Re: [Audacity-quality] Sync-lock-look

[Al D. <bus...@gm...>]

I'm going to top-post this -- it's related to this conversation but 
doesn't really respond to any specific points. One deliberate feature 
of the chain-link images was that they were diagonal. This means you 
can't draw a vertical or horizontal line that doesn't intersect part 
of the graphic.

One possible arrangement would have a square tile with a clock in the 
middle and a quarter-clock at each corner. Another is a hexagonal 
arrangement: tiles are rectangular, about 1xsqrt(3); clocks are drawn 
as semicircles drawn in the middle of each edge. Using either 
technique you shouldn't have to pack them all that closely to cover 
every vertical/horizontal line, but the tiles will have to expand to 
keep size of clocks the same.

With any luck I'll have time to try these this coming weekend (my week 
is swamped), but I thought I'd throw them out there in case anyone has 
a chance before that, or in case I don't have time over the weekend.

 - Al

On Monday, September 13, 2010 22:57:04 Vaughan Johnson wrote:
> On 9/13/2010 7:04 AM, Gale Andrews wrote:
> > | From David Bailes <drb...@go...>
> > | Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:54:38 +0100
> >> 
> >> On Sun, Sep 12, 2010 at 6:17 AM, Vaughan Johnson
> >> 
> >> <va...@au...> wrote:
> >>> Please, David and Gale, check the latest.
> >> 
> >> re the mute and solo buttons, I think it would be a bit clearer
> >> that they were buttons if there were horizontal grey lines
> >> immediately above and below them, as in the edit toolbar. With
> >> no difference in color betweent the buttons and the background,
> >> the current edges have fairly low contrast.
> > 
> > Wouldn't it be better if we could put the dark border back (so
> > affecting the track menu button and minimise button too), but
> > with a rather lighter colour? I agree, something akin to the
> > contrast the Edit Toolbar buttons have would be good.
> 
> Done, using same color as the border of the toolbars. For the title
> popup menu and mute/solo buttons, that makes it look like the
> bottom bevel is bigger than the other 3 bevels, but that's true in
> the toolbars, too.
> 
> This currently does restore a line above the sync-lock icon, but
> I'll fix that after we decide on Steve's suggestion (below).
> 
> >> re the clock icon in the track panel. It has slightly low
> >> contrast, a bit more pitch black might be helpful.
> 
> I purposely did not do that because it is an indicator, and because
> it needs to be anti-aliased. Pitch black would be very jagged at
> 12x12.
> 
> > I like the look of the icon in the Track Panel. It doesn't seem
> > quite correct in the waveform yet.
> 
> De gustibus non disputandum. I like the one in the waveform much
> better. Can't get very accurate in the 12x12 pixel icon, so I
> couldn't make it look as much like my very beautiful (!) tiles as
> I wanted.
> 
> I didn't give the proviso Al did, but I am also not a graphic
> artist. Just wanted to get rid of the chain-link fence look, and
> finish up this feature. If any of you can do better, please submit
> the images -- that is not a dare, it's just not a good use of my
> skills for me to do it.
> 
> If anybody's going to try it: the icon is 12x12, the tile is 27x27,
> and the button is 20x20, and needs enabled and disabled versions.
> Al did the chain-link images purely with the alpha channel. Not
> sure why. Mine have non-zero gray values in the RGB channels, too,
> e.g., shades of "Audacity blue" for the clock hands.
> 
> In the meantime, I've added the button images, based on the tiles.
> 
> 
> I'd love it if we could get a graphic artist to redo *many* of our
> amateurish-looking buttons... and we could agree on them! :-)
> 
> Some of them (e.g., mic and speaker) could be readily replaced with
> existing OSS or CC-licensed images. Really, I think only the
> Transport buttons are good looking. Do we want to prioritize a
> slightly newer look for 2.0 as well as bug fixing? I vote yes,
> especially for readily available replacement images.
> 
> >As well as it being slightly low contrast,
> 
> That is intentional. It's an overlay, not content.
> 
> >the "rim"
> >
> > that surrounds the clock "looks" thicker than (but lighter than)
> > the clock itself.
> 
> There's no distinction of a "rim". I intentionally used a brush in
> The GIMP so the edges fade on the inside and outside of the
