Re: [linux-audio-dev] acid, linux

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] acid, linux
From: Billy Biggs (vektor_AT_div8.net)
Date: ke joulu  01 1999 - 20:26:30 EST


Kai Vehmanen (kaiv_AT_wakkanet.fi):

> Couldn't agree more! ;) I just finished recording&mixing
> two new songs using the latest stable version of ecasound (v1.6.7r7).
> I didn't use GUI (qtecasound) for anything - all was done using
> the console-mode interface. [...]

  I don't see how you can do any audio work at all in console mode. Personally,
I find ecasound to be very powerful and cool, but to me it's mostly useless:

  - If I'm recording a song, I _NEED_ to see peaks so that I can watch for
    clipping. Without being able to visually see incomming audio data, I could
    finish recording a whole song without realizing that I clipped in the middle.

  - If I'm editing a song, I NEED to visually see the waveform. Without that,
    I don't see how you can do any reasonable audio editing.

  - I don't want to have to keep typing to use an audio app. It means using
    both hands to do work on a keyboard, whereas the mouse lets me keep one
    hand on my instrument.

  - Cutting and pasting of audio files, splicing, and punching in, is pretty
    much ridiculous without a GUI.

  BTW, take a look at my ttrk screenshot, http://www.div8.net/ttrk, to see the
basis for a feasible ACID clone GUI.

> Currently qtecasound already has over 5000 lines of code, but still
> it offers only the most basic features of ecasound libraries.
> Console-UI (under 500 lines of C++ code) supports *all* features.

  I don't think you're using Qt properly.

> But what's even worse (as you mentioned), writing GUI code is just
> *really* boring. You spend most of the time moving widgets from
> position to another, making layout changes, wondering what the user
> might do (and in what order), etc etc... I guess GUI-design programs
> like Glade, QtEz, Qtarch make it more bearable, but they have their
> own problems (writing HTML w/ emacs is a bit painful, but it's still
> a joy compared to FrontPage :)).

  Programming a good GUI is more about design than programming. That doesn't
mean it's boring, it just means you have to design and not just fire off code.

-- 
Billy Biggs                         vektor_AT_div8.net
http://www.div8.net/billy       wbiggs_AT_uwaterloo.ca


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