Re: [Audacity-quality] Labelled Audio menu

[Gale A. <ga...@au...>]

| From Bill Wharrie <bi...@go...> 
| Tue, 4 Jun 2013 09:51:52 -0400
| Subject: [Audacity-quality] Labelled Audio menu
> 
> On 04/06/2013, at 6:46 AM, Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> wrote:
> 
> > On 4 June 2013 03:29, Bill Wharrie <bi...@go...> wrote:
> >> 
> >> On 03/06/2013, at 8:23 PM, Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> wrote:
> >> 
> >>> On 3 June 2013 22:24, Bill Wharrie <bi...@go...> wrote:
> >>>> I asked this on -quality a while ago, and Al Dimond answered ...
> >>>> 
> >>>>> On Monday, September 20, 2010 14:35:03 Bill Wharrie wrote:
> >>>>>> Why are Labelled Regions > Cut and Delete disabled when sync-lock
> >>>>>> is on?
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Because Labeled Regions > Cut cuts audio from the audio tracks,
> >>>>> leaving the label tracks alone. When we examined how these functions
> >>>>> work with Sync-Lock mode (maybe a year or so ago?) we decided that
> >>>>> their leaving the label tracks alone was a defining feature. This is
> >>>>> inconsistent with sync-lock mode, where edits in all tracks are to be
> >>>>> synchronized.
> >>> 
> >>> That seems a bit arbitrary given that these commands have a completely
> >>> different way of treating selections than any other commands, but
> >>> thanks for the information Bill.
> >>> 
> >>> I presume that these commands should be greyed out if there is no
> >>> wavetrack present?
> >> 
> >> As you can see, it's been a year and a half since I worked on the Labeled
> >> Audio commands. My memory of those discussion is less than hazy :(
> >> 
> >> But, yes, it makes sense to me that all the Labeled Audio commands should
> > > be disabled if there is no audio to affect.
> > 
> > OK I'll include that change in my "Align menu" patch.

Thanks, Steve.


> >> Also try this:
> >> - 1 audio track
> >> - 1 label track with one point label
> >> - select in the label track but not over the label
> >> -- all the labeled audio commands are disabled
> >> - select in the label track across the point label
> >> -- all the labelled audio commands are enabled, but only Split makes sense - the others do nothing.
> > 
> > I agree that the above is not ideal, but it is a fairly simple
> > mechanism that uses "flags" to determine whether a menu item is greyed
> > out or not. It would not be practical to provide flags for every
> > possible situation, so the mechanism is quite coarse.
> > 
> > As I see it, the *purpose" of the greying out mechanism is to prevent
> > actions that are dangerous and provide feedback to the user that the
> > option cannot be done. I don't think that we should necessarily grey
> > out "unwise" options, as there may be special cases that we have not
> > thought about. Greying out should provide safety and convenience. I'm
> > wary about greying out items just because they are "not intended to be
> > used that way". If it is safe for an option to be enabled I'd rather
> > err on the side of allowing it than imposing an unnecessary
> > restriction that may inconvenience users.
> 
> Agreed that nothing "bad" happens in the above situation.

I think another purpose of "greying" can be education, and 
avoiding confusion - in the sense that if an item is available 
but does nothing it can be confusing if you don't understand
why nothing happens.  

However it's possible to live with most of the above actions 
doing nothing for point labels if it saves a lot of work. 


> > Thus I would prefer to allow
> > "Labeled Audio > Cut" when Sync Lock is enabled, even though it is not
> > completely logical (but not a big issue imo).
 
So would it cut the label as well as the audio if allowed when 
Sync-Lock is enabled?  
 

> I don't think we want to open the can of worms known as "Labeled
> Audio versus Sync-lock" at this time ;)

I tend to prefer logic so I think sleeping dogs and worms 
could just as well stay sleeping. 

I am not sure how off topic the following is, but I'll mention 
it here because I don't understand it (or I've forgotten if
someone explained it). 

1 Launch Audacity
2 Tracks > Add New > Label Track 
3 Edit > Paste is enabled by step 2, but there is
   no Audacity clipboard content to paste.  

I am guessing it may be enabled because right-click over a
label > Paste is enabled if there is system clipboard content.
But doesn't Edit > Paste Text to New Label cover that? 

 

Gale 



> >>>> On 03/06/2013, at 5:01 PM, Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> wrote:
> >>>> 
> >>>>> Is there any reason why
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> "Labelled Audio > Cut"
> >>>>> and
> >>>>> "Labelled Audio > Delete"
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> are greyed out when Sync Lock is enabled, but the the other "Labelled
> >>>>> Audio" sub-menu options are not?
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Should they be greyed out or not?
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Steve