Re: [Traverso-devel] ClipManager

[Jonatan Liljedahl]

(I need to remember to change the To: field... ;)

Remon Sijrier wrote:
>> Here's a summarize of the clip manager stuff we talked about on IRC
>> yesterday. There's some changes regarding when to copy and when to just
>> reference a clip, I think I have it sorted out now:
> 
> Thanks for the overview, very helpfull!
> 
>> * importing audiosources is also done in the clipmgr.
> 
> Why ?
> I admit that having it accessible from the clipmngr is a good thing, but I 
> prefer to have it also with < I > , and the standard drag and drop, what do 
> you think ?

Sure, the < I > action could work both in the song view and in the
clipmgr. Note that the clipmgr should be visible to the right next to
the songview, with a little button (or a key action) to show/hide it.

>> * each clip has a field to tell the number of references to it.
>>
>> * dragging a clip from the clipmgr into a track creates a reference to
>> it there (not a copy).
>>
>> * modifying a clip with multiple references creates a copy before the
>> modification, so that a new clip is created. (the new clip will have
>> references=1)
> 
> Hmmm, like implicit sharing, right ?
> Qt uses some magic for it's implicit shared classes, could be worth to have a 
> look at it!

I think it would be easier to just handle it yourself. It's a simple
refcount. When a clip is created it sets clip->refc=1, each time a clip
is referenced in a track (by [ C ] (copy) or dragging it from the
clipmgr) you do clip->refc++, each time you remove a clip from a track
you do clip->refc--.

>> * modifying a clip with only one reference (the one you're editing)
>> changes the clip, no copy is made, so no additional clip is created.
>>
>> * dragging an audiosource from the clipmgr creates a new clip of the
>> whole file.
> 
> It seems to be a powerfull addition to Traverso in general, ideas and 
> comments 
> from others are welcome of course :)
> 
> One thing to keep in mind is backwards compatibility!
> The proposed changes, will change the project.traverso file significantly.
> Ideas how to handle this?
> For example, handling it by creating a special convertor?
> People (including me) hate it when a newer version of a program ruines old 
> project files, or throws away most of your work by not recognizing the new 
> format, and thus not loading in everything....

Perhaps a convertor would be good. Does the project files contain the
version? if so it's easy to automagically detect it and convert it by
moving all Clips into their sources and putting only references to them
in the Tracks.

-- 
/Jonatan    -=( http://kymatica.com )=-