Re: Sorry, but: Sync Stinks

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006, "Alex Wenzel" wrote:

> Yes, it's me *again*. But probably for the last time now.
>

I'm glad to see that has not happened.

> I'm sorry to say that, but PDesk's hotsync is a piece of completely
> broken crap.

There is no question it needs improvement, I am working on making it work 
with XML rather than binary, but I will also try recompiling the current 
conduit code to see if that makes a difference.

If you can reliably make the conduit mess things up, please send me a 
repeat-by, I have never been able to make it destroy a project when I 
wanted it to.

Just when I really didn't want it to...

>
> I absolutely understand that it's difficult to sync when there are
> changes for the same item on both sides or maybe if an item is moved
> in the tree on one side.
> But you do *not* have to do simultaneous changes or move an item to
> get a duplicate afterwards.
> Every sync easily gave me *tons* of duplicates. Change a task priority
> on on the desktop, and you'll get a duplicate on the next sync.
> Not even perfect duplicates but hard-to-find-out ones. Sometimes it
> lost notes in the syncing process. Or I got a single (progress) task
> with the note, but without the subtasks and another without the note,
> but with the subtasks. But usually, for a task with a note I got a
> second one without the note. Or without the due date. Change the
> description of a task with subtasks, and you get a new single task
> with the new description, and another one with subtasks, but with the
> old description. Actually, it sometimes stubbornly refuses to accept
> changes for tasks with subtasks at all.

If you could document the ways you have found to make it mess up, there is 
a fighting chance we can fix it.

Starting with a reasonably small project, can you document the ways to 
make it mess up?

If it requires a larger project so be it, but I have not been able to 
reliably cause it to mess up.

>
> Please note that the outline was *only* ever changed on the desktop,
> it wasn't edited at all on the handheld.
>
> And then I went "back" to 0.8.5 from Beta 7 to which I downgraded
> before, but it didn't get any better. Add a note to a single task, get
> a duplicate (without note) on the next sync. Delete two duplicates,
> get one back. Try to change the description of a task with subtasks,
> maybe it will sync on the third try. But you'll get an additional one.
> Man, this was meant to be a project with about 100 subtasks. I don't
> think I can stand that.
>

PDesk also seems to have issues, I am working on rewriting it.

In fact, since you seem to know what you want, would you have time to try 
out the new version at some point?

I would like to know how people find the new version, although it is not 
at all ready for prime time yet.

> And you can't even set the sync to overwrite handheld or desktop, like
> with other conduits, which would be sufficient in my case. At this
> state, it would be better to forget the sync of individual items
> altogether and give users a mode to overwrite the files either on the
> desktop or the handheld.

Yes, that is an annoying ommission.

>
> So, before you do *anything* else, please fix the broken sync. What
> else is a desktop "companion" good for than to let you conveniently
> edit the outline and sync to the handheld?
>
> BTW: This is on Windows NT 4 SP6a , but I don't think that that
> matters. And the behaviour of the GUI isn't better than it was on W2k.
>

The OS version AFAIK does not matter, although I have only had it cause 
problems very infrequently. Basically I can't reproduce the problem, and 
therefore it's very hard to fix.

> Oh, and when I opened one of my old 
outlines, I remembered (because 
I > saw it again) that a sync had added due dates to undated tasks (i.e to
> half of my outline) way back then. That was Beta 6, but things don't
> seem to have improved.


Rick

>
> Alex
>
>
>
>


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