Timer

[Gale Andrews]

I believe that a lot of the un-intuitive behavior of the spinboxes comes from the fact that there are two separate input numeric fields for each of the hh/mm/ss input boxes (one for tens and one for units). I think that it would be more intuitive if each of these were a single input field.

What about when you have "samples" as the selection format in Selection Toobar - a mere nine digits?

Rather than have identical-looking controls behave one way in Timer Record and another way elsewhere, the question may be if TimeText Controls are necessarily the best solution for Timer Record. We could use entirely the text box Widgets we now use for date. The separate DD/MM/YYYY components of "Date" don't interact with each other as the HH:MM:SS components of "Time" and "Duration" do. We could make the Date components interact (I guess), but not interacting might possibly be an advantage. I think the way the sections of the TimeText Controls interact with each other but don't fully interact with Date are a source of confusion.


Gale

[waxcylinder]

I believe that a lot of the un-intuitive behavior of the spinboxes comes from the fact that there are two separate input numeric fields for each of the hh/mm/ss input boxes (one for tens and one for units). I think that it would be more intuitive if each of these were a single input field.

What about when you have "samples" as the selection format in Selection Toobar - a mere nine digits?

OK you got me there -it's a fair cop

Rather than have identical-looking controls behave one way in Timer Record and another way elsewhere, the question may be if TimeText Controls are necessarily the best solution for Timer Record. We could use entirely the text box Widgets we now use for date. The separate DD/MM/YYYY components of "Date" don't interact with each other as the HH:MM:SS components of "Time" and "Duration" do. We could make the Date components interact (I guess), but not interacting might possibly be an advantage. I think the way the sections of the TimeText Controls interact with each other but don't fully interact with Date are a source of confusion.

Yes I can see a case for entirely seprated (and simplified) timer controls for timer record. I'm sure no-one ever goes down to the granularity of "samples" for Timer Record, in fact I'd bet a lot of chocolate that no-one ever consciously uses the "seconds" field when setting up a Timer Record event I certainly don't.

Time Record behaves differently to the "Selection ToolBar" and the "Generate" effectsanyway as with the toolbar & generate you can choose the view/display type - you cannot do this in Timer Record.

I'll mull over this before I update my draft proposal - but the idea of separate, simpler, controls for TR looks attractive.

Peter

[kozikowski]

What happens if I make an error? I'm big on error correction -- or notification. I'd like errors to turn red rather than ripple. Or the ability to ripple back. I think that's what happened to me in my "simple" capture recording. It's entirely possible I selected too many hours and the date obediently rippled to the next day -- and then I corrected my mistake and the date did not ripple back.

Although that doesn't explain why I couldn't correct the date later. I vividly remember that.

I'm trying to think back to systems I thought worked OK. I think 60 seconds automatically rippling to 1:00 is probably OK. I have other software that does that. Day ripple is harder. It's not fixed that I'm only going to want one day (ignoring briefly that the software won't perform), so that one isn't warranted.

My video recorder objects immediately when I do something stupid. "This event collides with another recording." It may actually tell me which one. It doesn't happen often. Or "Check storage available for a three-day recording."

Oh. Wait.

I will admit I don't know how it handles shows that go through the midnight barrier. I need to look.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Since we have offices across the date line, it can mess with email systems. I routinely get emails that have already gotten here tomorrow.
Koz

[waxcylinder]

... It's entirely possible I selected too many hours and the date obediently rippled to the next day -- and then I corrected my mistake and the date did not ripple back. ... I'm trying to think back to systems I thought worked OK. I think 60 seconds automatically rippling to 1:00 is probably OK. I have other software that does that. Day ripple is harder. It's not fixed that I'm only going to want one day (ignoring briefly that the software won't perform), so that one isn't warranted.

I'm strongly minded to agree with you on this Koz - I wouldn't be too unhappy about minutes rippling within the hh:mm field - but I think it would be better if the date was an entirely separate field to manage. My PVR and my old VCRs never worked on an elasped time for recording- always on start and end times. I will work this into my dratft proposal when I get some time

My video recorder objects immediately when I do something stupid. "This event collides with another recording." It may actually tell me which one. It doesn't happen often. Or "Check storage available for a three-day recording."

Yes ... I note that Audacity knows perfectly well that I currently only have space on my disk for a mere 25 hours of recording time (it tells me so in the message bar at the bottom of the Audacity window) - BUT it will quite happily let me set up a 2 or 3 day recording knowing perfectly well that this project will never complete and worse still my disk will fill up or crash yet providing no error-blocking or even a simple warning

Another item to be added to my draft propsal for Timer Record improvements.

Peter

[Gale Andrews]

It's entirely possible I selected too many hours and the date obediently rippled to the next day -- and then I corrected my mistake and the date did not ripple back.

I already noted that on Peter's page. But it's entirely expected that the TimeText controls don't go backwards beyond zero - they don''t in Selection Toolbar.

that doesn't explain why I couldn't correct the date later. I vividly remember that.

I don't see why you could not set the date back, except you can't set the date in the past. Were you using the arrow widget, or using down arrow, or typing?



Gale

[waxcylinder]

Ok I've added the futher items discussed in this thread and have now published my proposal for Time Record Improvements - see: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... provements

Comments and votes of support welcomed ...

Thanks
Peter.