[Audacity-devel] Feature freeze todo list

[Juhana S. <ko...@ni...>]

Hello. I have compiled this list of the features suggested to 1.2.
Mostly I have copied texts from the mails posted here but have
not included author names. James Crook mailed to me months ago
privately, and his suggestions can be found here too. When I
comment the copied suggestions I place my text between brackets
[ and ].

When the freeze goes on, we implement the features in this list,
polish the existing features, and fix the bugs. No new features
are added to the list after the freeze. This way people are
forced to take tasks from this list and not spend time in testing
out some new features. Sounds ok to me; how about you?

 -*-

1. I suggest the following rules for save and export:
 -Save means saving the whole project or the selected tracks to
  a project file; no mixing
 -Export means playing the project to a file or files (when each track
  goes to separate file)

Currently we are missing the "play to file" as the export mixes only
the selected tracks, that is, it uses the selection properties for
the track selection, and not the play properties such as mute and solo.
In any case, the current situation is very bad (I already produced
wrong mixes): (i) export depends on what tracks are selected,
(ii) making selections is difficult and selections are very fragile.
Of course, we could add "play to file" and add a warning sign to
export: "use at your own risk". :-/

2. A bars/beats time ruler and snap-to bars/beats.

3. A 'save as' or 'export as' dialog that allows export to all of the
formats we support, including flac/ogg/mp3/etc., with different bitrates.
The code could be smart enough to know how many tracks the saving
operation would apply to.  If more than one (or one stereo linked), it
could refrain from listing the formats that can only handle one or two
channels. I was hoping we could have something like GIMP has.

4. Single button/key that removes DC bias and amplifies to (configurable)
75 % of full scale, without prompting for amplification factor.
[ I would leave this to later when the plug-in handling is better.
But we could have a bias parameter per track, next to the track volume
fader. The formula would be "out = volume*in + bias". As the waveform
display already seems to compute RMS values, one such a RMS value could
be displayed. User then could adjust the bias manually. ]

5. One-click preview for 'cut selection'.  Plays (configurable) 3 seconds
around the selection, _excluding_ the selection itself.
[ We also need configuration for the one second play around pointer.
We could add PlayPlayRegionList() routine similar to PlayPlayRegion()
but which plays multiple regions without interrupts in the audio.
How difficult it is to get uninterrupted play from outside of engine? ]

6. The zoom-toggle button that switches between two zoom levels.
[ We could add two radio buttons and one standard button to toolbar:
<Z1, level1 select>, <Z2, level2 select>, and <ZS, zoom set>. The set
button would assign the current zoom level to the selected button.
Initially the zoom level memories would be empty, and only press of <ZS>
will change their values, i.e., user could change the zoom in anyway
but he would get the memorized zoom value by clicking the <Z1> and <Z2>
buttons. ]

7. Resize window to a larger size, including to full screen, also does 
a fit-to-window if we were fitted to window before the resize.
[ Maybe post 1.2 as we also need multiple projects in the same window
feature: either by (i) subwindows inside the main window, a common
toolbars, (ii) no subwindows but the project is technically behind
a pointer which can be changed from a "projects" menu, (iii) different
projects are in tabbed windows, as commonly used in 3D graphics
software. Tabbed windows could also contain preferences/controls for
Audacity and for all plug-ins. That requires a way to build the tab
pages on-the-fly. Certainly post-1.2 stuff. ]

8. Upgrade of cursors and tool-button-bitmaps so that cursors 
and button bitmaps match (on platforms where this is possible).

9. Some fine tuning of colours/bitmaps - this needs discussion :-).
One example here: should the gain tooltips be the same shade
as other tooltips or not?

10. Window resizing handle (bottom right corner) in windows
[ Do you mean "in MS Windows"? This could be wxWindows issue as
I'm able to resize the window. ]

11. More built in code for automated testing, not sure exactly what,
ideas for how to do this would be welcome.
[ It is more like continuous research job. Leave to post-1.2 version. ]

12. Related to this, a self-image-capture class. This puts the gui through 
its paces, capturing .pngs of toolbars, sliders, dialogs according to 
an external script file.  This makes updating the images in the
documentation much easier.
[ Third party screen capture program which accepts remote commands
via a named pipe, say. Audacity would then have a way to send one
command only and a way to send commands repeatedly (n times per
minute). ]

13. Half a dozen nyquist scripts, annotated and explained in the 
Audacity documentation.  Nyquist looks an incredibly powerful
feature, but I haven't a clue how to do some of the simplest things
things with it.  
[ Continuous job. Leave it post-1.2. ]

14. Zooming wavetracks in the Y axis (amplitude) would be really nice;
especially when you are using the drawing tool to hand modify a waveform.
[ We need both the amplitude pan and the amplitude zoom. Later or now
the routines can be used to implement automatic "fit to display"
so that the amplitude pan and zoom values are automatically adjusted
for having the waveform is fully visible. Pan and zoom could be
locked to a fixed values, of course. ]

