There will be (have been!) some reorganizations of the menus, where I’m trying to find representations of the range of stuff I’ve done (Paul and others like not having too much in ‘Uncategorized’). I’m also floating an idea with Paul and can mention it here: in Airwindopedia, the source of these menus is actually organized by ‘goodness’ and to some extent recentness, NOT alphabetically.
I’m not sure alphabetizing is as useful as ‘the best ones are on the top of the submenu!’, where my recommendations are built into the order presented to you. So I’m suggesting (if it is possible) to retain the order presented in Airwindopedia, where they’ll typically be newest-first but will be in rough order of how useful I think they are. That way if you start from the top and I’ve been improving things you’ll hit the best option quicker
Oooh that’s a slightly tricky reorganization of the code (I use sorted data structures so I don’t have to think about this) but sure I can do that this weekend sure
I’ll probably make it a user pref whether to sort alphabetically (easier to find by name) or chris-wise
In that case let’s see if anybody but me wants this: if people hate the idea, definitely don’t bother, it doesn’t meet the ‘making extra work for Paul’ test
I think it would be extremely helpful to have the option for a curated “usefulness” sort order, as well as an alphabetical sort. Sure, usefulness is extremely subjective, but the list of effects is dauntingly large, so for me at least, I welcome any form of recommendations.
The only other effect selection feature I would like to see is the ability to go directly to a specific effect without having to find the correct category. I would like to be able to enter the first few characters of an effect name, and be presented with matching options. It could be a scrolling uncategorized alphabetically sorted list with a field above, and as you type the list automatically scrolls and highlights the first effect that matches. Or it could be a field with empty space below, and as you type any matching effects pop up to choose from. I haven’t seen any similar examples in VCV, so I can imagine it might take significant effort to develop, so I won’t be surprised if this feature is not implemented. But it never hurts to ask.
Minor point in the context menu - type implies category, but “Lock Effect Type” does not lock the category, it locks the specific choice. I think it makes more sense to say “Lock Effect Choice”.
Similarly, you could have “Randomize Changes FX Choice”
It’s a lovely sunny day here in New York and I was just walking down the street sort of thinking about exactly this feature and how you might code it in rack
My thinking was the effect selector menu gets a typein at the top - if you type the entire menu replaces with things which match that so you type “gal” and get galactic and amogalfa (if amogalfa were an effect which it isn’t) then click one
This is a wee bit tricky but I’ll add it to my list!
Oh also latrst nightky I borrowed the surge port graphics (we are going to improve the graphics befor library) and made an on and off port widget so when a port isn’t used it is still there and plug gable but looks inactive. These graphics will improve of course
That’s the thing. ‘Usefulness’ exists in the airwindopedia.txt file already, within each category (and in a general sense: for instance, a successor plugin with an incremented number is very likely to be more ‘useful’ and higher in the list) because those categories were literally first written to serve the purpose of recommendation.
Originally, they just left out most of the plugins and only mentioned the ones I liked best, in order of that liking. I’ve always been willing to write a new plugin and then put it in NOT at the head of the list, because it served a purpose even if it wasn’t the ‘best’ one.
So what’s being offered (if Paul’s up for offering menu items ordered that way, and it’s not too much trouble) is literally subjective, but it’s not a popular ranking, it is literal recommendations from the person who wrote all the plugins knowing their purposes. Everything would still be available, but even if you didn’t understand everything going on in a category you could be steered to the stuff most likely to help, and then a series of follow-up things you could try, also most likely to help, and as you go on you’d get other options or stuff that was more of a departure.
Alphabetically, you really can’t tell (other than going for highest version number) and the namespace issues of managing 350 or so plugins come into play: would you know that Verbity is the one with feedforward reverb matrices like Casey of Bricasti likes to use, and Reverb is just a householder matrix like typical DAW reverbs? But in the Chris-ized sequence, the feedforward stuff (such as Galactic) comes first, and Reverb’s right at the bottom. Sometimes you use the good name and only after that do you find the way to make the thing way better…
Somewhere on the internet a haskell programmer is getting ready to write a really irritating response to this comment, probably involving a burrito, but it’s a good idea and I’ll change type to choice in my next push
By the way, I thought I recognized you: you’re the guy who started out with the BRIGHT RED faceplates! Very ‘Metasonix’. I have no further idea about your modules than that, but I thought it was cool. From the guy who’s been making generic AU and VST plugins for years and years, rock on and be sure to leave space for the way YOU like to see things. If that’s super bright red, awesome! It’s okay for people to not like it, or for people to be like ‘I want to love your plugins except you refuse to make a GUI for them!’ and to stick to your vision.
Yeah it may be tricky also - the jog data structures having two flavors…. So this double sort feature may not make the first library drop depending on complexity. Will see
If it comes down to a choice between Chris sorted or alphabetical within each category, I vote for the Chris sort. If you didn’t have the typeahead search then I might vote for alphabetical. But the only reason I know to use alphabetical is if you already know what you are looking for, in which case the typeahead seems like a superior way of finding what you are looking for anyway.
Chris sort is surprisingly tricky - I am still thinking about the impact on the data structures. I baked in “always be alpha” in a real way to make sure I didn’t blow it.
But of course none of this code really existed 6 days ago so how hard can it really be
No rush. I’m pretty sure literally nobody is clamoring for it to be altered, and I don’t think people will typically even think ‘I want it to have the ones I like right there at the top where the mouse cursor is’, nor do they trust that I know which ones are best and which ones aren’t worth their first look.
So there’s no harm in you thinking about it, maybe an elegant way will come to mind, and there’s the opposite of rush. I think I’ve got it so everything has a category, and there’s nothing in Uncategorized anymore. That’s enough for today
I love the search ability! Kinda saves some time with remembering the category. But having the category in grey text next to what you find would be cool too. Like – – FireAmp - (Amps). Just a little idea, not 100% needed, but might be appreciated by some people that are new to Airwindows and don’t know any of the names. Like I memorized maybe 100 of them and there are 300+
I agree, the search is very handy! But I think it’s good as is.
The grey sockets for the inactive ports look like buttons. I think they create more confusion than help. I’m not sure that any color coding is needed as having no label next to the socket is pretty obvious sign, isn’t it? But if color coding is preferred then an alternative socket type or a simple colored ring (similarly Dan’s recommendation above) might be enough.
A general feedback: I’m running the Airwindows modules for days now, I have 5-10 of them in every single patch and it seems to be pretty solid. No performance issues, no crashes. I think it’s close to beta.
