alsamixer idea

alsamixer idea

[Lee Revell]

With my soundcard (emu10k1), and a 21" monitor, running in a maximized
xterm with a small font, only about half the mixer controls fit on the
screen - I have to scroll to the right to see the rest.  Worse, the
names are truncated to 8 letters!  Yet, the screen is mostly empty
space.

Why not just make the mixer controls horizontal?  You would easily be
able to fit them all on the screen, with the full names, or at least you
could truncate them to something reasonable like 32 characters, and you
would still have the same amount of space for the mixer.  The only
drawback I see is that it might not be cross-cultural, though I don't
see why the volume increasing left to right is any less intuitive than
bottom to top.

At the very least it could have a horizontal mode that could be toggled.

Lee




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Re: alsamixer idea

[GCZ]

Lee Revell wrote:

> Why not just make the mixer controls horizontal?  You would easily be
> able to fit them all on the screen, with the full names, or at least you
> could truncate them to something reasonable like 32 characters, and you
> would still have the same amount of space for the mixer.  The only
> drawback I see is that it might not be cross-cultural, though I don't
> see why the volume increasing left to right is any less intuitive than
> bottom to top.
> 
> At the very least it could have a horizontal mode that could be toggled.

+1


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Re: alsamixer idea

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:46:28 -0400,
Lee Revell wrote:
> 
> With my soundcard (emu10k1), and a 21" monitor, running in a maximized
> xterm with a small font, only about half the mixer controls fit on the
> screen - I have to scroll to the right to see the rest.  Worse, the
> names are truncated to 8 letters!  Yet, the screen is mostly empty
> space.
> 
> Why not just make the mixer controls horizontal?  You would easily be
> able to fit them all on the screen, with the full names, or at least you
> could truncate them to something reasonable like 32 characters, and you
> would still have the same amount of space for the mixer.  The only
> drawback I see is that it might not be cross-cultural, though I don't
> see why the volume increasing left to right is any less intuitive than
> bottom to top.
> 
> At the very least it could have a horizontal mode that could be toggled.

It sounds nice.  The only reason I didn't do this is that the
alsamixer code became too dirty for such a big change... :<

Another good idea (IIRC James proposed) is to split the
volumes/switches between playback and capture and make them
switchable.


Takashi


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Re: [Alsa-devel] alsamixer idea

[Lee Revell]

On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 05:56, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:46:28 -0400,
> Lee Revell wrote:
> > 
> > Why not just make the mixer controls horizontal?  
> > 
> > At the very least it could have a horizontal mode that could be toggled.
> 
> It sounds nice.  The only reason I didn't do this is that the
> alsamixer code became too dirty for such a big change... :<
> 

Yes I was afraid of that, that's why I didn't look at the code first...

Lee




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Re: alsamixer idea

[Lee Revell]

On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 05:56, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:46:28 -0400, 

> Another good idea (IIRC James proposed) is to split the
> volumes/switches between playback and capture and make them
> switchable.
> 

This actually has the advantage that Windows does it this way, so novice
users will be a lot less confused.  Peter Zubaj is right in that 99% of
bug reports from new users involve confusion re: the mixer.  Anything we
can do in this area is probably worthwhile.

Lee



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Re: alsamixer idea

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Lee Revell wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 05:56, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> 
>>At Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:46:28 -0400, 
> 
> 
>>Another good idea (IIRC James proposed) is to split the
>>volumes/switches between playback and capture and make them
>>switchable.
>>
> 
> 
> This actually has the advantage that Windows does it this way, so novice
> users will be a lot less confused.  Peter Zubaj is right in that 99% of
> bug reports from new users involve confusion re: the mixer.  Anything we
> can do in this area is probably worthwhile.
> 
> Lee
> 

I am working on alsamixer now, trying to add the separate 
play,capture,misc views.
I don't have much time, so it might take a bit of time to finish.

James






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