Mac Plastic Feature Parity

[Hutch]

Is the overall plan for the Mac Plastic client to support the exact same feature set as the PC client?

 

I am finding it quite frustrating that the two are now quite different - I almost preferred having the old X Windows based Mac client (which had feature parity) to the situation we now have.

 

If feature parity is the goal (and I sincerely hope that it is), can anybody at Plastic say what the schedule is? I'd like to recommend Plastic to some fellow developers (and they are keen to move away from their current VCS) but the current divergence between platforms is stopping me from doing so.

 

Thanks in advance...

 

[rigby44]

I agree.

 

macPlastic is missing loads of features that the windows client has (and the old mac client used to have).

 

Here are a few that I've noticed.

 

1. Missing undo unchanged checkouts.

2. Missing checkin changes to a different (newly created) branch.

3. Missing delete a changeset.

4. Missing git integration.

5. No tree view pending charges.

6. Really annoying thing in branch explorer where right clicking doesn't change the focus of the selected changeset.  So right clicking a changeset and selecting "Create branch from this changeset" creates the branch from the wrong changeset unless you've left clicked that changeset first.

7. In the current version on my mac trying to diff a change gives the error, "Invalid length".

8. CTRL-click doesn't register as a right click (needed because it's the only way to right click on my very old macbook pro and I don't always have a mouse handy).

 

It seems that macPlastic was rushed out with only the very basic functionality.

 

If you could publish a road map saying if and when these features will be added to macPlastic that would be very helpful.

 

Thanks ...

[psantosl]

Hi Hutch,

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Well, here's the thing about the old X11 version: it seems the ones who liked it were much less noisy than the ones who didn't, I'm afraid :-)

 

• It didn't look native -> it was a continuous source of complaints from Mac users, who hate anything that is not designed for their Macs. And I understand them.
• You had to run X11 -> not included in latest MacOS versions, and hated by all Mac users. What is a minor glitch for you was a roadblock for lots of users.
• It wasn't stable enough -> it looked like a toy thing on top of Mac, with random issues all provoked by the native WinForms library ported to Mac by Mono. Horrible to deal with and pretty unstable.

 

I'm glad to hear you like it... you should have shouted it louder :-)

 

That's why we started a big development effort back in 2014/15 to bring native versions of the Plastic GUI to Mac and Linux. Indeed, the first release we made back then really lacked some key features such us integrated diff, its own 3-way merge tool, even the sync view was missing. But now both Linux and Mac implement all the basic core functionality.

 

Indeed, we have been trying new solutions in both Linux/Mac GUIs. Things like the new layout without tabs (something lots of users don't like in the Windows GUI) + the new switcher, avoid blocking dialogs at all costs (progress during update, checkin and replica is not blocking on Mac/Linux) and many more.

 

The Mac and Linux GUIs even feature a totally new, in-house, automated GUI testing system that you can see running on Linux (GTK based) and Mac.

 

They share 90% of their code base, and in fact we consider they're the future of the Windows GUI too, since they are better designed, lots of technical debt paid off, and many more.

 

So, definitely, from a development point of view I would never say the Mac version was "rushed out". It was carefully designed and coded to be the foundation of all the new GUIs. Even Gluon, the GUI for artists, shares the same foundation.

 

 

Now, onto more concrete requests made by rigby44: while I totally understand you can miss things like deleting a changeset or doing CTRL-click (did you notice that every view in Mac has a button to show the context menu?? No need to right click, but ok, of course we'll get it working), missing "checkin to different branch" and so on, but I think it is not fair to say they are "must-have features".

 

In fact, one of the things we were concerned about the Windows GUI is that it is too cluttered with options. So we tried to get back to the basics in Mac/Linux, trying to experiment with a cleaner and simple UI, which would be easier to learn for users. Of course, it is hard (or nearly impossible) to please everyone

 

While some users complain why we do have so many options, others ask to add even another alternative way to do something on a given context menu.

 

For instance the "tree view in pending changes", while useful sometimes... well, it is one of this nice to haves that someone asked one day, that almost nobody uses, but now you miss on Mac :-)

 

 

I'll be publishing a new thread to talk about the roadmap in a new thread, so you all get a better understanding of what is coming :-)

 

Although many of you already do, it is great if you can use our UserVoice to make suggestions so we can easily prioritize the ones most of you want.

 

 

Finally, needless to say we really appreciate all this feedback, so please, even while sometimes we'll argue a little bit ;P, be 100% sure we take it very seriously. I'm now in the middle of redesigning the first steps on Cloud Edition cause some users emailed us saying it was hard to get started when you don't have previous Plastic SCM knowledge.

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

pablo

[psantosl]

Fixed odd issue in MacPlastic that prevented "create branch" to show up on some El Capitan machines (not always and not on all machines).

[rigby44]

Thank you.  I have tried the latest version of macPlastic and the create branch bug seems to be fixed.

 

One other annoying thing I've found is that when looking at your pending changes in macPlastic you can't just right click a file and select "Undo Changes" to revert just that file.  You can on the Windows GUI.

 

This isn't a fringe feature.  Often, when I am about to check in I take a quick look at each changed file and often there are a few files that I want to revert as the changes in those files were only temporary.  On windows I just right click and select "Undo Changes".  On macPlastic I have to unselect all the files using the ticks, select the file(s) I want, and select "Undo Changes" using the button on the top.  I then need to select all the files again to get them checked in.  It's much slower and I think riskier.

 

I am looking forward to the macPlastic roadmap thread you have been talking about.

 

Regards.

[psantosl]

Hi rigby44,

 

We're adding a few new improvements to macplastic these days (some of them entered as UserVoices):

 

* Delete changesets (already done, waiting to be reviewed and validated).

* Undo unchanged -> pending to be implemented, but on the list.

[rigby44]

Hi

 

Thank you.  These will really help.

 

As far as I'm concerned the next features I use most often on the windows client are:

 

* Revert a single file (or a selection) from the change list.

* Checkin to new branch.

 

Many thanks

 

rigby44

[calbzam]

Hi,

 

* Revert a single file (or a selection) from the change list.

[carlos] This feature is now available at 4.4.16. 753.

 

Regards,

Carlos.