Importing wavefront with different config: "yes to all" doesn't work

[atsju]

v8.4.0 when you import a wavefront with different settings

you need to hit "yes to all" 3 times.

I was supposing it yes to all "settings".
But it could also be interpreted as "yes to all wavefronts" for this specific setting.
By the way, Importing multiple differnt wavefront will trigger the dialog only once. This was only a quick test, needs to be investigated further.

[gr5]

I think it's fine as it is.

[atsju]

It might only happen in some configurations. I will push investigation more and share video example here.

[gr5]

3 times. It asks about wavelength, diameter, and RoC. 3 things. That's how it works. If only 2 of those are changed it should only ask for 2 of them. If those match then it doesn't have to ask.

[atsju]

I had a look at the code. It's probably fine, but I find the current message slightly misleading.

At least, I think the text could be updated to:

Do you want to make the wavelength config match ?

My initial understanding of the dialog was: "If I click "Yes to All", DFTFringe will make the config match all settings of this wavefront (wavelength, ROC, lambda)."

However, the actual behavior is: "If I click "Yes to All", DFTFringe will make wavelength match on all subsequent wavefronts."

Consider the case where three wavefronts from three different mirrors are loaded. Which of these behaviors do we want?

• Silent wavelength matching for all mirrors after the first one.
• Prompt again for each new mirror, while still allowing all parameters of that mirror to be matched.

The first behavior is what we currently have. I had assumed we wanted the second, but you have more experience with the intended workflow. Please confirm, and we can close the issue after updating the dialog texts.

[githubdoe]

The second is what we want. Somehow that broke awhile back. I think.

[gr5]

Yikes, what? I think the behavior does what it says it does. So that's good at least.

In addition, I have a totally different issue: I never used to understand if clicking "yes" was going to change the wavefront to work with current mirror settings, or if it was going to change the current mirror settings. I understand now that it changes the mirror settings but that seems dangerous if you already have many wavefronts loaded with the old settings.

Anyway, if you are only reading one wavefront, it shouldn't have the "yes to all" and "no to all" options. And also it doesn't make any sense to me to copy all the wavefronts to the config file as it really only copies the last one, right? You can't copy them all if each wavefront has a different value. So "yes to all" makes no sense but "no to all" does make sense.

Here's a suggested GUI off the top of my head without a lot of thinking about it:

Those 3 boxes are checkboxes - checked by default. The arrow indicates which way we are copying although you could probably do it with words (change "copy" to "copy to"). User can uncheck values they don't want copied.

Maybe change the second button to "Use existing config".

Make rows all gray if values already match including disabling the checkbox.

Ask again on the next wave if it doesn't match. Now I realize we need a 3rd button "Use existing config and don't ask for the remaining 3 wavefronts about to be loaded",

Also another possible feature:
If there are no wavefronts loaded yet, shouldn't we just automatically update the mirror config? Maybe just a popup:

Mirror configuration updated to match wavefront file

even better, keep track of all mirror settings per wavefront! That's a pretty big change to DFTF though. For example when averaging or subtracting wavefronts as they may have different nulls.

[gr5]

To make things more complicated, we should probably also be storing annular information in the wavefront so that when one loads it, one can copy that also to the mirror configuration.

[gr5]

Okay I agree that "yes to all" could just do all 3 settings. That would be an improvement. And "no to all" would copy nothing for this and any remaining wavefronts being loaded.

But my proposed dialog would be even better 😄

[atsju]

Mirror information per wft would probably solve some problems. I'm currently working on mirrordlg configuration window and it's complex because many places change the common mirror config.

[githubdoe]

The "all" means all the settings in the mirror config. Not all of the wave fronts. We never change the existing loaded wave fronts. I don't ever want that to happen.

The "all" is a convenience. Without it the software should then ask for each different setting for that new wave front if it should change the mirror config setting for that different setting value.

The wave fronts do have the mirror config per wave front already. Perhaps they don't have the newer config values.

The current dialog only shows you what ones are different. I suppose the check box version is ok as well. Then you should grey out or not display the ones the config values that already match.

The confusing part is the "all" buttons are moot if there is only one value of the config that does not match. I was too lazy to write all the conditions for those "all" buttons.

[gr5]

The wave fronts do have the mirror config per wave front already. Perhaps they don't have the newer config values.

You mean the wavefront files. Right?

[githubdoe]

The file and the wavefront class both have it. The wavefront class has even more info than the file. The wavefront data is always contained inside a class so it always has that data.

[githubdoe]

Just to make sure you understand the philosophy. The program only ever can display data about 1 mirror at a time. When you load a wave front that has different parameters the program warns you that something does not match the current mirror. It allows you to make the mirror config match. But it does not change any of the previous loaded wavefronts. That is on purpose. They might have been for a different mirror. It just does not know. I do that quite often when reviewing other mirrors while working on another. If for some reason you want the new parameters to apply to the older loaded wavefronts then you select them and press the "update selected wavefronts" button.

[gr5]

I knew this but then forgot.