Inverse Scrolling - An incredibly useful new feature

[BillFrezza]

Dear Audacity Gods,

I just realized the single biggest feature enhancement you could introduce that would improve my editing efficiency enormously.

Instead of keeping the waveform fixed on the screen as the play point moves left to right, leaping the waveform ahead discontinuously when the play point hits the right edge of the screen, have a mode where the play point stays fixed on the screen and the waveform continuously scrolls right to left.

How hard would this be to introduce?

Many thanks,

Bill Frezza
Host, RealClear Radio Hour

[steve]

have a mode where the play point stays fixed on the screen and the waveform continuously scrolls right to left.

How hard would this be to introduce?

It's been coded and will be available in the next version of Audacity (2.1.3)

[BillFrezza]

Love ya, man. If you have a beta version you want tested, sign me up!

Bill

[steve]

We don't currently have beta versions but we do have "nightly" versions ("alpha" versions).

As expected with alpha versions, there may be bugs and we don't recommend using alpha versions for production work. Using an alpha version is at your own risk, and unlike the release version where we provide technical support, alpha versions are where users get involved and help us, so are only really suitable for people that feel comfortable and competent using experimental software. If that's you, then scroll down this page for the "Nightly Builds" link: http://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/
The (incomplete) alpha manual is here: http://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page

If you find bugs in the alpha version, check that you have the most recent nightly, and if the bug is present in the most recent version, you can report the issue here on the forum. We also have a bug tracking system (Bugzilla) where you can look to see if it's a bug that we already know about.
http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/buglis ... t=specific

User feedback about new features is extremely welcome, whether good or bad.

[BillFrezza]

Hmm. I'm a bit wary of alpha software. Is it possible to download the test code on the same machine as the 2.1.2 production version without compromising the latter? This would let me play around with it without risking production.

Thx

[waxcylinder]

Hmm. I'm a bit wary of alpha software. Is it possible to download the test code on the same machine as the 2.1.2 production version without compromising the latter? This would let me play around with it without risking production.

Yes you can many different Audacities on your PC at any one time - they just have to be stored in different locations.

And actually the current set of alphas are pretty stable on Windows - I'm a QA tester and I'm bold enough to use them for my production work.

WC

[Robert J. H.]

Hmm. I'm a bit wary of alpha software. Is it possible to download the test code on the same machine as the 2.1.2 production version without compromising the latter? This would let me play around with it without risking production.

Yes you can many different Audacities on your PC at any one time - they just have to be stored in different locations.

And actually the current set of alphas are pretty stable on Wibows - I'm a QA tester and I'm bold enough to use them for my production work.

WC

Me too.
However, I define always a new folder "portable settings" in the alpha version directory.
In this way, the production preferences won't be overwritten accidentally.

Robert

[steve]

However, I define always a new folder "portable settings" in the alpha version directory.
In this way, the production preferences won't be overwritten accidentally.

Me to. Here's some details about that: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/pref ... l#portable

[waxcylinder]

However, I define always a new folder "portable settings" in the alpha version directory.
In this way, the production preferences won't be overwritten accidentally.

I deal with this on both my W10 laptop and my MAC by

a) storing a shortcut on the desktop to the location where the config files etc. are stored

b) storing a copy of my "production" audacity.cfg on the desktop.

That way I can trash the contents of a) to get an default configurtaion (for testing)
or trash the contents of a) and then copy b) into a) to get my production configuration.

WC

[BillFrezza]

Yipee! You guys are great. It's like you anticipate my every desire.

So ... when can we expect version 2.1.3?