[PD-dev] Re: pure devil (fwd)

[B. Bogart]

Hi,

Just some notes about GUI stuff...

QT designer built into the patch-editor so that one draws GUIs in the
patcher just like one draws the patch itself? wow. I'm not familar with
QT does the designer allow you to create more abstract items other than
the usual widgets? (for example drawing something like Yves grid without
using buttons or anything? I think there is something to be said for the
vector style of PD that I don't see often used in "normal" GUI design.)

What would alpha-blending be for? (except for some visual parameter for
user-feedback or as an element in a custom gui object. I wonder what a
transparent object or patch would represent in the patcher?

I'm not sold on the Zoomer idea. If anyone has used eyeweb what they
have done is removed all nesting (abstractions and subpatches) and
replaced with with the ability to zoom into a big mess. I've never had a
case where I needed to see better what is happening up-close. Maybe when
I was connecting many patch cords to many inlets, but that was the
fastest way to do it once. What is the rational behind zooming in the
patch? (other than the ability to have the choice to make one giant web
of mess and be able to zoom into different regions of it.

Layers is also though for me. Are we thinking of arranging
objects/connections on multiple planes as another method of not using
nesting well as creating a multi-dimentional web-o-mess? Perhaps if this
idea was made so restrictive that a performance (run) mode hides the
patch and the edit mode hides the gui.. but this causes all kinds of
trouble, not to mention making the performance process seperate from the
patching process (and I'm sure we almost all swap back in forth in many
performances). How could the layers be connected to one and other using
connections?

To put it another way, I don't see the difference between nesting
(abstraction/subpatch) and using layers or zooming. Creating a new
layer, making it visible and adding objects, then hiding it again and
working somwhere else is analagous to opening a abstraction/subpatch
working in it and closing it. Zooming is just the same except there are
no inlet/outlet objects to broker the communication to the outside patch.

State-saving for parameters is a great idea. I wonder how to make it as
patch like as possible. That is to have the ability to hack the most
diversity of interpolation algos, from lop~ to line, line~, line2,
line3, pmpd and even a circular line. State-saving sounds great. :)

Clearly I would put state-saving and possibly interpolation way ahead
of layers and zooming, but thats me.

B.


Georg Holzmann wrote:

> it will be based on Christian Klippel's (Mamalala) karma GUI - ported to
> Qt4 and some more features ...
> We also discussed about maybe an embedded (rewritten) Qt-Designer in the
> patch-editor - where you should be able to build custom guis (and
> interpret the .ui files - or "compile" GUI-libraries for better
> performance) ...
> ... and of course additional features like a property-editor for all
> objects, alpha-blending, zooming in patches, layers for the GUI-objects
> (like in graphic-programs), qt undo/redo framework, maybe buildin state
> saving of all object with interpolation beween states, a lot of custom
> canvas items (polygons, ellipse, images, ... - to maybe build
> 2D-games;), ...
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