Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Desktop Environments in the World of Pro Audio
From: Fred Gleason (fredg_AT_wava.com)
Date: Fri Jul 05 2002 - 15:53:14 EEST
On Wednesday 03 July 2002 19:17, Paul Davis wrote:
> When you present a pro audio app user with a widget that looks like a
> gain fader, the user knows what to do with it because they have seen a
> gain fader on a physical console. If you substitute a default toolkit
> "slider", the instant association with the function of the element
> vanishes for a large part of the near-term user community. They have
> to mess around to find out what does what.
Interesting that you chose this particular example, as I'm sitting here
wrestling with this very issue right now: Qt's default "QSlider" widget is
pathetically inadequate to the needs of audio work, and I've ended up having
to build lots of extensions on top of it.
Your point's very valid: lots of stuff in these DEs is irrelevant to audio
work. However, there's lots that's useful as well. I don't think the best
way to make these environments more "audio-friendly" is to turn our backs on
them. Rather, let's *use* them (where appropriate) and contribute to them.
I see no reason why we can't ultimately get a set of widgets for audio in
(say) KDE comparable to what's now available for office-automation. The main
reason they're not there now is because the audio gurus (read: the people on
this list) haven't seen fit to contribute them. This is certainly not to
denigrate the multimedia work that has already been done in those settings --
aRts and esd work very well for the limited tasks they were intended for --
but this really is a task that ultimatelly belongs to the LAD community.
> I disagree. Its the pro-audio world, filled with people with hands-on
> experience of physical audio controllers, and almost no usage of Word,
> Outlook or Emacs, that is best suited to custom GUIs. The consumer
> market, filled with people used to the "Windows/MacOS" GUI model,
> would likely feel more comfortable with audio apps that adhered to the
> "stylebooks".
So the "stylebook" here then would be that of a Mackie console or some other
piece of physical gear. That makes sense. No reason why such a thing
couldn't be added into an existing DE's stylebook -- it's just a new class
of application.
Cheers!
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