kmix-improvements - status

[Daniel Faust]

Hi Trever,

thanks for your reply.

> > The last commit is over 2 months old, though. So my question would be,
> > what
> > are your current priorities and what are your ambitions towards a
> > re-write?
> > Is it a matter of your free time? And would you welcome some help?
> 
> KMix2 is almost big enough of a change to be considered a rewrite. The
> program is drastically restructured, but a lot of the code is copied and
> reformatted from KMix1.

So what is kmix2 exactly? Is it the kmix-improvements branch?
There actually is a kmix2 branch (and a oldkmix1 branch) both more than 13 
years old - but I guess that's something else ;).

> > Another point would be the vision of a UI. I know that this can be quite
> > different for various people. I put some thought to how the kmix UI could
> > look like and made some mock-ups. I would rather like to not share them
> > with you right now, though, since I don't want to alienate anybody before
> > talking about the other questions.
> 
> How would it alienate people?

Oh I get alienated by some peoples ideas - and often by my old ideas when I 
look at them later. So I didn't want to open this conversation with: "I got a 
great idea, let's do it my way!", but rather by asking how you plan to move on 
and whether you could use some help.

> > I see that there are actually more people who would like to contribute to
> > kmix, but it looks like it's mostly about MPRIS2 and SoundMenu and the
> > kmix
> > master branch.
> 
> Thats mostly the GSOC project.

And I guess that this work goes to the master branch, right?

> > It would be great if someone could fill me in on the current state of the
> > project.
> 
> It is still alive but set aside while I manage these gsoc applicants and
> other things.

As I mentioned in my first message, I initially just wanted to fix a layout bug 
in kmix. I like a clean UI and instead of waiting for someone to write the 
software I want, I thought I would offer my help. That's all.


As I said, I put some thought into how I would design a mixer UI, so I'll just 
attach some mock-ups. It's basically a combination of the old kmix, 
pavucontrol and the new windows mixer.
The mock-ups require some phantasy - it's build with the Qt Designer and 
edited with gimp.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29089012/kmix-mockups-5.tar.gz

Some explanations:
The idea is to show the device with it's master volume slider together with 
the streams.
Make it easy to select the device you want to control and switch a stream to a 
different device (I don't use this but it seems others do).
Don't show too many controls, the balance can be adjusted by clicking the 
balance button beside the mute button and there is also space for an effects 
button (eg. equalizer).
The master channel shows a gimped volume slider that monitors the current 
volume.
And I think the horizontal line that shows the maximum volume is very helpful 
to understand how the volume adjustment works, Microsoft did a good job at 
this in their mixer.


So please tell me what you think and if you can use some help.


Greetings,
Daniel