OK I updated T yesterday so now have this Run script button but I'm struggling a bit to know how to use these. The problem for me is I like Tracktion because the tools you need are always in front of you when you need them - the brilliant and still unique context specific interface. Now I have a gazillion commands organised into a dozen or more submenus and sub sub menus and I think it's taking me just as long digging around in those menus to find a specific command as it would take to actually do what it does myself, with the added disadvantage that they are not there in the interface right in front of me when I need them - it seems rather to go against the design philosophy of Tracktion. While I appreciate these may be very popular I do hope they don't become a substitute for adding functions in future based on the gui ergonomics because a big long list of stuff is not my idea of a great user friendly interface.
Also I'm not sure how some are supposed to work - eg 'Insert plugin preset"? How does it know which plugin and which preset?
Javascript macros - is there a snag?
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- KVRAF
- 37539 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35529 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
At present, you're probably getting shown every possible thing defined in the three default categories (Basic Shortcuts, Standard Actions, Advanced Actions) and maybe two custom categories (User Macros and Custom Menus)
Shortcuts equate to the old keyboard shortcuts; just use these if you want an alternate means of accessing them.
Actions are not shortcuts. They're snippets of code for making scripts out of. Many of them dont do anything that makes sense outside of a script. Unless you're writing a script, I'd say ignore them -all-.
User Macros will contain any scripts you create/supply yourself. With just a few scripts, its okay; at some point I suspect that it'll get busy for some peopple and be a bit unwieldy.
Custom Menus is sort of the solution; you need to enable it via 'Show Script Tree Editor' (*) at the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts(**) Settings page, and when you do you can create your own menu structure with whatever nesting you want, just like the custom plugin menu editor. Just drag a script/shortcut onto the tree, move, make folders etc. IMO, this should be used for -all- your scripts, and maybe it would make sense for it to be the only script submenu you use, while you ignore the others.
( In fact unless Im editing a script, I'd prefer to disable the other menus except this and the Basic Shortcuts options. )
(*) Needs renamed to 'Show Custom Menu Tree' for sanity
(**) Needs renamed to 'Scripts and Shortcuts' for sanity
Shortcuts equate to the old keyboard shortcuts; just use these if you want an alternate means of accessing them.
Actions are not shortcuts. They're snippets of code for making scripts out of. Many of them dont do anything that makes sense outside of a script. Unless you're writing a script, I'd say ignore them -all-.
User Macros will contain any scripts you create/supply yourself. With just a few scripts, its okay; at some point I suspect that it'll get busy for some peopple and be a bit unwieldy.
Custom Menus is sort of the solution; you need to enable it via 'Show Script Tree Editor' (*) at the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts(**) Settings page, and when you do you can create your own menu structure with whatever nesting you want, just like the custom plugin menu editor. Just drag a script/shortcut onto the tree, move, make folders etc. IMO, this should be used for -all- your scripts, and maybe it would make sense for it to be the only script submenu you use, while you ignore the others.
( In fact unless Im editing a script, I'd prefer to disable the other menus except this and the Basic Shortcuts options. )
(*) Needs renamed to 'Show Custom Menu Tree' for sanity
(**) Needs renamed to 'Scripts and Shortcuts' for sanity
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
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- KVRAF
- 10175 posts since 16 Dec, 2002
You can assign them to keyboard commandsaMUSEd wrote:OK I updated T yesterday so now have this Run script button but I'm struggling a bit to know how to use these. The problem for me is I like Tracktion because the tools you need are always in front of you when you need them - the brilliant and still unique context specific interface. Now I have a gazillion commands organised into a dozen or more submenus and sub sub menus and I think it's taking me just as long digging around in those menus to find a specific command as it would take to actually do what it does myself, with the added disadvantage that they are not there in the interface right in front of me when I need them - it seems rather to go against the design philosophy of Tracktion. While I appreciate these may be very popular I do hope they don't become a substitute for adding functions in future based on the gui ergonomics because a big long list of stuff is not my idea of a great user friendly interface.
Also I'm not sure how some are supposed to work - eg 'Insert plugin preset"? How does it know which plugin and which preset?
