What's your pre-edit routine?

iaresee

Well-Known Member
What's the routine you follow before you start mucking about with your GT's configuration using the PC editor? I'm curious to see if there's a better approach as mine feels a bit heavyweight.

I've been doing the following:
  1. Read settings from device
  2. Save settings as YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.rjs -- this is my save point. If I screw up really bad, I know I can load this file and get back to where I was pre-edit session.
  3. Save settings as current.rjs -- this is my working snapshot. I'll save, edit, upload and if I want to go back to just the pre-edit state I'll reload this file from disk. Think of it as a cheap implementation of an undo function I guess.
During the edit sessions I'll generally write only changes to the device but before I shut it down I'll do a full write settings to device.

How do others do it?
 
I use the same steps, but with a slight variant, as I almost never need to make edits directly on the GT.
  1. If I have made edits directly on the GT, then I read settings. If not, I open the most recent saved .rjm file on my computer.
  2. Save the file as YYYY-MM-DD format as described.
  3. Edit like the wind. Xfer changes to the pedal for testing / experimentation. When done. resave the open .rjm file.
I've actually been thinking of writing a macro to automate steps 1 and 2, as it would allow me to just fire off those steps when opening the editor.
 
@Sleestak hmm. Nice call on the macro. That's a good idea. I do that initial save often enough it'd be nice to have it something auto-compute the date and time for the file and fill it in.
 
Same as OP, I only save the rjs file named 1,2,3,4,etc in a folder named by the firmware version. If I have to go back to an older version I know what was the used FW. But since the last FW everything is pretty bug free and stable.
 
@Sleestak hmm. Nice call on the macro. That's a good idea. I do that initial save often enough it'd be nice to have it something auto-compute the date and time for the file and fill it in.
I just knocked something together for this today, using a bit of AppleScript and a shell script command for the copy / rename. It's pretty primitive, but does the job. I'll clean it up and add a bit of error handling, then will share.
 
Here is v1 of this utility. I use a Mac, so that's the platform it runs on at the moment.

This application should be dropped into the same folder where you save your .rjs files. I initially had it opening a dialog box to locate the files, but that seemed an unnecessary extra step.

The app is less sophisticated than an umbrella*. When you double-click it, the app will
  • Identify the most recent .rjs file in the folder where the app resides
  • Save a copy of that most recent .rjs file, using the date / time as the filename
  • Launch the MMGTEditor and open the new file
I use this app as a launcher for the editor for my editing sessions, as it auto-creates a backup of my most recent .rjs file. It also timestamps my backups, using the same formatting that I generally prefer (the hours / minutes / seconds granularity is overkill, but it prevents accidental over-writes and naming collisions).

Feel free to use / abuse / modify. If you open the app package, the code can be directly inspected.

* In fact, I decided to rename the app "Less Sophisticated Than An Umbrella". It was originally going to go with something important sounding like "MMGT Launch-a-Tron 2000", but I realized that name should be reserved for app that *is* more sophisticated than an umbrella. That said, if you want to rename the app, go for it.

Usual disclaimer: I run this app on my own computer, and am comfortable letting it copy my .rjs files. If you can, please inspect the code. If you see any vulnerabilities, let me know. The only file I/O in the application is the single command line that copies the file. It doesn't delete or change the previous file, but I don't want to accidentally corrupt / delete anyone's data. All that said, USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Sorry for the dramatic delivery.
 

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I now fully understand and appreciate the purpose of this thread. As a new user, I thought I was being clever by simply backing up my config once right at the beginning. Then I proceeded to make many changes in the Editor (which is simply awesome btw) and by force of habit I was hitting the Cmd-S as I went along. Being new to this, it wasn't long before I realised I made a terrible mistake and messed up all the good work I had done, and thought happily I would simply roll back to my backup - which I had now overwritten several times with the latest config each time I had hit Cmd-S to save..! :confused:

Lesson learned for me, a rather silly one at that! I think I'm going to be doing the following (not too dissimilar to my Fractal workflow):
1) Read settings from the device
2) Save settings as YYYY-MM-DD.rjs (same as Ian)
3) Do some editing,
4) Save settings as YYYY-MM-DD_v01.rjs --so basically increment the_v01 to _v02 etc as I make edits
4) Send to device
5) Repeat from step 3 until happy with final edit
6) Save as YYYY-MM-DD_Final.rjs

Obviously this will be very time consuming, but while I have a big learning curve to cover I think I would rather be safe than sorry.

I do a very similar thing with the Fractal however I make good use of the Snapshot button they have in Axe-Edit.

EDIT: Updated my file name format (copy paste error)
 
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I nice idea with the app!

I use Dropbox to save my setting file, and can use 'version history' te retrieve an earlier version if I make a mistake.
 
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