Óvári wrote on 2018-04-20:
Please enable pressing the up arrow (on ring-gnome) to edit the last
sent message.
There has been some previous discussion: see
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/ring/2017-12/msg00010.html
and following messages.
What level of sophistication do you want? There is a range of possibilities.
The simplest possibility could be something like in Xchat/Hexchat where pressing the
"up" arrow recalls a *copy* of the previous sent message, and you can edit it,
and it sends the result as a new message with no metadata connecting it to the previous
message. The recipients see both the previous and the new message, not linked together.
That's not very slick, but it is useful for some kinds of correction.
A much more complex design could be something like in Slack where pressing the "up" arrow visually
indicates that you are now editing the previous sent message (not just a copy of it). When you send it, the
recipients see the previous message change to the new one, the annotation "(edited)" after it, and
both the original date and date of editing (if you hover over "(edited)"). This sort of design
would take quite a lot of effort.
Another related potential feature (or mis-feature) is "redaction" which means the ability
to "take back" something you said. As Bill said in that previous discussion it's
impossible in general (because the data is already out there) and there are lots of reasons it's a
bad idea to try to do it. It looks like Slack's implementation is attempting a kind of redaction,
in that it doesn't provide a way to see the original message (at least not easily). An alternative
user interface design could show the original and the edits, making it clear that redaction is not
intended.
Personally I would find some level of editing capability to be useful and friendly. What
level? I don't care exactly, but probably near the "simple" end of the
spectrum. And I don't think it is the most important thing for Ring at this time, and I
am not volunteering :-)
How about you?
- Julian