6 ms·

The first (and personally the only) requirement I have with any chat system is that it should _not_ modify the text I enter in any way - especially if I am past

by niyazpk 10y ago

The first (and personally the only) requirement I have with any chat system is that it should _not_ modify the text I enter in any way - especially if I am pasting something. Sometimes I have to paste a line or two of code, or a few lines of a stack trace. Sometimes I have to paste a string which contains some particular set of characters. Microsoft Lync absolutely destroys the pasted text. It subtly converts the double quotes into some unicode nonsense. Then it converts some common character sets into smilies. When you copy text from Lync it is almost always guaranteed to be different from what what entered originally. God, I hate Lync with a passion.

SmellyGeekBoy 10y ago
I'm not sure about Lync but we got into the habit of pasting into a text file and attaching that when using Skype to send code / log snippets. Agreed that it is a major inconvenience at times.
ape4 10y ago
I don't know Lync but googling found this... http://superuser.com/questions/427542/how-can-i-paste-text-without-format-in-a-lync-chat-window http://superuser.com/questions/427542/how-can-i-paste-text-w...
tzakrajs 10y ago
It's like Slack's "smart" quotes feature that mangles your ascii quotes out of the box! So frustrating!
- jedahan 10y ago
  If you are on OSX, that is a feature of OSX, not Slack. You can turn it off in Keyboard settings IIRC.
  - therein 10y ago
    My pet peeve about Slack as of late is -- is turned into a single, long-dash. Even when you're inside ` or ```. Which leaves me juggling there on my keyboard, trying to delete one, move my cursor and add a second dash before submitting.
    - amk_ 10y ago
      That's the OS, too.
    - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
      On OS X just disable the dumb quotes and dashes: System Preferences / Keyboard / Text / Use smart quotes and dashes = off
      - avip 10y ago
        Thanks! I seriously now owe you ~3h of my life, yearly aggregated.
    - pmarreck 10y ago
      That's called an em-dash and it's done in the OS usually. Source: I was a teen during the Desktop Publishing craze
  - tzakrajs 10y ago
    Thank you! I really appreciate the clarity as I haven't seen this "Edit -> Substitutions" menu before. I have shared this learning with my friends. If I were a developer of Slack, I would be very tempted to disable that OS functionality (similar to how Sublime Text does not seem to utilize this OS feature).
    - Shank 10y ago
      Ugh, please don't. The fact that Chrome ignores the fact that I have certain OS specific keyboard settings is infuriating. Turn it off at the OS level if you don't want it. Don't make a decision that makes everyone else who uses the OS frustrated because functionality only exists in a subset of applications.
      - kitsunesoba 10y ago
        Agreed. I want more apps adhering to local conventions and generally being good citizens of the platform they run on, not less. It's so annoying when an application decides it knows better than my global system settings, especially when there's no way to change the behavior in question.
    - makecheck 10y ago
      Also, this is in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences (where you probably want to make some system-wide changes to defaults so you don’t have to fiddle with the Edit menu in every application).
  - fuzzygroup 10y ago
    Thank you so much for this. I actually couldn't find it the first time through so I documented the whole flow with screenshots here: http://fuzzyblog.io/blog/osx/2017/02/16/getting-rid-of-smart-quotes-on-osx.html http://fuzzyblog.io/blog/osx/2017/02/16/getting-rid-of-smart...
abhgh 10y ago
I'm with you with the Lync-hate. I've had problems with getting simple chat to work - in the middle of a chat session that seems to go well, Lync suddenly informs me some message wasn't delivered. And this happens often enough to be annoying. The web-integration (if you ping someone who is logged into Outlook web, the ping shows up in a popup window) is bad - if someone pings you within a gap of a few minutes, the original pop-up isn't re-used. There is a new pop-up, with no history. After using gmail chat, this feels regressive. And yes, there is the copy paste issue you mention. The screen-sharing is not robust - we've had so many sessions crash that we've moved to WebEx. That the simple chat use-cases don't work well is, frankly, confounding to me.
zuppy 10y ago
Few years ago I've used few lines of code that I've copied from Skype. There was a hidden invisible chracter that was breaking everything, I've lost about 2 hours until I found it through a hex editor (I rewrote the pasted code and wasn't expecting for that character to be there). That character was not a part of the original message, but it was added by Skype.
StreamBright 10y ago
Microsoft had a much better chat before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat
- rangersanger 10y ago
  If lync introduced its own font, what would it be? I had no idea this was the genesis of comic sans, but I'm so glad I do now.
- pmarreck 10y ago
  Not sure how the heck I am just learning about Comic Chat and thus the creation of Comic Sans
  - Cpoll 10y ago
    Note that Comic Sans predates Comic Chat.
notyourwork 10y ago
Lync is by far the worst I have experienced.

