Thoughts on SuperDuper!
 

First of all, thanks for creating a simple backup tool that I feel comfortable using. Hacking in the command line is fun but I do enjoy being slightly less vulnerable to scary slipups.

I did notice a few things about using the app that I feel could be improved upon though, mostly in the UI, so here are some thoughts:

Registration woes

Registering with a Hong Kong based credit card wasn't accepted. Might be something to do with there not being any State/zip codes in Hong Kong, though I fed in dummy values.

Eventually noticed the Paypal option, which was actually preferable for me! I understand if this is a problem with eSellerrate, but it still needs attention from someone.

Post-registration hiccups

Trying to use a Custom script and/or Smart update before registration obviously prompts a register dialog. After entering a serial number, you're allowed to go ahead with the advanced features but then copy progress fails at the second stage, with a log complaint that SD! needs to be registered to make use of the new goodness. Restarting the app fixes this.

Saved settings confusion

The way SD! treats saved settings and background default settings could be cause for some confusion. Might need clearing up in the UI.

Basically I had a basic setup sorted and working with auto saved settings. Later I set some advanced options then saved my settings to file. Next time I started up SD! it had reverted to auto-saved settings and it took me a while to figure out that I had to reload my saved settings OR just reset the options and NOT save manually. This seemed a bit counterintuitive. A solution might be to autoload the last saved settings when relaunching SD!

Presumptuous Scheduling

Clicking "Schedule..." assumes you want to make a new schedule when often you just want to edit or look at schedules. Might be better to allow the user to decide and make the button just open the Schedule copies window. Might require a slight button text change "Schedules..." maybe? Maybe the schedules view could be treated the same way as options, ie a fading pane of the main window. Might help to keep the app more unified.

Also, the "Automatically copy..." check box seems a little vague and clunky. Maybe have checkboxes on every scheduled item's row to toggle activation.

Feature requests:

And of course, the developer's nightmare: needy users.

- Icon preservation - A setting to allow a target volume's icon to be preserved would be lovely. I'm aware of the existing workaround but it's still flawed in that the finder doesn't automatically refresh the icon unless you force quit finder or un/remount the volume.
- Ignoring on the target - Slightly related to the above, but what's the chance of the ability to designate certain files on the destination volume as sacred and not to be touched by SD?

Can't think of any more now, but I reckon that's enough to be getting on with :)

Again, thanks so much for creating such a wonderful tool. Take care.

Thanks for the comments and feedback. Some quick responses:

- We have a lot of Hong Kong users who have used credit cards in the past, so I'm not sure what might have gone wrong with yours. If you contact support@esellerate.net, they should be able to help.

- Post-registration custom script is a known issue, due for a fix when we get time (it's low priority because there's an easy workaround).

- There are a number of things in settings that I hope to clear up with a different approach in 3.0.

- The schedule button is designed to schedule the settings. If you want to open the Scheduled Copies window, you can do so in the Window menu. Note that its state is preserved, so once opened it'll stay open until you close it.

Thanks again for the comments!

- schedule button:
Yeah, it's clear that's what the button's designed to do, but it sets up the expectation that it's a valid way to EDIT the scheduling too. It works though, so I realise it's not top priority.

Cheers.

Yes, understood. There are aspect of this interaction that I don't love, but sometimes compromises have to be made to get a product out the door... I have a large number of ideas for how to "fix" many of these issues -- now, we just have to find the time to get 'em done. :)