Re: [Audacity-devel] Provide 'Unrecognised Audio File Format' dialog with help-link button

[James C. <cr...@in...>]

Gale Andrews wrote:
> I assume you did make these changes to CVS shortly afterwards i.e. 

> "Check for unsupported extensions before trying to open file of unknown type"?

Yes.

> With the changes you've made now, I was not quite clear in the case where it's
> a WMA or MP4 etc. (according to the extension): do I assume the problem report 
> is not Jimmy's dialogue but something not yet written?

The code actually already included messages for 
specifically-not-recognised audio formats like wma.  These messages were 
not been used in the case where (e.g.) a wma looked like it could be 
read by an mp3 importer.  Changing the order meant that these messages 
are now seen.  All messages are reported on the error dialog, which now 
has Jimmy's help button.

Uhh...  Jimmy's extra button is wma specific...  We really want the page 
it goes to to be a general one about what formats we do and do not 
recognise...  and the url name should reflect that too.  There's also a 
question in my mind about users who are not connected to the internet at 
that time...  but it is better than not having it at all.

> Also is it possible to modify your idea something like this so as not to lose the
> slight benefit of opening valid files with incorrect extensions:

>>  Open based on extension.
>>  Else if the extension suggests we can't open it, then get a good
>     error message.
>>> If user accepts a prompt, then:
>      open by trying each importer, and if one seems OK use it
>      and set a warning flag
>>  Else no further action 

What we have is I think better.  With the prompt you could easily say 
'yes please' and then find that none of the importers actually can read 
it.  So what Audacity does now is do the import, set the warning flag, 
and then tell you that your import may be bogus, and if it is that you 
want to rename the file to have the correct extension before opening.

> I may be missing something but I am not sure why in the above proposal
> "Open based on extension" should think that it can or should open .doc,
> whereas it correctly thinks from the extension that it can't open WMA.     

Wma is in a specific exclusion list.  .doc isn't.

> While on about formats I'd like to raise again (not as an essential) the issue
> that Audacity seems to have great difficulty opening compressed files inside
> WAV containers such as are commonly saved by portable recorders. This is 
> a common user irritation when these appear to the user to be WAVs, especially
> as most media players even Windows Media Player can play them. Typically
> if you try to import these into Audacity it brings up the "unrecognised" flag 
> i.e. Jimmy's dialogue now, but Import Raw is not successful in opening these 
> sort of WAV files. If anyone wants to look at an example (it seems to contain
> IMA ADPCM data) please go here:
> http://www.gaclrecords.org.uk/audacitytestfiles.html


Not for the release checklist page, but not one to lose track of either. 
             As a first step, is it appropriate to make a FAQ entry 
about it?


--James.