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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md | 81 |
1 files changed, 61 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md index af13c2f..f410d00 100644 --- a/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md +++ b/docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-20-compose-and-send-design.md @@ -256,29 +256,59 @@ The include-order rule applies to every new file that touches GMime: gmime headers before any Qt header in the same translation unit, because glib declares a struct field named `signals`. -### Sending blocks, visibly, and does not queue +### Sending runs behind a cancellable delay, and does not queue -Send disables the composer and shows progress **in the composer's own status -bar**, not in a popup. A modal over a window that is already disabled adds a -second thing to look at and a dialog that can be dismissed while the operation -continues, which is the ambiguity items 18, 19, 28 and 54 each closed once. - -The composer is the indicator: disabled, showing a stage, and closing itself -when the whole operation succeeded. Success needs no message, because the window -closing is the message. - -The stages are shown as they happen, since the operation is genuinely several -and a failure in the second or third means something different from a failure in -the first: +**Send opens a popup that owns the whole operation**, from a cancellable +countdown through to completion. It is modelled on Gmail's undo-send, and it is +what settles what "cancel" can mean here. ``` -Sending... send_command is running -Filing sent copy... DraftStore writing to the account's sent folder -Removing draft... the draft revision is unlinked +Sending in 5... [ Undo ] countdown running, Undo live +Sending... [ Undo ] send_command running, Undo disabled +Filing sent copy... DraftStore writing to the sent folder +Removing draft... the draft revision is unlinked + popup and composer both close ``` -The indicator is an **indeterminate `QProgressBar`** (`setRange(0, 0)`) beside a -status label, which is what `MainWindow` already does for the sync indicator +**The delay is where cancelling is safe, and it is the only place it is.** +Nothing has reached a server during the countdown, so Undo means genuinely +nothing happened. Killing `send_command` once it is running does not: the +message may have been handed to the server in full before the kill, so the +result is an *unknown* send, which is worse than either clean outcome. Undo +therefore disables itself the moment the command starts, and there is no cancel +after that. + +This is what the delay buys in practice, and it is the case the user named: +pressing Send and immediately noticing the missing attachment. Undo returns the +composer exactly as it was, editable, popup gone, nothing sent. + +**In a popup rather than the composer's status bar.** A countdown nobody notices +is a countdown that does not work, and the objection to status bars is precisely +that they do not catch the eye. The same reasoning that puts a failed sent copy +in a modal puts the undo window in one. + +**The popup owns the progress too**, rather than handing over to the status bar +once the countdown elapses: one widget changing state in one place, instead of a +popup vanishing and something else appearing somewhere else. + +Two properties it must have: + +- **Modal to the composer, not to the application.** Sending from one composer + must not freeze a second composer or the main window. +- **No close button and no Escape dismiss.** During the countdown a dismissal is + ambiguous, since it could mean cancel or send now. During the send there is + nothing to dismiss. Undo is the only control and it disables itself. + +The composer's inputs are disabled for the whole operation, countdown included: +body, recipient fields, subject, attachment controls, formatting toolbar and +Send. The message must not change between the user pressing Send and the bytes +being built. Undo re-enables all of it. + +`[compose] send_delay_ms` sets the countdown, default 5000. **Zero skips it** +and sends at once, for anyone who finds it irritating. + +The progress element is an **indeterminate `QProgressBar`** (`setRange(0, 0)`) +beside a label, which is what `MainWindow` already does for the sync indicator (`m_syncProgress`) and for the same reason: neither operation has measurable progress. @@ -290,8 +320,8 @@ rather than justifying repeating it. Whether 134 lands before or after this work, the composer uses the shared widget: if it has not happened yet, this work creates the class and converts `MainWindow` as part of the same change. -Exit 0 closes the window. Non-zero re-enables it with everything intact and -shows the command's stderr. +Exit 0 closes the popup and the composer. Non-zero closes the popup and +re-enables the composer with everything intact, showing the command's stderr. **There is no outbox in this design**, and the reason it is not simply "deferred" is that it needs its own indicator story. This project has four @@ -490,6 +520,7 @@ send_command = msmtp -a work -t quote_position = above ; above | below send_html = true ; seeds New and Forward; Reply seeds from the original autosave_interval_ms = 30000 +send_delay_ms = 5000 ; the undo window before sending; 0 sends at once default_account = work attachment_warn_bytes = 26214400 ``` @@ -601,6 +632,16 @@ exiting non-zero with stderr, one that does not exist. The stub writes stdin to a file the test reads back, proving the message arrived intact. Asserts exactly two outcomes. +**The send delay needs its own test, and the property that matters is a +negative one**: that Undo during the countdown leaves the stub command **never +run at all**. A test asserting only that the composer reopened would pass +against a design that ran the command and threw the result away, which is the +whole failure the delay exists to prevent. Assert the stub wrote no file. + +Also: `send_delay_ms = 0` skips the countdown, and Undo is disabled the instant +the command starts. Drive the countdown with a short delay rather than waiting +five seconds in a test. + **`test_draftstore`**: Maildir filename validity and uniqueness, the previous revision unlinked, the dirty check skipping a write, and an unwritable directory reporting rather than throwing. |