Surface Interval vs. Bottom Time entry

[kevincasey]

I appreciate that a dive computer may record a dive down to the second (or less), but I'm kind of bothered by the inconsistent data format between two visibly similar controls located next to each other.

What I mean is that surface interval is entered in "hh:mm" format, where as bottom time is entered in "mm:ss" format. This is mostly a problem when I'm manually entering dives that I didn't use my computer for and forget. I'd like to think, however, that the MacDive could divine that I am not trying to log a 48 second dive to 60 feet.

If you don't like to assume that the user means 48 minutes, perhaps it could pop up a dialog asking "Did you mean 48 minutes?" with a little check box to "Don't ask again" for the users that did, in fact, intend to log a 48 second dive.

I don't think you need to necessarily even need to check for a "break" point, i.e. if they entered more than this, they meant whatever. Simply check for an integer: "1" means one minute, not one second; "10" means ten minutes, not ten seconds; "100" means 100 minutes, not 100 seconds (or 1:40, as it currently assumes). However, if they enter anything with a colon, e.g. "20:15", assume that means 20 minutes 15 seconds; "0:48" means 48 seconds, not 48 minutes.

I don't know, I guess I'm just bothered by the inconsistency. Even just a tool tip that pops up as a reminder when you hover over or select the controls would be helpful.

Thanks,
Kevin

[AH_Matt]

Hello everyone,

New diver, new to the forum, new Mac user, but long time computer guy.

What about having three significant fields in each category: hh:mm:ss, and counting from the right? So and entry of '14' by itself, counting from the right, means 14 seconds. An entry of '14:05', counting from the right, means 14 minutes and 5 seconds. The (admittedly minor) benefit to this method is that you don't have to type '00:' at the beginning of the entry. The downside is that you could end up with ridiculously short dives and surface intervals if you aren't paying attention.

I'm also fine with the way it is, although a tool tip isn't a bad idea if it isn't difficult to do.

Cheers,
Matt

[joelaposta]

I have also had problems with logging 1 second dives vice 1 hour when manually entering. Would it be possible to make a preference for the time fields, to not use the seconds at all? For example, for me, I never need to see seconds on anything regarding diving, except perhaps a sample rate, so all the fields could be hh:mm, but if you didn't enter a colon, then it would just default to minutes (a 70 would automatically be 1hr 10min).

[nick]

For background, the reason that it works the way it does is just because seconds don't really matter much for the surface interval. But for actual dive time, especially freediving, seconds are more important.

It's definitely a bit inconsistent. I could look at making them all HH:MM:SS which covers both. It's a minor issue to see the seconds with the surface interval, I guess.

Would that solve everyones issue?

[joelaposta]

At least it would be consistent, but could we have an option to turn off seconds, or maybe a preference that when you enter a number without colons in a time field for it to default to minutes instead of seconds? That may actually be more complex of a request than I realize.

[Jean-Francois]

I remember having the same problem when manually entering dives where I thought it would be hh:mm while in fact it was mm:ss.
When I would look at my SAC and something like 3000L/min I thought I might have done something wrong.
I laughed so hard at my sillyness

[kevincasey]

Would that solve everyones issue?

You'll never make everyone happy, so the easiest thing may be a tool tip of some sort that pops up whenever the control receives focus.

I never considered that freedivers use the app, so the discrepancy makes sense. I would give a secondary vote to make both hh:mm:ss for the sake of consistency.

Just my two cents...

[nick]

Exactly, hence trying to find the balance. And I don't really want to start adding preferences for this kind of thing, or it will end up out of control with a million different options, and be a maintenance nightmare.

[kevincasey]

So tool tips all around? Or at least on the time entry fields?

Obviously this is a low priority feature request...

[nick]

I can also look at tooltips, at least for some of the more obscure fields.