The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - In retrospect, I should have known.

In retrospect, I should have known.

It should have been obvious to me when I discovered that the program wasn't smart enough to delete an open outline. It ought to be simple enough, if you say you want to delete an open outline, to close it and then delete it. The crappy way this was handled ("Are you sure? OK. Oh, wait, you have to close it first.") should have been a warning.

But no, I went and typed pages of stuff into Natara's Bonsai outliner program on my Visor. Now it's all gone.

It's a remarkably simple bug to reproduce. You create a Bonsai outline on the desktop. Then you realize that you don't get the same options as when you create it on the PDA. So you delete it, and choose the "delete from desktop and handheld" option. Then, a few moments later, you create an outline with the same name on the PDA. Now granted, you did say to delete an outline by that name from the PDA, but you _assume_ that the program is intelligent enough to know that it should look at creation dates and times, not just names, to know how to sync files.

Ha ha ha! Nope. You sync, after putting all that info in, and Bonsai proceeds to delete your outline off the PDA, just like it said it would. Oh, it also tries to back up your PDA outline at the end of the Hotsync...but whaddaya know, it can't seem to find it.

I am very pissed off right now. I can understand redraw bugs and crashes, but I really cannot understand an application that treats user data with such contempt.

Memo to self: Next time an application feels half-assed, assume that it is, and DON'T USE IT FOR ANYTHING IMPORTANT.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to dig my things-to-do notes back out of the trash can. (Thank God I hadn't been to the dumpster yet.)

Kyralessa
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

You do know how bonsai trees are made, don't you?

There's your answer - it's named appropriately.

Philo

Philo
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

In retrospect, you shouldn't have told it to delete a file from the handheld when the file wasn't on the handheld at the time.

Sarcastic Bastard
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Actually, since I'd just created the outline on the desktop in that same session and hadn't synced, the program should have been smart enough to know that "delete on both" didn't make sense, and so it shouldn't have offered the option.

Having dug up those little slips of paper, now I've got everything in To Do's instead. Stability wins out over flashiness.

Kyralessa
Thursday, May 20, 2004