Small rant in support of T's GUI

[valley]

The flat GUI uses less cpu

actually that's not quite true.

A flat square gui (preferably without any outlines around things) is about as efficient as you can get short of switching to dos mode (which on modern video cards may not even be all that efficient anymore). Tracktion uses rounded buttons though, and trust me, any small gain derived from not having to draw 3d borders is more than lost when drawing curves and anti-aliasing them.

For the amount of anti-aliasing, alpha channeling, and generaly curviness going on in Tracktion's UI it is a little surprising just how light and responsive it is.

[valley]

I certainly hope Tracktion 2 is more skinable. Why shouldn't you have your cake and eat it?

Easy, 'cos to follow your metaphor through, you eat too much of that cake and you yourself are going to make Roseanne Barr look like a figure skater. Befoer you know it people will start using *you* in bad analogies. The same holds true for software. Skinning *is* cake. It adds weight, and steals speed. Tracktion's GUI is almost entirely vector graphic based, so colours are about the only thing you can change. If it is was bitmap based like many 'pretty' guis, it would take up five times the space it currently does in RAM, draw slower, and slow down development time. I dunno about you, but skinning isn't *that* important to me.

[Lunch Money]

As mentioned, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Even at the Montreal Botanical... er... Centre?, I could spend all day in the Zen garden, but could pass on almost all other gardens.

To me, simplicity and elegance is beauty. I also love eXT for the same reason, though eXT has the advantage of being skinnable, too.

Greg

[pHz]

pHz-- I'm an English major first, I guess, and an English TEACHER second. The latter should know that a concise argument is better than a wordy one, but the former gets carried away. What are your teachable subjects?

tad OT (but not entirely) but since you ask ...

art & design
design & technology
media studies

slainte rob

[IIRs]

Man, I wouldn't like to see your wifes/girlfriends

I can imagine yours: thick as two short planks & always caked in make-up..

My girlfriend wears no makeup, & usually dresses in old clothes (cos shes big on DIY atm).

Shes still sexy as hell, but she only takes 10 mins to get ready to go out

Also, she has two degrees, is studying for a phd, and is still really interesting to talk to (even after 6 years)

[Lunch Money]

Coincidentally, the above post sounds eerily like a description of my girlfriend, and echoes what I would have said about his.

Greg

[Armadillo]

....... Tracktion's GUI is almost entirely vector graphic based, so colours are about the only thing you can change. If it is was bitmap based like many 'pretty' guis, it would take up five times the space it currently does in RAM, draw slower, and slow down development time. I dunno about you, but skinning isn't *that* important to me.

five times... so how much is that exactly.
Everybody has a 2-3 Ghz pc with probably 1 GB RAM, with at least a 32 MB graphics card.
Is that really an issue?
How much would it slow your pc down, 1 or 2 %? I say upgrade your PC instead. An Athlon xp 2600 cpu with motherboard can be bought from new for £130.

[multree]

After all the complaints, I'm sure T2 will have user-definable colour schemes, though I remember Jules saying once upon a time that actual "skinning" (ie changing the buttons, etc) won't happen.

that'S all I want... I wouldn't want to fuckin'ell I'd love to experiment with my own buttons and stuff

but changing the colors would be really cool

[NAD]

The thing is.... Doesn't all that purplish blue and light pink make you feel kinda girly? (My apologies to any female users, I'm going on the assumption that there aren't any….)

[soulata]

five times... so how much is that exactly. Everybody has a 2-3 Ghz pc with probably 1 GB RAM, with at least a 32 MB graphics card.

ehm, not really. I'm doing quite ok with my athlon xp2000 (1800 mhz or so) and 512 MB of ram. Forgot about graphics card.

How much would it slow your pc down, 1 or 2 %? I say upgrade your PC instead. An Athlon xp 2600 cpu with motherboard can be bought from new for £130.

I (and many others probably) don't have the need to upgrade my comp everytime a faster processor comes around. It's a waste of money and time. I'd rather spend that money on software that works with my existing setup and does what I need well.

And T is a winner here.

K

[amoebe]

that host's CPU consumption is a non issue since VST's came around.

[Lunch Money]

The thing is.... Doesn't all that purplish blue and light pink make you feel kinda girly? (My apologies to any female users, I'm going on the assumption that there aren't any?.)

Er... no...

I've actually never even thought of ANY of the colours as particularly feminine, being that they're shades (as mentioned).

Also, I guess it could also be that I'm secure...

Or that (as stated) I instantly recognized the intelligence of the colour scheme chosen. It's not just someone's 'personal aesthetic' that we're seeing, it's a consciously chosen FEATURE to make long hours of work more pleasant.

Greg

[GaryG]

Just looking at Tracktion, i would have said the GUI was too dark. Actually using it though proves what a good mix the colours are, no strain at all even after sessions lasting hours imo.

And if I had to think of anything GUI-wise that I'd describe as 'toy-like' it would be GUIs that pretend to be real hardware. Maybe the ds404 is the worst of them all; emulating hardware displays i ask you...

.g