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37539 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Yes I know I can in principle but I doubt many people could remember such a long list of commands - I imagine if I assigned more than half a dozen to commands I would quickly forget which was which. That's why I prefer Tracktion's design philosophy, what is in sight is in mind. That's what I don't want to get lost. There should be no functions that are not visible to the user.
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- KVRian
- 1325 posts since 26 Mar, 2004 from UK
Maybe make the "Run Script" button dual use (via options / preferences), so that you can have this button launch your custom script menu / tree straight away when preferred, otherwise the default menu is shown? Guess you want to get to your scripts in as few clicks as possible?
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- KVRist
- 358 posts since 3 Dec, 2004
I strongly disagree. Any feature like this that you can't see on the main screen is completely ignorable and thus does nothing to hurt the design philosophy of Tracktion. All it did was move the "about" button to an option under the "help" button as far as anyone should be concerned.aMUSEd wrote:Yes I know I can in principle but I doubt many people could remember such a long list of commands - I imagine if I assigned more than half a dozen to commands I would quickly forget which was which. That's why I prefer Tracktion's design philosophy, what is in sight is in mind. That's what I don't want to get lost. There should be no functions that are not visible to the user.
As far as I am concerned this is the coolest new feature yet. I have over a dozen key commands already assigned and I plan on way more. I can lay named markers on the fly for major different sections of a song, verse, chorus, etc (genius). When a singer is doing overdubs and wants an extra take I hit ONE button as opposed to making a new track, naming it, loading the plugins, setting the correct level and setting cursor position. I just hit my key command, it does all that, then I arm the track and record and the take is already "mixed". As I said in the other thread my tracking speed has the potential to be insanely fast relating to what the talent tells me to do and how fast I can do it.
Scrolling through active automation parameters is also brilliant. No more dragging the A, I just hit '=' on a track and it shows me what I need to see with no menus.
I am almost certain there is some feature in there that you will be excited about having as a key command, and if not just ignore it.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37539 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
No you're not getting my point, it's not the position of the button that is my concern, it's the fact that we now have a load of actions that require you to hunt for them in a list based menu several levels deep - this is a very different design philosophy to the principle that Tracktion makes visible the tools that are needed where they are needed and when they are needed depending on context. I do realise why this is popular for some users but I'm just saying to the devs please do not lose sight of the original ergonomic principles that makes Tracktion so great and so unique. I for one do not want to dive into menus to find functions that should be visible not hidden away.Kang wrote:I strongly disagree. Any feature like this that you can't see on the main screen is completely ignorable and thus does nothing to hurt the design philosophy of Tracktion. All it did was move the "about" button to an option under the "help" button as far as anyone should be concerned.aMUSEd wrote:Yes I know I can in principle but I doubt many people could remember such a long list of commands - I imagine if I assigned more than half a dozen to commands I would quickly forget which was which. That's why I prefer Tracktion's design philosophy, what is in sight is in mind. That's what I don't want to get lost. There should be no functions that are not visible to the user.
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35529 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
Nothing -new- is only in the run script menu. Everything that exists is still where it was. There are no actions you have to hunt for. Scripts are for composite functions, doing sets of things in one go, not replacing functionality.aMUSEd wrote: No you're not getting my point, it's not the position of the button that is my concern, it's the fact that we now have a load of actions that require you to hunt for them in a list based menu several levels deep - this is a very different design philosophy to the principle that Tracktion makes visible the tools that are needed where they are needed and when they are needed depending on context. I do realise why this is popular for some users but I'm just saying to the devs please do not lose sight of the original ergonomic principles that makes Tracktion so great and so unique. I for one do not want to dive into menus to find functions that should be visible not hidden away.
And if you -only- use scripts via the custom menu tree like I suggested, any scripts you want to run can be organised as neatly as you want.
Or you can just not use scripts. You dont need them, since they dont replace access to anything.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
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- KVRist
- 358 posts since 3 Dec, 2004
I see what you are sayin aMused. Whyterabbyt brought up a good idea about adding buttons to the properties menu that would be assignable, which I think would be great. That would still require some extra work though. All in all I think this type of customization is great and beginners can just overlook it and not be missing much. I see no problem making the program deeper behind the scenes, while leaving it alone "on the surface."