[Traverso-devel] Some glitches with 0.40.0

[Nicola Döbelin]

Hi list,

I played a bit with the current CVS version, and I was a bit surprised how 
many small glitches I suddenly found. Most of them are also found in the 
0.40.0 release. I tested with the patched official 4.3.0 release of Qt 
(except the first point) on Kubuntu feisty. It's mainly about inconsistent / 
not intuitive behaviour:

- Compiled with official Ubuntu Qt 4.2.3 packages: H-Scrollbar / Shuttle 
doesn't work. I thought this was introduced with 4.3.0, but you can test it 
with my Ubuntu binary, which was compiled with 4.2.3. Scrolling doesn't work 
here with that one, either.

- Compiled with patched official 4.3.0 release: When zooming in horizontally, 
the timeline suddenly disappears

- It is confusing how the different cursors work. E.g. when playing, zooming 
centers on the playhead. When not playing, zooming centers on the work 
cursor. I also have difficulties seeing what the work cursor is actually for? 
Is there anything that couldn't be done with either the mouse cursor (as in 
<X> for splitting clips) or the play head?

- We should add an option to make the playhead jump back to the work cursor 
when transport is stopped. (Or to it's last start position.)

- Fades: The default values of "strength" and "bending" should be set to > 0, 
otherwise switching mode <M> doesn't have an obvious effect, because if 
strength == bending == 0, all shapes are linear.

- It should be possible to set a default shape (Mode, Bending, Strength) for 
fade-ins and -outs individually in the settings dialog. (I for one use "long" 
fades 99% of the time.)

- When changing the length of a fade, a tooltip should display the value 
(length), as when moving clips or markers.

- IMO the transition from "Song" to "Sheet" is only half-way done. In many 
places the option "do something with the current sheet" or "... all sheets" 
doesn't make sense anymore. (That's my opinion, YMMV of course.)

- A tricky one: I often have a short fade-in at the beginning of a clip (to 
smoothly fade in the background noise of a live concert before the music 
starts, about 0.5 seconds length). At the same edge of the clip I usually add 
a CD-marker. Since I want to have the marker exactly at the clip edge, 
hitting <M> to add it sometimes accidentally changes the mode of the fade, 
which is done by <M> as well. To make sure I don't change the mode, I have to 
add the marker somewhere else, away from the fade, and move it to the edge of 
the clip. This is not an elegant solution.

I would like to hear your opinion to the points above. Overloaded key actions, 
as in the last point, will definitely become more important the more 
functionality traverso has. One solution could be to have modifier keys, 
which bind the action to a certain layer. E.g. [SHIFT] + <K> always binds the 
<K> action to the song, [CTRL] + <K> to the nearest clip, [ALT] + <K> to the 
track etc. In the manual we mention that with the contextual key actions it 
is not necessary to click on small buttons. But if we have a very narrow clip 
snipplet or a short fade, it can be even harder to hit than a button. If we 
could bind an action to a certain level, we wouldn't have to actually hover 
over the object. Just make sure the fade or clip you want to process is the 
*nearest* to the mouse cursor.

What do you think of these suggestions? And can you confirm the problems with 
the timeline in Qt 4.3.0?

I would also like to suggest to sort these things out in a 0.41.0 release 
(after 0.40.1 Remon is preparing ATM) before we start adding new features for 
0.50.0.

Best Regards
Nic