request for review and testing: default file name

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Sep 10, 2012, at 12:44 PM, Jef Driesen wrote:

> On 10-09-12 21:18, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
>> Do we see Subsurface as a program that normally is used by people who
>> have a need for more than one dive database?
>> 
>> My assumption has always been that the typical user would track only
>> their own dives and do so in one file - and would be happy if we made
>> this as easy and painfree from them as possible.
>> 
>> Now let's assume that user wants to look at someone else's dives for a
>> change. With the way things are setup now (in my defaultfile branch)
>> this won't work - we are missing the close function to stop using one
>> file and start using another one.
>> 
>> We'd close the current file (and save if necessary). We'd open the new
>> file and mark that as the existing_filename. We'd (hopefully) do the
>> right thing when saving.
>> 
>> All that behavior still makes perfect sense to me.
>> 
>> 
>> What we don't get is the nice "two user" setup that was requested - with
>> multiple files that one could easily switch between.
>> 
>> Is this something that a lot of people will use? I can think of a couple
>> of ways to implement such a multi database scenario; one of them would
>> be the 'recent file' option suggested by a few people here, but I'm not
>> a huge fan of that idea.
>> 
>> I'd rather have the user set up "number of subsurface data files to
>> track" in the preferences, give each file a nickname and then have the
>> option in the file menu to switch between those nicknames...
> 
> I'm in favor of a documents based approach. There are several valid reasons for using multiple files. Multiple divers sharing the same desktop (e.g. my wife dives too), a technical diver may track technical dives and recreational dives separately, an instructor tracking training dives separately from the fun dives, etc.
> 
> How about remember the last X files, instead of just the last file? It's common practice in lots of applications (e.g. gedit, evince, libreoffice, etc) so it should be familiar to users. And it allows easy switching between the most used files.

But different users may have different settings / preferences. Different dive computers. They want to see different columns. In your recreational dives you don't care about OTUs but in your tec dives you do. Etc.

So just using multiple filenames works for gedit or libreoffice, but in subsurface we have additional context that would also have to switch, I think.

/D