Re: [LAD] Mouse/knob interaction

On 09/12/2010 01:35 PM, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On Sun, 2010-09-12 at 12:39 +0200, Olivier Guilyardi wrote:
>
>> In regard to phat, if only the SVG, or XCF, or whatever sources were on svn,
>> that would allow to tune the colors, the size, etc... Maybe that the solution is
>> to redraw it in Inkscape.
>
> The source is a Blender file. Peter Shorthose took care of animation and
> post-processing after I did the design.
>
> I would think this has to be in a repo somewhere, but I have a local
> copy, anyway:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/485382/old_knob_3d.tar.bz2

Cool! Thank you :) I just wish it was plain SVG, I'm everything but familiar
with Blender and friends.

If you can do that, it would be great to commit these files to the Phat SVN.
Pixmaps are like binaries after all, and you got the sources.

> Great how those won't die, as much as I wish they would, while all the
> stuff in http://thorwil.wordpress.com/?s=knobs didn't go anywhere.

Wow, brilliant and professional looking ideas in there..

> The main issue for me is that they always appear alien in GTK windows.
> Then the design is not strong enough to warrant creating a whole
> matching theme. They are not scalable.

Well, to me, the phat knobs are currently the only simple solution that look ok
in a GTK Window. They're not that alien, there is worse..
Theming, that's a problem. About scalability, I was thinking about rendering SVG
with Cairo (maybe several layers), but that may not be realistic.

IMO, Knobs will always be borderline in regard to GTK UI rules, and that's not
such a big deal, if you provide the proper keyboard shortcuts, etc..

> Creating such a series for a knob animation with Inkscape is not exactly
> trivial, if you want consistent lighting and a physical feel. For
> optimal, scalable results, the drawing should be coded, as otherwise you
> get issues with lines that should stay 1px wide and might be neighbors
> in some cases.

I understand, that's quite complex. A simple solution could be to generate the
phat PNG "animation" from 3 SVG files with some python script. One could tweak
the SVG files (or intermediary PNG files) before doing so, adjusting borders if
needed, etc.. The result won't be scalable, but at least, a developer could
easily choose the style and size(s) he wants.

On the other hand, coded drawing may have the downside of fixed style and
anonymous look-and-feel. IMO, audio and music apps need eye-candy, they're not
just scientific instruments.

That said, there really are interesting GTK friendly ideas on your blog.

> With knobs, you still have a problem with putting them into a layout
> with labels. I think much could be gained with sliders with integrated
> labels:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/485382/sliders.png

Of course knobs have downsides. But, in a window, knobs can be appropriate for
certain settings, and you can use sliders for others. It can give some graphical
balance. A window full of sliders may not be attractive, and may lack usability.

--
  Olivier
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