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diff --git a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md index 39026cb..7261bd9 100644 --- a/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md +++ b/docs/superpowers/plans/2026-08-03-post-0.1.0-usability-closed.md @@ -8607,3 +8607,104 @@ that instead. **Not built, and left as the item's own recommendation:** writing `P` from a subject heuristic. Rejected on the same grounds the entry gave before the work started. + + +## 119. The unsynced-changes count cannot be opened to see what it counts + +**Observed (user, from the notes):** "the bottom left statusbar message needs to +be clickable and show what 'N unsynced changes' are in a modal window". + +**Cause (verified in the code).** `m_pendingLabel` is a plain `QLabel` added to +the status bar with `addPermanentWidget` (`src/mainwindow.cpp:502-505`). A +`QLabel` has no clicked signal and none is installed, so there is nothing to +click and no route to a list. It carries a tooltip and nothing else. + +**The count is a SUM OVER FOUR SOURCES, and that is what makes this bigger than +it looks.** `pendingEditCount()` returns +`m_pendingTagEdits.size() + m_unnettablePendingEdits + held + heldMoves`. +Three of those can name what they hold: `m_pendingTagEdits` is a +`QHash<QString, bool>` keyed by message id, `m_heldEdits` and `m_heldMoves` are +queues of edits waiting for a sync to end. **`m_unnettablePendingEdits` is a +bare `int`** (`src/mainwindow.h:1248`), deliberately so: it counts confirmed +changes that carry no message ids and therefore cannot be netted against +anything. + +So a dialog built from what is currently kept would list three of the four +groups and then have to account for a remainder it cannot describe. Showing "and +3 more" is worse than the tooltip, because the user opened the window +specifically to find out what those were. + +**Approach.** Two halves, and the second is the real work. + +- The clickable half is small: a label that emits on click (an event filter, or + a flat `QToolButton` styled as a label), plus a dialog listing what the three + describable groups hold. The message pane already resolves an id to a subject. +- The complete half needs `m_unnettablePendingEdits` to become something that + can name its entries. Its comment says why it is an int: understating the + indicator is the direction that costs the user work, so it counts what it + cannot identify rather than dropping it. Making it describable means finding + out what those changes actually are and whether they can carry an id. + +**Constraints.** + +- **The count is deliberately conservative and must stay so.** Item 28 and item + 54 both landed on this indicator being wrong in the direction that made the + user think their work was safe. A dialog that lists fewer changes than the + count claims is the same failure in a new place: reconcile the two, or state + the remainder honestly rather than hiding it. +- **An external `notmuch` run can clear pending changes without this count + noticing**, which the tooltip already admits. A dialog makes that staleness + much more visible, since a listed change may no longer exist. Worth deciding + whether the dialog re-verifies against the database before showing. +- Read-only. This is an information window, not a place to retry or discard a + change; either would be a new mutation path with its own undo question. + +**Size: S** for the clickable half over the three describable groups. **Unknown** +for the fourth, and the item is not complete without it. + +**Closed 2026-08-26.** The blocker above was investigated first and did not +survive: `m_unnettablePendingEdits` counted confirmed changes carrying no +message ids, and `NotmuchWorker::applyTags()` (the only emitter of +`tagsApplied`) returns early on an empty id list, which is that exact +condition. `applyTagsToThreads()` resolves through a query and errors out on +an empty result, so it cannot hand `applyTags()` an empty list either. + +**Measured rather than read**, twice, because reading is what produced the +wrong answer the first time: a `qFatal` in the branch fired in 4 of 70 +`test_mainwindow` cases, all four building a `TagChange` by hand and invoking +the slot directly with no worker, and a `Q_ASSERT` before the worker's own +emit never fired across the whole suite. The counter was deleted and the +guard it shadowed is pinned where it lives, by +`applyTagsWithNoIdsDoesNothing()` in `test_notmuchworker`. + +Built in four commits: the snapshot, the subject resolve, the dialog and the +click, then a sizing fix after a hand test. + +Three decisions the user made, each of which shapes the code: + +- **Scope follows the ACTION, not the storage.** A thread action shows one + thread row with the count of messages it covered; a message action shows + its message. The three queues already encoded this, so nothing is expanded + and nothing is escalated: `HeldEdit` is thread-scoped because a `*_thread` + action made it, and everything else carries message ids. +- **A snapshot, frozen.** Taken at the click and never refreshed under the + user, who asked for exactly this: "if I keep the popup open for 20 minutes, + I don't want the popup to keep updating the info it's showing me." +- **Subjects resolved, stale rows kept.** An id the index no longer holds + still gets a row saying its subject is unknown, because the count the user + clicked has to equal the list they are shown. + +The re-verify question this item worried about mostly dissolved: item 54 +already clears the count when an external sync carries the edits, so a change +applied by cron does not survive to be clicked on. + +`resolvePendingSubjects()` answers POSITIONALLY, one subject per input row, +because one id can legitimately appear on several rows and a combined query +returns a set. `PendingChangeRow::startsMessage` is carried rather than +inferred from a non-empty subject, so an unresolved id still opens a run of +its own instead of folding its actions under the message above it. + +Read-only, per the constraint above. The dialog's height is sized to its +content; that is a hand test, since the offscreen platform returns an +identical frame either way. + |
