Zoom Normal (Cmd+2) cursor position

[steve]

if you are recording and then from normal default zoom level zoom in 9 or 10 times - you just get a centred black line.

That's because Audacity does not have time to calculate the display.

However if you are Playing and make a similar zoom then the waveform is displayed

Redrawing the display on playback is somewhat easier/more efficient because the audio data already exists.

in fact you can zoom in 17x from normal and you get about 8 sample points dancing about on the display.

Impressive isn't it
However it does depend to some extent on the power of the computer. For low power computers, playing a project (particularly one with lots of tracks) may stutter or fail to refresh the waveform. Zooming out to display the full track can help to give smooth playback in such cases (because the waveform does not need to be redrawn on the fly).

[Gale Andrews]

do we agree that the "Zoom Normal" command should zoom to the default "zoom level" not scroll back to the start.

Yes and if the cursor/selection is not centered on the display, but visible, then center it since Zoom In/Out do that anyway.

Zoom Normal does zoom to the default zoom level, it is where it goes (unpredictable) that is the problem.

The problem I have remains that Zoom In/Out are themselves a little unpredictable especially when there is transport.

Is the easiest way to code the change to make Zoom Normal "behave as Zoom In/Out" and then decide on policies for Zoom In/Out? If we changed the Zoom In/Out policy would Zoom Normal then automatically follow suit?

Another option, not as consistent with Zoom In/Out, would be, if there was a visible cursor/selection, to still keep the current display center which it should do anyway if no cursor/selection is visible.

When Zoom Normal did a zoom in, that would not always keep the cursor or selection visible.

Another option if the cursor or one selection edge only was visible would be to leave that cursor or edge at its current screen position.

In the absence of exposing options, probably the most "expected" is for Zoom Normal to always "do the same as Zoom In/Out", though I am not convinced that is always the most useful.

The only thing we can say on Bugzilla at the moment is that the current behaviour is wrong and not useful, but that's OK if there is a Wiki page to discuss what it should do .


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

2) When transport is active: Play, Record, Pause or Scrub
In this case Zoom In, Zoom Out and Zoom Normal all work to keep the playhead on the screen - which I think is proper desired behaviour.

Yes. Zooming while playback is active does not appear to be a problem. In all cases zoom will scroll as required to keep the playback cursor in view, which I think is correct.

I still say that could be improved. Keep the playback cursor in view but decide where it should be positioned.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

The question remains: what should Zoom Normal do when the cursor is not visible of the screen?

Is that not agreed? Keep the current time position centred when possible?


Gale

[waxcylinder]

I'm BUMPING this - the conversation has stalled - but we do not seem to have reached an agreed conclusion.

Peter

[cmac185]

Pardon my ignorance, what is meant by "Bumping"?

What needs to happen to bring this to a conclusion as everyone seems to agree it needs fixing?

Cliff

[cyrano]

"Bumping" is just a way of bringing this topic back to attention. Apparently, Peter is doing some spring cleaning early

And I would like to put a +1 on this topic. It needs fixing.

[steve]

I've logged bug 1292 and 1293 as "enhancement" issues.
Bug 1292 - Zoom Normal (Ctrl+2) may move selection off screen
Bug 1293 - Unable to mouse wheel zoom in beyond end of project

[Gale Andrews]

I also made a note of my side issues: centre drift when zooming (not yet tested with actual numbers), more consistent zoom behaviour when playing, and alternatives to zoom normal doing "similar to" zoom in/out in all cases (though I agree if it would be an advance if it at least did "similar to").

So Peter can archive this if he wants.


Gale

[waxcylinder]

Plus there is also the related proposal in the Wiki for Zoom improvements: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... om_Toolbar

Peter.