Re: [Audacity-quality] Align Tracks Together (with labels)

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

| From Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> 
| Sat, 18 May 2013 22:21:25 +0100
| Subject: [Audacity-quality] Align Tracks Together (with labels)
> On 18 May 2013 14:32, Steve the Fiddle <ste...@gm...> wrote:
Steve wrote:
> >>>> How about if we replace:
> >>>
> >>> Align Tracks > Align with Zero
> >>> Align Tracks > Align with Cursor
> >>> Align Tracks > Align with Selection Start
> >>> Align Tracks > Align with Selection End
> >>> Align Tracks > Align End with Cursor
> >>> Align Tracks > Align End with Selection Start
> >>> Align Tracks > Align End with Selection End
> >>> Align Tracks > Align Together
> >>> Align Tracks > Align End to End
> >>>
> >>> with:
> >>>
Gale: I uncapitalised "to" below to see what it looked like
> >>> Align Tracks > to Zero
> >>> Align Tracks > to Selection Start / Cursor
> >>> Align Tracks > to Selection End
> >>> Align Tracks > End to Selection Start / Cursor
> >>> Align Tracks > End to Selection End
> >>> Align Tracks > Together
> >>> Align Tracks > End to End

+1 in principle, as far as I can see. Thanks for the suggestion. 

[Though the 4b patch has two "With Cursor / Selection Start"
namings. ]


David wrote:
> >>> I think this is ok, but I would prefer
> >> Align Tracks > With Cursor / Selection Start
> >> Align Tracks > End with Cursor /Selection Start
Vaughan wrote:
> changing the order makes it plausibly read as "<Cursor or Selection> 
> Start", but there's no such thing as a cursor start. A point is a
> single location.
> I think it should be "to Selection Start or Cursor"

+1 

> [and]  "from End to Selection Start or Cursor"

I find adding the "from" a bit confusing. The "To" as I see it is a 
contraction for "Start of tracks to"  and "End" is a contraction
for "End of tracks to". 

I slightly regret losing the preceding "Align".  It looks nicer 
because all items can be (correctly) capitalised, and it
prevents slightly losing the point of the last two commands
by the time you get to the end of the list.  

Any of these permutations would be slightly better IMO:

A: 
 
Align Tracks > Align to Zero
Align Tracks > Align to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > Align to Selection End
Align Tracks > Align End to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > Align End to Selection End
Align Tracks > Align Together
Align Tracks > Align End to End


B: Most wordy/most unambiguous 
 
Align Tracks > Align Start to Zero
Align Tracks > Align Start to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > Align Start to Selection End
Align Tracks > Align End to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > Align End to Selection End
Align Tracks > Align Together
Align Tracks > Align End to End


C: If we still drop "Align" we can counter the slightly
weird-looking last two by having them at the top. 

Align Tracks > Together
Align Tracks > End to End
Align Tracks > to Zero
Align Tracks > to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > to Selection End
Align Tracks > End to Selection Start or Cursor
Align Tracks > End to Selection End

I like "A" the most of those. It's not too wordy and both 
avoids capitalisation issues and the slight "End" confusion. 
 

David wrote
 >> (In passing, for keyboard users, a greater problem than the number of
> >> items, is that shortcuts can't be assigned to these commands. So for align
> >> with cursor you have to press alt, t, a, c, rather than a more convenient
> >> shortcut. Unfortunately the code doesn't create commands that then appear
> >> in the keyboard shortcuts.)  

Is the true of all the "Align Tracks" and "Align and Move Cursor" 
sub-items?  

Any other menu groups affected?  


David wrote:
> >> (In passing, if sync locked is on, then if there is just a number of
> >> audio tracks, then if you align together this overrides sync locked. I
> >> appreciate that this is documented in the manual. An alternative would be
> >> to tell the user that they were locked, and locking would have to be turned
> >> off to allow this.)
Then Steve wrote:
> I think that throwing an error would be the most "correct" thing to do, but
> I don't think that really helps the user. If the user selects "Align
> Together" or "Align End to End" then we can only assume that that is what
> they want to do. Throwing an error message to say "no, not going to do that
> until you turn off Sync Lock" is perhaps pedantic rather than helpful. The
> behaviour in this patch (Align Together and End to End) overrides Sync Lock
> without an error message

+1 

>  and leaves labels in their original positions.

+1 (this "no move" of selected label tracks is just for "Align Together"
and "Align End to End" isn't it)? 


Steve wrote
> >>> Any thoughts about what to do for "Align Together" if the average track
> >>> start is at or before zero?
Then David wrote:
> >> I think it should do the alignment whatever the average track start.

+1. At least one track will be behind zero and thus showing 
<-- arrows for this to happen, so let it do the alignment as 
requested,  



Gale