Speaking as someone who has written applications (server-based, in Ruby and PHP; and browser-based, in JavaScript) that implement undo, this is not a simple thing to “add on” to an application. Either you start with that premise in your data model, or you die trying to implement it.
Freeway 6 is an evolution of Freeway all the way back to version 1, it is not the foundation rewrite that many were hoping for.
The Freeway document is a binary file, not an open structure like SQLite (CoreData) or even an XML file, where individual nodes of the data tree can be compared with one another, and a “diff” saved to enable the undo stack. If you wanted to enable multiple undo in Freeway, you would be saving a complete copy of the document after each one-pixel change, not a short list of changes, and the application (and you) would grind to a halt.
I wasn’t there at the beginning when that fundamental decision was made, so I don’t know why it was made that way, but I do know from experience with Mac applications dating back to the late '80s that this was very much the way things were done at that time. And “as the twig is bent”, Freeway has grown and evolved around that initial decision into a leviathan that cannot make a sharp turn like this without a lot of breakage and new effort.
I agree wholeheartedly that the change needs to come, but I want to set your expectations and diffuse your disappointment with some cold facts about how software works inside. As always, my opinions here are not grounded in a reading of the source code – I have never seen a line of it – and I don’t speak for Softpress, either. I have looked inside a few different Freeway documents with a hex editor, though…
Walter
On Feb 2, 2013, at 11:52 AM, Ernie Simpson wrote:
On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Richard email@hidden wrote:
I’m not really used to it since every other app I use has multi levels of
undo. That is what I am used to using modern apps. FW is the only exception
and I am constantly reminded of it. I have to quit FW without saving and
open the old version up to resort to 2 undos ago. Or keep saving copies,
close one, open the old one. Very inefficient workflow.
If one undo isn’t enough (and there are many situations where you cannot
even get one undo) I use Revert to Saved. It’s not perfect, but it works
well enough for me. Especially with a focused strategy of making limited
changes and testing them often.
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