Scary false alarm

[TinySpeck]

The latest release of PI makes a big deal about how it saves every scrap of your projects.  So as a brand new user when I tried to exit PI for the first time, after carefully saving my project, and saw this dire warning I was really concerned:

"No image has been modified, but there are nonempty processing histories associated with one or more images.  Unsaved process instances will be permanently lost.  Exit anyway?  (Boldface is in the warning.) 

I spent a half hour last night searching the web and trying to figure out how to exit PI without "permanently losing" my work, and then found out today the warning is wrong and everything is fine.  The "warning" has apparently been around since projects were first introduced.

This is really awful!  How can you overlook such a glaring problem?  It's made a pretty bad impression on this newbie.

[Geoff]

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Even after saving the whole deal as a project you still have the option to save the process history of a particular image, so you can then separately save the image and its process history.

In fact, this warning is given whenever you close an image with a process history. You are free to ignore it.

[TinySpeck]

Hmm, "it's not a bug, it'a a feature", the familiar programmer's excuse.     Does saving the project save everything, or not?  If not, then Pleiades shouldn't be bragging about how it does.  If it does, the warning should not appear.  You shouldn't be sounding the alarm for saving something which is already saved in a different way.

Even when I dragged the process history of each image onto the desktop and Saved Icons, I got the warning.  After doing this, am I still in danger of losing process histories?  If not, I shouldn't be getting the warning.

Even when I opened my project and immediately closed PI I got the warning.  That is ridiculous.

Come on -- look at this from a naive user standpoint.  This is an alarming warning that makes it look like you're about to lose data.  Is that legitimate or not?  If you're not actually in danger of "permanently losing data" the warning should not appear.

[msmythers]

Am I missing something. I don't get this warning with any of my projects. All of my histories are saved and process icons. Some of my projects are over 25GB in size and some are small in the hundreds of MB. Can someone take a screenshot of the process console window showing this warning. The only warnings I ever see are from old projects where I had third party modules installed in old versions of PI that are no longer available for the current PI. Even than the whole projects load and the images are correct.

Here is a project I just opened. The only warnings are for modded TVG module that won't work in the current PI.


Mike

[pfile]

i think TinySpeck is saying that when he/she quits PI even after saving a project, warning dialog boxes are generated.

there's no warning upon loading a project, just upon quitting PI. i see it too, but i don't see the process icon warning. what i get is "there are unsaved images" but no process history or process icon warning (unless i create a process icon after saving the project and then try to quit PI)

rob

[msmythers]

Oh wow, I've never seen that on either of my Window machines ever.

Thanks rob


Mike

[TinySpeck]

Hi Mike,

Here's a screenshot of having just opened my project and then hit the PI window X to exit PI.  The two Process icons on the desktop are saved histories of the two images.

This is my very first PI project.  I started off with Load Empty Project and then saved the project to my new folder, and have been doing Save Project regularly.  If I'm doing that wrong, I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks,
Gerrit

[msmythers]

Gerrit

just for grins, try exiting via the file menus, not the right top 'X'. Some computers for whatever reason have problems with exiting PI from the corner X but not from the File/Exit. I can't imagine what the issue is but....



Mike

[msmythers]

I'm getting old and slow here. Gerrit the warning your seeing is not a problem it is as Geoff said a feature. It is telling you that your current workspace(s) have images that have not been modified but they have histories. This is because the project was saved and reset PI to a new history state I would guess. It's an in case you did something else and need to save, please save. Maybe you applied a mask but not used a tool. Your image would not have changed and your old history would still be populated but your ready to quit processing for now. You might want to save. It's much like the warning you get if you open an image, do something to it and try to exit. You get a warning in this case that an has been modified.

Now if this warning is a problem you can one ignore it, two ignore it forever by checking the box don't ask anymore or three just load an empty project from the file menu and then exit. You should not see the warning after loading an empty project as no images will be open.



Mike

[TinySpeck]

Mike,

Maybe I didn't make it clear.  I get the warning in the following conditions:

• Finish work, save project and immediately quit PI
• Save processing histories for open images to the desktop, Save Icons, save project, and immediately quit PI
• Start PI, open my project, do absolutely nothing, and quit PI

It sure seems wrong to get this dire warning in these situations.  If the warning is legitimate, what can I do to fix it?  I have tried saving everything I can think of.  If it isn't legitimate, it shouldn't appear.

I get the same warning when I exit PI through the File menu, also.

Gerrit

[msmythers]

Gerrit

I guess it's how you see a dire warning. I understand steps which lead you to the warning as I see it that way also if I do those steps. I just don't see it as a dire warning. I see it as simply a warning to check your work before exiting, have you crossed your t's and dotted your i's as such. 
 


Mike

[TinySpeck]

A warning about "permanent loss of data" is dire in my book, especially to someone who's never seen it before. 

I'll ask again: what can I do to avoid this warning?  If there's nothing I can do, then it's wrong and it's a bug.  Likewise, if everything has been saved and it's all secure, the warning should not be appearing.

[msmythers]

You can turn off the warning by using the checkbox in the lower left corner of the warning. You will not see it again.

By the way the warning says loss of process instances not loss of data. Again it's how you interpret things but to me data is pixel information in an image. The warning says no images have been modified so no data loss to images. Notice the other warning I showed says pixel data will be lost, not process. That warning I place at a higher point then loss of process instances(tool settings). PI does not know if you changed a parameter in a tool icon, moved a slider unless you use that tool on an image. Only at that point is the workspace and tools parameters saved to the history. If you haven't PI just knows there are open processes on the workspace. So it is asking in the form of a warning, did you save everything, not you need to save your processes, are you sure your ready to exit. Just a warning or a reminder if you like.



Mike

[TinySpeck]

Sure, I can shut the warning off and never see it again.  Then when I really do need to be warned about potential process instance loss I won't be warned.  Does that make sense to you?

I repeat, this warning appears when I have done absolutely nothing and shut PI down.  There is nothing to warn about.  There is also apparently nothing I can do to make the warning go away besides disabling the warning.  That is wrong!

Say you're a new user writing a document in Word.  You save your work, go to exit Word, and it puts up a warning: "Your document has not been modified, but there are keystroke histories which will be permanently lost if you exit now.  Exit anyway?".  No matter how many times you save, to different places or filenames etc, or what you can find on the web, the message won't go away.  You don't know it, but the warning is completely spurious.  As a new user, you're not really sure about this "keystroke history" thing, or how critical it is.  All you can do is exit anyway.  Would you think that's reasonable?

I don't know why you don't see this as a bug, but I give up.  It doesn't look like PI is very receptive to bug reports, so I probably won't go through this again.

[msmythers]

Gerrit

I'm just a user like you. Most of use are here just trying to help the best we can so I'm sorry for not being more helpful. I have no say in how PI is developed. Currently the developer is working on a very big update that he has mentioned in a few postings and the release is apparently very nearly ready. It's his software and he responds how and when he does.


Mike