Bug 41865

Fixed with http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=f4b3bd91ca177101d90f522e81163dc6421e14c9

Macro recording is **highly** buggy and problematic; perhaps it doesn't crash, but the macros it uses are really awful, ~impossible to read, often execute in a fragile way, and this code is a maintenance disaster area.

Macro recording should continue to be disabled except in experimental mode; it is not a feature we can stand behind and maintain currently IMHO.

:-) I notice August reverted his commit removing the need for the experimental switch in master too (thanks).

Of course - it would be lovely to come up with a complete, holistic macro recording and replay solution; -but- we need more infrastructure work, testing, robustness etc. to make this work well.

(In reply to comment #2)
> Macro recording is **highly** buggy and problematic; perhaps it doesn't crash,
> but the macros it uses are really awful, ~impossible to read, often execute in
> a fragile way, and this code is a maintenance disaster area.

Might all be true, still people do use it.

> Macro recording should continue to be disabled except in experimental mode; it
> is not a feature we can stand behind and maintain currently IMHO.

Problem here is that I alone have seen 5 or more people asking how to record macros/why it does not work.
And then when people need to turn on a switch that activates exerimental code that may destroy data, I see a problem.
Therefore obviously I opened this issue.

> :-) I notice August reverted his commit removing the need for the experimental
> switch in master too (thanks).
> 
> Of course - it would be lovely to come up with a complete, holistic macro
> recording and replay solution; -but- we need more infrastructure work, testing,
> robustness etc. to make this work well.

I know the old explanations around this situation, so expect the chances for this are pretty low ;-)

I guess we could hide it by default in all the toolbars and menus, so you had to be an expert to turn it on; and we could throw up a dialog on 1st use saying "beware of the tiger" :-)

Then again; this is mostly folk-law; are there any systematic attempts to characterise where the bugs really are in macro recording (or more to the point playback ;-) ?

Hi Michael,

Yes, you already eplained why you do not like the macro-recording.
But sorry to say: you do not address my concerns.
Those are in short:
People use it, sometimes it is (very) useful, now its 'gone' and turning it on, puts a normal user in risk with a variety experimental stuff.

fixed in 3.6.0 with this commit
 http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=5ae11320a26a6356dfadeb812e0d6baf5bdc951c