> circle.
> 
> >The rim seems thicker at the bottom too (it appears to have light
> >
> > grey shading in the bottom half of the clock face on my monitor).
> 
> Possibly, as I was using a brush, but I think the impression you're
> getting is because the hands are darker, so make their background
> look lighter than the bottom half of the circle.
> 
> And if it's not even all around, that's probably good, as it makes
> it less two-dimensional.
> 
> > The clock tiles also looks a bit like a letter V in a circle.
> 
> My favorite letter! But I disagree. Nothing on a clock face looks
> like a V because the hands are different lengths. Clearly, the
> hour hand is on the right. That's why you say "five/ten to" two,
> below.
> 
> My thinking was that both hands should be up, so it's not a frown
> or droopy mustache. 10:05, 10:10 and 11:05 all look like a check
> mark in a circle. It wasn't arbitrary. I thought about those
> before I did it.
> 
> >Maybe it would
> >
> > be a bit better if the "time" was closer to a quarter to two? It
> > looks a bit like "five to" in the tiles and "ten to" in the
> > Track Panel - is it an illusion?
> 
> It's due to the different resolutions.
> 
> I think any of the quarter-hour positions, for either hand, make it
> look less like a clock and more like a pie chart. :-)
> 
> > So for me, more space between the clock tiles,
> 
> Interesting. There's already more space between the clock tiles
> than there were for the chain links, i.e., the image is a smaller
> part of the tile.
> 
> >with a slightly, darker
> >
> > thinner rim would help.
> 
> I disagree. The color is very similar to the chain links tiles.
> Should be light, and somewhat fuzzy, as an overlay, so it doesn't
> appear to be a series of objects/controls, or content of the
> track.
> 
> On 9/13/2010 9:15 AM, Steve the Fiddle wrote:
> > The link icon on track panel is clearly not a button now (which
> > is good), and I like that you can click on it to select the
> > track when the track is collapsed.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> >However when SyncLock is off and the track is
> >
> > minimised, there is a tiny sliver between the track name and the
> > expand button, which if clicked on with the accuracy of a surgeon
> > it is possible to select the track without expanding it.
> 
> I think that was true prior to my recent changes, and is an
> off-by-one error in the original code.
> 
> > My preference would be that when SyncLock is off, the track icon
> > disappears but the track expand button does not grow to fill the
> > space, but that the space remains empty, leaving a space that the
> > user can click on when the track is minimised.
> >
> >[and Martyn's +1]
> 
> I think it looks odd to have the minimize button "left-justified"
> when nothing is to its right. How about shrinking the minimize
> button on the left, too, leaving a blank that's the size of the
> icon on both sides of the minimize button when sync-lock is off,
> and putting the icon to its right (as currently) when sync-lock is
> on?
> 
> > Regarding the icon / tiles, I'm not overly concerned about what
> > the graphic is, but using a literal representation of a clock
> > would tend to invite the question of whether there is any
> > significance to 1:55.
> 
> That would be true of any time we choose.
> 
> > As it represents "synchronization" rather than "time", perhaps
> > something a bit less literal would convey the meaning more
> > clearly, for
> 
> example:http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=synchronize&tbs=isch:1,isz
> :i&biw=1366&bih=549
> 
> 
> Those images imply very different meanings of "synchronize", imo.
> They mean "make these two different storage items contain the same
> latest superset." The world/folder ones imply local-to-distant.
> The circling arrows more often have the meaning of "refresh"
> (http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&biw=983&bih=634&tbs=isch%3A1%
> 2Cisz%3Ai&sa=1&q=refresh+icon). And the gear image usually means
> "settings/preferences", so doesn't really even belong in the
> group, regardless of showing up in a Google search result.
> 
> So, I think any of those would be misleading, as we mean, "lock
> these tracks together on the timeline". "Sync-Lock", not
> "Synchronize".
> 
> - Vaughan
> 
> 
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