[GNC] How to revert to previous input mode?

[Vincent Dawans]

Pierre:

Your description and Gyle's pointed answer are quite eye-opening to me.
Possibly there is a confusion with some users as to how the new
autocomplete list works vs the old way where the autocomplete was added at
the level of the cursor.

Just as it was before, the list opening in the new way doesn't mean you
have to interact with it, just as the autocompletion in the old way didn't
mean you had to interact with it. If the autocomplete is "wrong", simply
ignore it and keep typing; as Gyle says you are not expected to do anything
in the list. In that sense the new way should be better because at least
what you type in the text box is physically separated from the automatch in
the list. Keep typing and as soon you see the correct entry selected in the
list press tab, just as it was before.

Now it is true that there are differences with the old way in what is
matched first, and that created a lot of headaches in the earlier 5.x
versions because some very old transactions would match first, hence the
first match was often not really useful. But version 5.3 really reduced
that vs earlier 5.x versions. You might at times still find that the new
autocomplete picks the wrong match for your use case after one or two
characters, but then most likely it's the right match for other users and
the old one gave the wrong match for them. So that's just a matter of
tweaking what matches first, and it's impossible to get it right 100% of
the time for all users. But surely it cannot be wrong 100% of the time
either with the latest tweaks. More tweaking could still be done there, but
it requires users to give specific examples of why they think a match was
wrong so we can learn from these wrong matches.

In that regard the new way at least has one advantage over the old one. If
I recall correctly, the old one gave you only one main match and you had to
keep typing until the correct match would show up (I can't recall if you
could use up/down arrows or not). With the new autocomplete list, you can
also **if you want** take a shortcut and select another entry in the list
with either the keyboard (up or down arrow) or mouse (click). I insist on
**if you want**; it's a shortcut if it's useful to you, you don't have to
use it. You can also keep typing until the match you want is highlighted,
as in the old way.

Finally there is the matter of CANCELLING the final match, meaning wanting
to enter something new that is not existing, yet a wrong match still occurs
when you are done typing. Just pressing tab in that case will match
whatever is highlighted, so that's no good. This was already the case in
the old way, although less often since the match was LESS permissive. In
the old interface, the way to get out of a match with the keyboard was to
press BACKSPACE before tabbing out. In the new interface, you have more
ways to achieve that. With keyboard only, you can press ESCAPE before
tabbing out or you can select (up arrow) "Do not autocomplete" in the list;
with mouse you can still click out or select "Do not autocomplete" in the
list. The first way with ESCAPE is just as fast as it was before, just a
different keyboard press.

Bottom line is that YES this explanation should go in the FAQ or wiki or
doc, etc. I'll try to possibly make a wiki page showing how to work with
autocomplete. More documentation is always nice and it would be nice if
more users would be willing to help with that.

Sincerely,

Vincent Dawans





On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 9:33 AM Gyle McCollam <gmccollam at live.com> wrote:

> Pierre,
> you stated you have to:
> new method:
>  +|-. TAB, TAB, p(long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
>  up-arrow, ENTER, pr(still long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
>  up-arrow, ENTER, pre(still long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
> arrows or mouse actions once enough characters have been entered to
> reduce the list where last month's transaction is now visible, etc...
>
> I don't understand why you need to up arrow after each character.  You can
> type "p", then "r", then "e" just like you used to do. You can type as many
> letters as you need without selecting "Don't Autocomplete" which is what
> you seem to be saying.
>
>
>
> Thank You,
>
> Gyle McCollam
>
> Gyle McCollam
>
> gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email
>
> ________________________________
> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on
> behalf of Pierre Fortin <pf at pfortin.com>
> Sent: Saturday, July 1, 2023 12:11 PM
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to revert to previous input mode?
>
> On Sat, 1 Jul 2023 11:40:38 -0400 Pierre Fortin wrote:
>
> resetting this thread to restate since GNC was updated from 5.1 to 5.3 a
> few days ago....
>
> >GnuCash 5.3
> >Build ID: 5.3+(2023-06-26)
>
> >>Operating System: Mageia 9
> >>KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5
> >>KDE Frameworks Version: 5.105.0
> >>Qt Version: 5.15.7
> >>Kernel Version: 6.3.9-server-2.mga9 (64-bit)
> >>Graphics Platform: X11
> >>Processors: 20 × 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-12700K
> >>Memory: 125.5 GiB of RAM
> >>Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT
> >>Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
> >>Product Name: XPS 8950
>
>
> >>>There's been a whole lot of turmoil and change in this area over the
> last few months, the upshot of which is that autofill has changed a lot
> between 5.2 and 5.3. 5.4, which should be releasing soon (to fix another
> serious bug) might address your concerns.
> >>>⁣
> >>>David T.​
>
> I really don't like the new input mechanism.  It results is much extra
> interaction:
>
> old method to enter a monthly recurring transaction:
>  +|- to change date, TAB, TAB, p[revious tansaction], TAB, ENTER (done)
>
> new method:
>  +|-. TAB, TAB, p(long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
>  up-arrow, ENTER, pr(still long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
>  up-arrow, ENTER, pre(still long list with "Don't Autocomplete" at top,
> arrows or mouse actions once enough characters have been entered to
> reduce the list where last month's transaction is now visible, etc...
>
> With LOTS of one-of entries since 2006, the new method is less than
> friendly.  I can appreciate that it may work for some [new] GNC users; but
> the original method is much better/faster for long term users users with a
> huge history of entries.  Besides, typical use is to process mostly the
> same transactions month to month where the old method excelled...
>
> Given an option, I would select the old method as it was MUCH faster.
>
> Thanks,
> Pierre
>
> >>>On Jul 1, 2023, 16:33, at 16:33, Pierre Fortin <pf at pfortin.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>>Having used gnucash for many years, I've been quite happy with all my
> >>>>built-in history where most new entries could be done in a minimum of
> >>>>keystrokes.
> >>>>
> >>>>The new interface where it offers all(?) the possible choices is
> >>>>driving
> >>>>my nuts.  This change has slowed down data and entry wasting time...
> >>>> In my late 70s; this matters!
> >>>>
> >>>>This morning, trying to enter "Pens", it insists on picking "Camper
> >>>>expenses" unless I grab the mouse and click where TAB was all I
> >>>> needed.
> >>>>  ^^^^
> >>>>
> >>>>Is there a way to revert back to the previous interface?  This should
> >>>>be
> >>>>a choice in settings.  Maybe it's there; but I haven't found it...
> >>>>
> >>>>Thanks for an otherwise great program,
> >>>>Pierre
>
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