[Traverso-devel] Helping with development -> where do I start?

[Peter Hoppe]

I work with a radio organization and have done quite a bit of audio
editing using Cool edit. Since some time I am doing a bit of 'lobbying'
towards using cross platform and open source software. One of the major
drawbacks so far has been that it is difficult to find an alternative to
Cool edit which is as simple to use and safe in its operation (i.e.
doesn't yield surprising results when exporting a session to a wav file)

Yesterday I downloaded Traverso (version 0.42.0 on Kubuntu 7.10 on amd64
platform, had to compile and install from source). I did some test
editing and found the program very easy to use. The soft selection idea
is particularly compelling. learning all the shortcuts at the beginning
is a bit of a learning curve, but once learned, it can make editing very
quick indeed.

One feature I would suggest is 'hard selecting' parts of an audio clip
for further processing - i.e. drag mouse over audio clip holding some
key which then selects the relevant part of the audio clip. This would
then allow operations such as cutting, copying and pasting. There may be
more features which could come in handy

I realize that things like a hard selection feature are potentially
tricky to implement. I also don't like to just send suggestion mails. I
have done some programming already (not professionally, mainly java,
very (very very) little c++).

Where would I have to start if I wanted to have a try with developing
additional features? Which development environment should I use? Are
there any guidelines to adhere to (naming conventions, code indentation
...)?

I also saw some common methods such as begin_hold, finish_hold,
prepare_actions (e.g. in FadeRange, seems inherited from the Command
class). Is there some resource I could look up (other than looking
through source code / doxygen output) as to what the general concept
behind these methods are?


I tried to import the project into KDevelop (3.5.0, too old??), but it
failed to compile. Which tools should I use if I need to develop user
interface components (dialogs etc)?
If all else fails, I could use the Kate editor (advanced text editor
with session support) plus command line for compiling, but it would be
nice to have some sort of IDE. I have extensively worked with Eclipse
before, and it has a C++ plugin.

As I said, I haven't done much C++ development, but this would be a nice
challenge and learning opportunity. It would also be the first open
source project where I would help.

Thank you very much for your consideration and thank you so much for
this application!

-- 
Fame is probably the second most dangerous occupation after working in a
coal mine
 - Moby