I don't get the the handling of checkouts

[JEP]

There are some things about checkouts that really mess up our programmers. I do understand what a checkout is (though it's not a big part of our workflow, since each programmer tends to have their own branch for a task). Say I have two files. I checkout both ScriptA.cs and ScriptB.cs. Then I change ScriptA.cs. The pending changes display in plastic is:

ScriptA     Checked-out
ScriptB     Checked-out

It is baffling to me why you can't easily tell which script has actually been changed. It seems like the display should be:

ScriptA     Changed
ScriptB     Checked-out

or

ScriptA     Changed / Checked-out
ScriptB     Checked-out
 

This is much more useful. Why not show it this way?

And that "Show checkouts" option in the first tab is very confusing. It explains that checkouts are shown always because they're just on a list. I expect that unchecking the "Show checkouts" will removed unchanged checkouts from the pending changes. But no, it removes all checkouts, whether they are changed or not. I can't even fathom when that's useful. I'd rather be able to have it just show me what's changed that's actually changed when I'm looking at pending changes.

This kind of thing frustrates us to no end, and I have to tell our new hires "I know it's weird. That's just how Plastic does it."

[Héber]

Hi,
 

It is baffling to me why you can't easily tell which script has actually been changed. It seems like the display should be:

ScriptA     Changed
ScriptB     Checked-out

The thing with this is that a changed file and a checked-out file are different things. 
A changed file is detected by the system and will only appear there if the changes were done locally.
A checked-out file notifies the server that it is meant to be changed. That's why the status cannot change from checked-out to changed.
 

ScriptA     Changed / Checked-out
ScriptB     Checked-out

For this other option, I can only agree with you. It could prove helpful and I'll share it with the team.

Regarding the "show checkouts" option, I go back to the first part of the answer. You are notifying the server that those files are going to be changed, and if you have lock rules configured, that's how you lock them. So it could prove useful to see which files you have locked and which ones you don't.

Best,
Héber.

 

[JEP]

I get that. But whether a file has actually been changed is an incredibly important part of version control (and a programmer's sanity). Thus masking that information is terrible.

The other problem is that no one on our team actually uses the Check out feature. Plastic just decides to check out files for us on its whims. If there is some way to tell it never to do that, I'd love it.

[Héber]

Hi,
 

Got it, I'll share it with the team.

Regarding Plastic checking it out automatically, by default, PLastic can't do that. If you are using a plugin, it is probably the plugin the one checking it out. Another option would be if you are running a merge or an incoming changes operation. In those scenarios, Plastic does check the file put.

Best,

Héber.

[JEP]

We stopped using the plugin long ago. Part of the problem being that it would checkout prefabs/scenes. So plastic must be doing it automatically on merges. I would love to turn that off, because it's a flow we don't use and just causes problems.