[Inquiry]GNUCash SoC - Implementing Undo

[Derek Atkins]

Quoting Jeff Carneal <jeff-ml at carneal.com>:

> Just to address the point of undo'ing an import...
>
> Maybe it is just me, but as a user, I have no expectation whatsoever  
> of being able to undo something as large in scope as an import.  I  
> think that's partly because I'm having trouble coming up with an  
> example of other software that does such a thing (not to say that it  
> does not exist).  Almost every other 'undo' that I use on a regular  
> basis in other software (both commercial and OSS) is with the  
> expectation that it is generally for small, easily identifiable,  
> atomic operations.

And a "File -> Import" would be an "easily identifiable atomic operation".
You did "File -> Import -> xxx" and followed a series of steps and then
clicked "Done" or "Finish" or "Import" and gnucash did some magic.
I don't know how much more atomic you can get from a user's perspective!

> I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the user to save their file 
>  before an import and simply reopen that save in the case that it 
> goes  horribly wrong.  Again, maybe it's just me... as for not tying 
> undo  to an account, I wholeheartedly agree.

It's extremely unreasonable when we finally move to the SQL backend
and there's no way to "not save" after the import because each commit
causes data to get written to disk.  In this case you would WANT an
"undo import"!   If the import pulled in 1000 transactions I dont
want to have to hit "undo" 1000 times to undo the import.

> Jeff

-derek

PS: I've forwarded this back to -devel

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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