[ardour-dev] UI review: Unifying the selection logic in ardour

[Marek Peteraj]

On Tue, 2004-06-01 at 08:03, Carl Seleborg wrote:
> Hi guys.
> 
> This is a really interesting discussion : I like it when good care is 
> taken of the GUI. However, one question :
> 
> Marek Peteraj wrote:
> > * insert region
> > * insert chunk
> > * insert ext. sndfile
> > 
> > are track based operations, can be grouped into 'insert'. 
> 
> In a previous post about context menus, you proposed that these 
> functions be moved to the track's context menu. 

Yes, as said, they are track based operations.

> However, I feel that the 
> user would be frustrated if he/she could'nt specify an approximate 
> position of the insert with the mouse pointer. It seems natural to click 
> on the spot where you want to isert something, and have it inserted there.

True, but not really. For example, rightclicking on a region selects a
region and provides a menu for it. This can be misleading. Also simple
rightclick doesn't provide any way of finding the exact
position/location. That said, inserting should be done via the edit
cursor(EC). It should be possible to either 
1) place it at the position of the EC before choosing 'insert...' or to 
2) locate the position with the EC after the file/region has been picked
- EC would follow cursor, left click would confirm. 

IMHO it's hard to guess whether the point you click at is the start,
centre or the end of the region you're trying to insert. Furthermore
it's hard to determine the position of the "spot" you clicked on. 

Leaving the user with the option to concentrate on locating the exact
position of the region with the EC, either manually before choosing the
'insert' operation or immidiatelly after picking a region/file to
insert, where the EC follows cursor as you move it across the region
editor, is a better idea IMHO. With EC you also have the option to
insert regions/sndfiles on more tracks at the same position for example.
That said, it should be only available in the track context menu.

Marek