Re: [WWdevel] WeBWorK 2.2 prerelease, code freeze in a branch?

[Davide P. C. <dp...@un...>]

> I've been changing on the PGeditor incrementally during this last  
> semester (and also trying to use it to write and fix the problems I  
> use so I get the full experience) but I still think there is a lot  
> work to do.  Part of my plan has been to bring the action buttons  
> on that page in line with the style used on the "Hmwk sets editor"  
> and "Classlist editor" pages.  I also wanted to make it easier to  
> make a local copy of a library problem, since this has been  
> requested by several users on hosted.

Those are all good ideas, and they help.  But the editor doesn't work  
properly with set headers: sometimes get error pages, can't preview,  
the good and bad error messages are confusing and sometimes  
contradictory (e.g., if you edit the default header file, then save a  
new copy, you still get a a message about editing the default file,  
then a message about a saved file, then another message about a new  
local copy), you can't rename the header file using "Save as", and so  
on.  Things were in better shape for problem files, but I found the  
"Save as" and "Save a copy as" buttons to be named in a way that  
didn't correspond to my intuition of what those names mean.  My  
expectation of "Save as" (from other programs) is that it makes a  
copy of the file, leaving the original unchanged, and starts editing  
the new file, while "Save a copy as" would make a copy of the file  
but continue editing the original.  The effect of "Save as" in the  
new arrangement is to make a new copy, edit it, AND CHANGE THE  
PROBLEM SET to use the new problem.  That last effect was a complete  
surprise to me, and counter to my expectations for save as.  "Save a  
copy as" does what I think "Save as" should do, and "Save as" does  
what I think "Rename" or "Reassign" or some other such name should  
do.  I'm not quite sure what "Make a local copy" is for, if you have  
"Save a copy as", but since it isn't often showing, I didn't worry  
about it too much.

Then there is the issue of opening new windows, which I always found  
terribly confusing, and I think may have been the real source of  
problem for our professors   For example, if you edit a problem then  
view it, you get a new window (fine) and in that window there is  
"Edit this problem", and pressing this gets me an editor in the same  
window.  I now have two edit windows that I think of as being the  
same file, but they aren't.  The new window opened a view of a  
TEMPORARY file, and we are now editing the temporary file as a SECOND  
temporary file.  Saving edits here saves to the first temporary file,  
and at this point I have no way to get those changes into the  
original file.  Granted, the messages are telling me about which file  
I'm actually using, but even after having spent quite some time  
trying to figure out how it works, I still have to think hard when I  
look at the file names to see that I'm doing what I should be.  For  
example, it says I'm editing in a temp file, but I have to realize  
that saving is to the NON-temp file, which is counterintuitive to  
me.  Plus I get spurious messages about the temp file not being found  
(even though the save message is generated).

I have to say I find the whole thing very confusing.  I don't like to  
have several windows open editing different versions, and it is FAR  
to easy to do that.  I would prefer to have one editing window and  
one viewing window, and ALWAYS having editing occur in the edit  
window and always have viewing occur in the other (rather than  
sometimes have a window open, sometimes view in the same window as  
the editor, and never know what is really going to happen, or where  
you are).  I have to say, I understand why the faculty got  
frustrated.  I don't see why you should be allowed to edit the  
temporary file at all; when I view the file and then say edit it, I  
would expect to back to the editing the same file I was viewing, not  
a new copy of that file.

Anyway, that's where I'm coming from with it.

Davide