Hi Bud,
On the performance issue on your end, would you mind emailing
support@splasm.com so we can start working to figure out why things aren't as fast as we'd expect? There's a lot going on under the hood in 2.5, but 30 second delays aren't normal - and we've tested with tens of thousands of Entries to be sure that doesn't happen. Bound to be an explanation and we'll find it with you.
About the Launch window ... Hoo boy, it was a tough call on our part to finally switch to documents for storing CheckBook's Accounts, versus the original "shoebox" style where users didn't have to interact with their data file at all.
Over the years, we heard from a lot of users who wanted simpler ways of dealing with the data file. For them, the file was hidden too deeply, "somewhere" in their home folder, and it was basically a text file that the Mac didn't know what to do with and not easy to work with when backing up and restoring or moving to a new Mac or sharing with others. So we had a long think about it and, we think, anyway, that the benefits of full-fledged documents make them a win. Backups, sharing data with other users, restoring from backup, moving your data to alternative locations - even cloud storage folders like DropBox or Google Drive, managing more than one group of Accounts, and using iCloud are so much easier (though, sadly, that last one doesn't apply away from the Mac App Store) with the documents out in the open instead of tucked away.
Now that CheckBook uses documents, and has the additional user interface overhead to support them, we want our users to know their options when they close the current document. Sometimes it's even closed for them because we no longer have quite the level of control over what can happen during a CheckBook session. One example is when the document is in iCloud on two devices, both using the same document at the same time (which we've tested and it works well). If the document is moved out of iCloud on one device the user on the other device has to make a choice - save a copy of the document and keep working, or close it and lose it. If they choose to close the document, quitting the app without any warning would be pretty jarring - and closing the document but not showing anything but a menu bar at the top of the screen would be confusing. The Launch window softens that kind of thing. It's patterned after a workflow we saw in Apple's apps, one we first adopted in 2006 with Audiobook Builder. It even supports unmodified keys for opening and creating documents, getting help or quitting - you can hit the 'o', 'n', 'h' or 'q' keys without holding down the Command key.
Your ideas are part of our process, so please keep sending them in. This time around automatically quitting when the document is closed doesn't cover all our bases. We'll think on a preference, but please understand that there's a lot of thought going into these kinds of decisions - even when they seem quite cosmetic. It's never "let's move things around 'cause we can" over here!
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The new version is sluggish. Sometime it is just a noticeable pause before a keystroke is executed and sometimes the spinning beach ball remains for up to 30 seconds. No matter -- it is always a little slow now.