15. A function to export all tracks as separate wave files all at once.

16. A master gain control.

17. Track label could be changed to look like what is in commercial
multitrack software. More compact, that is.

18. Timed recording.
[ A dialog similar to the undo dialog containing the start times and
the lengths of the recordings. Each recording goes to its own track. ] 

19. Vertical resizing of tracks.
[ Resizing all tracks together is what I want at minimum. Collapse
of tracks and more complex operations could be post-1.2 in my opinon. ]

20. The keyboard layout for the release version, as well as at least
one alternative.
[ We should remember both left and right handed people. ]

21. In the Timeshift-tool mode I propose making [ctrl+mb1] do
"Align track to cursor". Since they're only one clip per track,
simply clicking anywhere in to the track should perform that function.
Only the Selector tool can set the cursor, right?
[ Checking the mouse button operations through should be done.
Multitool should be considered as a base for the default mode.
Some operations would work always, like making a selection.
Then various tools would change function of some of the mouse
buttons. Without the multitool the Audacity is very annoying to
use, IMHO. ]

22. Time scrollbar < and > buttons do not work after 16 (say) zoom steps,
e.g., with projects larger than 30 minutes of audio.

23. When drag selecting the tracks out of track window, the window should
scroll and reveal more tracks.

24. After cut, the view is not at the cut point (if selection was 4 seconds,
the view is 4 seconds forward from the cut point).

25. Editable marker system. What key would you suggest to "Save the
Selection" then?
[ What EMS would be and how "save the selection" relates to it? ]

26. A toolbar goes slightly over the transport toolbar when they
are arranged automatically to the same row. (In wxGTK/Linux.)

 ---*---

Unedited list of bugs and features:
(had no time to polish the list)

mixer toolbar has no default device written on the menu, but
clearly some mixer channel is controlled;

even the play region is completely visible, the display jumps to
left -- it jumps so that the start of the play region is on the left
edge of display;

plot spectrum does not work if the selection is too small;

multitool slide stops when the pointer moves over the track labels;

Drawing tool uses Alt modifier but that does not work in GNome.

"Drag the label vertically to change the order of the tracks"
performs "select all". Two operations in one.

It is possible to extend the selection out of the track display
(when the view is scrolled to end), but then the end edge of the
selection cannot be grabbed and dragged. Solution: selection can
be made only up to the end of the track.

Opening multiple files.

When a selection is readjusted by grab&drag, the release of the
button at outside of the track panel could mean "undo".
Similar for all other operations.

 ---*---

In the following section, authors are:
JC == James Crook
JS == Juhana Sadeharju
(I left some suggestion out as they seems to be post-1.2 features.)

[JC]
Audio Preview feature. This allows you to hear an edit before you
commit to it. This is window dressing on the GUI - implemented
initially by making the change, playing it and then undoing it.
[JC]
Cross fades with preview: Don't know how this would look, but will
combine a fade in a fade out and a shift.
[JC]
Clip-out Preview. The key thing here is being able to easily adjust
the end points of the section you want to cut out, hear what it sounds
like with that piece removed and repeat.
[JS]
Are all these preview features already done?
Check also item 5 at above in this mail.

[JC]
L&R <-> Average+Difference display. This way you can see what a stereo
track gets mixed down to as mono, and the stereo content separately.

[JC]
Split Track into band pass filtered components. Useful even just to
view a waveform without background mains hum.
[JS] Spectrogram would do that already?

[JC]
Sound-diff: Ability to compare waveforms and have this displayed
graphically.
[JS] Can a plug-in operate on two tracks and generate preview to
third track? Or replace the second track with the result.
It would be essential that the substraction between two tracks
is made interactively so that user may time-shift the waveforms
and manually find the alignment between the tracks.
This may go post-1.2 if it requires changes to plug-in system.

 ---*---

(v. 1.1.3)

In the input/output gain toolbar the pixmaps are in wrong places:
the output has microphone pixmap.

open followed by close makes an exit; it should not exit;
user may want open another file instead of quitting

run audacity; open large file so that importing takes time;
run another audacity from command line; quit the another audacity;
now the first audacity has problems in finding auf-files

run audacity; open large file; user cannot now make a new editor
where to work while the file is being imported

very narrow selection is not always drawn; very narrow
selections should be one pixel wide if samples/pixel value
is high

very narrow selection with high samples/pixel value
causes problems in grabbing and dragging the selection edges

zoom at low samples/pixel value; make a selection; zoom-out;
now adjust an edge of the selection by one pixel; then
adjust the edge to its original pixel location; now the
selection differs from the original selection 

dragging the selection edge out of display starts moving the
wave, but moving could start 100 or so pixels before the display
edge so that the coming wave can be seen

beat finder (nyquist script) caused core dump

 == end ==