Re: [Traverso-devel] keymap.xml patch

[Nicola Döbelin]

Hi Ben,

Thanks a lot for your suggestions.

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:34:21 -0700
Von: "ben levitt" <address@hidden>

> But when I first started using it, it was hard to do anything, since I
> didn't know the keys yet.  I found learning the interface to be a bit
> frustrating.  I felt like I could see the objects, but that they were
> ignoring me, which made me mad at them.  :)

New users being frustrated at the very beginning is sort of inherent to the 
concept of soft selections. We've been discussing from time to time how to ease 
the first steps, and what we've come up with so far is:

- an extensive manual will be ready for the next "official" release. It has a 
"first steps" section which explains step by step how to perform some basic 
actions.
- in the cvs version the left mouse button has some functionality, e.g. moving 
clips (or was this temporarily not working? Remon?)
- a planned feature is to print a list of all commands, which can be stitched 
to the wall
- something that crossed my mind right now: how about a "greeting dialog", 
which shows the first steps (importing a wave file, moving the clip) as 
pictograms? (I'll do a draft ASAP)

If I recall correctly the topic is still somewhat open, because there is no 
need to make a desicion yet. The keymap can easily be changed if we decide to 
make more use of the left mouse button. The reason for us being hesitant as to 
implementing "traditional" handling as well is that we really want the user to 
learn the soft selections. Every document (the website, manual, help file) 
emphasizes that traverso is different, and that learning the concept will soon 
be rewarded with a high efficiency etc. But that's just us, and the more input 
we get from people like you, the better we can judge how easily the soft 
selections concept is adopted by new users.

> Then after we hook users with the ease of doing simple things, they'll
> use it a lot and start learning about all the keys that act as
> extra-mouse-button shortcuts.

I could live with that ;-) As long as all actions are still available as soft 
selections, I don't mind if it can also be done "the other way".

> I made a small patch to keymap.xml that implements most of this (cvs
> diff -u), and it's attached.  Please let me know if you prefer a
> different format, or a different delivery method.  (Bug/patch
> tracker?)
> 
> You may notice the line that references objectname="AudioClipEdge".
> It currently does nothing.  Any suggestions on how to implement
> dragging an edge if the mouse click started near an edge?  I was going
> to try to have the AudioClipView check how close the mouse pointer is
> to an edge, and then dispatch the correct event, but I haven't read
> through enough of the code yet to figure out how InputEngine and
> friends are dispatching events.

(This will be answered by Remon, the project leader.)

> But more importantly, how do these ideas sound to you?  I don't want
> to come running in late suggesting changes you don't like.

As mentioned above, it is sometimes difficult for us to judge how new users 
respond to the completely different working style. Feedback from people like 
you (who were not familiar with the concept up to now, yet are seriously 
interested in using and learning Traverso) is very important and very much 
appreciated.

> I'm just excited.  :)

Great (and so are we)!
Thanks again,
Nic

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