[Adium-devl] Push/Pop (was Re: New wikipage needs input from everyone)

[Chris Forsythe]

On Sep 16, 2007, at 3:17 PM, Eric Richie wrote:

>
>
>
> On 9/16/07 2:52 PM, "Chris Forsythe" <chris at adiumx.com> wrote:
>
>> It's a buffer system, unique to Adium. We just don't advertise it
>> very well (we should).
>>
>> Say you are typing all lyrics to a song by Genesis to someone so that
>> they can guess the lyrics. All of the sudden they ask a stupid
>> question like "who is genesis?". OMG! I must answer this, AT ONCE!
>> But then, I'd have to copy my entire Genesis lyrics out to text edit,
>> and then type the answer, and then copy back from text edit.
>>
>
> Isn't this exactly the same thing I currently do with cmd-a, cmd-x,  
> type
> answer, hit return, cmd-v, and then continue typing the previous  
> thing?
>

You don't have to switch over to another app to use it. Which is  
damned annoying when you are in the middle of typing something huge.  
I used to forget my train of thought when typing paragraph long  
responses and then having to reply to a simple question when I used  
the behavior you are comparing this to, when I use push/pop it's much  
simpler.

I also don't have to go searching for say, textedit, hope it keeps my  
formatting, and hope to god I can remember where I was at with what I  
was typing. I just see the whole process you describe as the biggest  
hassle in the world that I have to deal with at work, on windows,  
every single day. Whereas push/pop are very simple. :)

The main problem this addresses is convenience. The fact that it's  
been in Adium forever and you haven't (at least, I think) even seen  
it or heard of it, except recently means that it's not broken in a  
long time, but that users just haven't discovered it.

> I'm going to assume that the terms "push" and "pop" are derived  
> from the act
> of adding something to or retrieving from a stack.

That's correct.

> I dunno, maybe I'm just
> set in my ways but this doesn't seem all that useful based on just  
> this.

It's one of those things that you have to try a few times for it to  
start becoming useful to you. Then it just becomes prolific. Sorta  
like Growl. :)

> I'm not sure why I'd need a stack of input pre-queued for later  
> recall.

The use case I ran through earlier is the biggest one, but I'm sure  
there are others. Hiding what you are typing quickly from a boss/ 
coworker/girlfriend might be another reason.

> Especially if it truly is a stack and you can only access the most  
> recently
> added (top) element.  It just sounds like a very limited multi-item
> clipboard.  Maybe I'm missing something?
>

That's about the gist of it. Just in this context it is very nice.  
It's also adium-only, which is pretty neat.


>
> P.S. I'm sorry if I sound overly cynical about a feature that was so
> "beloved?"...
>

No worries, it's better to question things than just go with the flow.