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

[Georg Holzmann]

Hallo!

> 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.)
yes of course - you can't use the PD designer as it is ... (o.k. you can 
use it for dialogs etc...) - it was just a thought I discussed with 
Christian and this would need of course a lot of plugins for the 
designer - or a reimplementation of parts of the designer ...

> 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?
it's only a visual parameter - I encountered that it can be handy if 
e.g. a slider is transparent (in a specific state) and e.g. if the 
slider becomes important you can increase the alpha value ...
(so just for visual feedback ...)

> 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.
maybe if you have a group of objects and you want them to be smaller ... 
(because they are not so important for now ...)

but anyway, every property (like alpha, rgb, Layer, size=zooming, 
position, font, ...) can be handled with the Qt-Property system - so it 
is independet of the representation of the object in the "pd engine" ...

> performances). How could the layers be connected to one and other using
> connections?
okay - I meant it much more simple ... (maybe layer is the wrong word 
for it ?)
on a Qt Canvas you can give each item a property (I think an integer) if 
it is in front or in back - so e.g. if you want a red rectangle in front 
of a black rectangle ... (now you need to create the read rectangle 
after the black one ...)

> 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,
yes - it should be as patch like as possible ...
but this could be made (again) with the Qt property system: if you have 
a pd object to get and set all the properties of an object you can make 
state saving and interpolation etc. in PD itself ... (of course this is 
also now the case with the iem guis ...)
But you need a lot of messages (if you e.g. work with rradical) - so we 
could of course also make the state saving/interpolation directly in Qt 
- this would mean that the "pd engine" wouldn't be involved - but I 
don't know if that is a good idea ...

LG
Georg