This feature is meant to minimise situations in which users are kicked out of their projects and lose their connection to the server due to an unexpected app update or maintenance. The idea is to schedule app updates to happen only once a week (seems reasonable) and each time at the same weekday/time of day. I know that the chat panel issues a warning when the app is going to be updated, but I hardly ever have it visible and the update -always- catches me by surprise. I think that, unless there is some technical reason I'm missing why this should not be practical, this regular update schedule would eliminate frustration and would also have the added benefit of creating expectation in the users, who would be looking forward to see the new changes and fixes and know that they can use them for a week without surprises.
Comments (6)
Is the update process automatable? Then you could have it run once a day, at a time where it is least likely to cause disruption (taking into account different time-zones). Apart from that, I understand that fixes should be available as soon as possible, but maybe a compromise could be found so that the inevitable disruption doesn't come as unexpectedly. I know that users would value regularity and being able to predict the behaviour of the system. In every platform I know, from desktops to phones, the user always has some degree of control over the act of updating, even the option of manually doing so. Some systems just notify the user that an update is available and ask for confirmation. Some systems offer automatic updates but only under certain conditions. Some DAWs offer updates only a few times a month. My point is that every update strategy recognises updates as inherently disruptive and always tries to disrupt users the least possible. AT seems to see that as secondary in its zeal to push fixes the minute they are ready. I don't know about others, but for me program reliability is far more important than having the latest fixes immediately.
Another comment: I know that occasionally you have more updates than there are entries in your "Release Log" topic but, judging by them, there seems to be an average of 3 day gap between releases. Maybe that could be a reasonable schedule? I'd be great to know that I won't have any unexpected disconnections because updates happen every three mid-nights. And it definitely wouldn't be the end of the world for me to have to wait three days for a bug fix.
Nice!
Yes, I thought that the release log doesn't reflect the whole picture. Thanks a lot for this new notification system. I didn't have the chance to use the app yet today and still didn't see it in action, but it sounds good and so far user feedback is positive. I hope that this is a good compromise for both needs.
Thanks, it looks good. I agree with you that "unexpected" was the key point. The worst case was when inspiration would finally strike for a melody or sequence of notes that you had been trying to come up with, and the app would let you high an dry precisely then. At least this gives you a warning to put your ideas briefly on hold, to be done after the update.
I still get unexpected "Connection to server lost." messages in the app without any notification, the last one just now and, after reloading, it seems that I've lost the work of the last 20 minutes. Also "Page refresh" messages when in the middle of writing a comment. Is it because of updates, or another problem?