35 now uses plain Choices, not Paint$Options
EditApp-1_74 adds ‘Save choices’ stolen from !SrcEdit