by niyazpk 10y ago

SmellyGeekBoy 10y ago

I'm not sure about Lync but we got into the habit of pasting into a text file and attaching that when using Skype to send code / log snippets. Agreed that it is a major inconvenience at times.

ape4 10y ago

I don't know Lync but googling found this... http://superuser.com/questions/427542/how-can-i-paste-text-without-format-in-a-lync-chat-window http://superuser.com/questions/427542/how-can-i-paste-text-w...

tzakrajs 10y ago

It's like Slack's "smart" quotes feature that mangles your ascii quotes out of the box! So frustrating!

jedahan 10y ago
If you are on OSX, that is a feature of OSX, not Slack. You can turn it off in Keyboard settings IIRC.
- therein 10y ago
  My pet peeve about Slack as of late is -- is turned into a single, long-dash. Even when you're inside ` or ```. Which leaves me juggling there on my keyboard, trying to delete one, move my cursor and add a second dash before submitting.
  - amk_ 10y ago
    That's the OS, too.
  - Florin_Andrei 10y ago
    On OS X just disable the dumb quotes and dashes: System Preferences / Keyboard / Text / Use smart quotes and dashes = off
    - avip 10y ago
      Thanks! I seriously now owe you ~3h of my life, yearly aggregated.
  - pmarreck 10y ago
    That's called an em-dash and it's done in the OS usually. Source: I was a teen during the Desktop Publishing craze
- tzakrajs 10y ago
  Thank you! I really appreciate the clarity as I haven't seen this "Edit -> Substitutions" menu before. I have shared this learning with my friends. If I were a developer of Slack, I would be very tempted to disable that OS functionality (similar to how Sublime Text does not seem to utilize this OS feature).
  - Shank 10y ago
    Ugh, please don't. The fact that Chrome ignores the fact that I have certain OS specific keyboard settings is infuriating. Turn it off at the OS level if you don't want it. Don't make a decision that makes everyone else who uses the OS frustrated because functionality only exists in a subset of applications.
    - kitsunesoba 10y ago
      Agreed. I want more apps adhering to local conventions and generally being good citizens of the platform they run on, not less. It's so annoying when an application decides it knows better than my global system settings, especially when there's no way to change the behavior in question.
  - makecheck 10y ago
    Also, this is in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences (where you probably want to make some system-wide changes to defaults so you don’t have to fiddle with the Edit menu in every application).
- fuzzygroup 10y ago
  Thank you so much for this. I actually couldn't find it the first time through so I documented the whole flow with screenshots here: http://fuzzyblog.io/blog/osx/2017/02/16/getting-rid-of-smart-quotes-on-osx.html http://fuzzyblog.io/blog/osx/2017/02/16/getting-rid-of-smart...

abhgh 10y ago

I'm with you with the Lync-hate. I've had problems with getting simple chat to work - in the middle of a chat session that seems to go well, Lync suddenly informs me some message wasn't delivered. And this happens often enough to be annoying. The web-integration (if you ping someone who is logged into Outlook web, the ping shows up in a popup window) is bad - if someone pings you within a gap of a few minutes, the original pop-up isn't re-used. There is a new pop-up, with no history. After using gmail chat, this feels regressive. And yes, there is the copy paste issue you mention. The screen-sharing is not robust - we've had so many sessions crash that we've moved to WebEx. That the simple chat use-cases don't work well is, frankly, confounding to me.

zuppy 10y ago

Few years ago I've used few lines of code that I've copied from Skype. There was a hidden invisible chracter that was breaking everything, I've lost about 2 hours until I found it through a hex editor (I rewrote the pasted code and wasn't expecting for that character to be there). That character was not a part of the original message, but it was added by Skype.

StreamBright 10y ago

Microsoft had a much better chat before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat

rangersanger 10y ago
If lync introduced its own font, what would it be? I had no idea this was the genesis of comic sans, but I'm so glad I do now.
pmarreck 10y ago
Not sure how the heck I am just learning about Comic Chat and thus the creation of Comic Sans
- Cpoll 10y ago
  Note that Comic Sans predates Comic Chat.

notyourwork 10y ago

Lync is by far the worst I have experienced.