TODO.extra

I discovered that the note cut (EC) effect is not working.

Retrig effects E9x and Rxy work at the very strange maner: their results are
depending on BPM value and aren't that one might wait from these effects. I
even managed to find the old machine with MSDOS and FT2 and explored how these
effects must work. Theoretically, tracker must play note at the 0th tick and
repeat it at every x, 2x, 3x and so on tick until the end of the line. And E9x
works exactly so. But Ryx effect (where parameter y determines volume change
during the repeating) has the bug: the note is played at 0th tick, then at
(x-1)th thick (instead of x-th), and then -- at 2x-1, 3x-1 and so on. For
instance, these effects in FT2 works as follows:

Tick E92 Ry2 E93 Ry3
0     *   *   *   *
1     -   *   -   -
2     *   -   -   *
3     -   *   *   -
4     *   -   -   -
5     -   *   -   *

Where * means note playing.

Curently I have no got enough free time to fix this bug. But I'd like to
propose a way of fixing it: Rxy effect should simulate FT2 bug for the
compatibility, but we should introduce the new effect working as Rxy. but
without the bug. 

1) An ability to render the track/pattern into the sample;
2) An ability to use the external sound processing programs (like Sox) to process the samples. 

>Christos Dimitrakakis wrote:
>>
>
>>> > Wouldn't the amplification slider benefit from an actual numerical
>>> > entry? Now the sensitivity of the slider depends on how large your ST
>>> > window is.
>
>>
>>
>> The benefit is that you can adjust amplification as fast as you want
>> (for instance if you want to decrease volume up to zero in some time).
>> But maybe the combination of the slider PLUS the entry would be better?
>>


Yes, I meant both  :) 

The numerical entry would also be useful when setting up the maximum
possible gain.

...As well as the ability of determination the maximum possible gain
automatically by the analyzing the module.

I'm currently working on a patch to implement an "Open Recent" sub-menu
(off the File menu) that lists the last four modules loaded into the
application.

So what about having its own menubar in the sample editor with various
functions grouped into different submenus (for instance, Edit->(Copy, Paste,
Cut, Delete, Save as WAV), Zoom->(Zoom in, Zoom out, Zoom into selection) and
so on)? At the same time we'll solve the problem of very long button labels. 

Gets my vote, but I think a right-click menu would be better -> less
mouse movement and faster editing.

You could put something about the right click menu in the hint area when
you open the sample editor...

I think that the most commonly used buttons should be there all the
time. Volume changing/mixing/resampling should be menu options.
Copy/Cut/Paste/Zoom should be buttons.

Another good rule of thumb is: which things could be implemented as
external plug-ins and which are directly related to the sample editing
window? The former can go in menus, the latter stay as button. For
example, the scrollbars and zoom functions are basic viewing elements
and should not be removed from the window.

So I conclude, that some basic functions must be implemented as buttons,
namely: Zoom to selection, Show all, Zoom in, Zoom out, Cut, Copy, Paste,
Remove. But I suggest to change the buttons with text labels into the buttons
with icons and tooltips. And the other things could be hidden into menus. I
also want to implement the keyboard shortcuts for the basic functions.
Finally, the right-click menu at the sample editing area also not be bad... 

Would it be possible to copy the memory address and the data type 
(instrument, pattern selection, wave selection...) into the 
regular clipboard buffer, in text form? Or would it cause a 
segfault if the other instance tried to access the buffer?

I know to few about all this. Can the X clipboard handle anything 
other than text, at all? I've just checked: Gnoise can't copy 
sound between two instances, Gimp can't copy image data between 
two instances... This seems to be a general problem :o(

What about support for fully stereo channels in ST? All modern windows
trackers and players support stereo samples in XM. Would it be too hard to
implement this into Soundtracker? 

I also have an
idea to paint various effects (and maybe instruments) with the different
colors for better distinguishability.

And the another idea I have for future -- to make the fx command switching
various types of interpolation. 

...make a way for soundtracker to launch and
communicate with an existing standalone editor?

xm.c: when loading files with non-standard version, ask user if one wants to
load these files really.

Pressing <SHIFT> + UP/DOWN in the tracker window to initiate the selection mode
(think how to do this better). I propose 3 modes: 1) "Classic ST" (Ctrl + B 
to start/stop selection mode); 2) "FT2" (pressing Shift + Right/Left/Up/Down 
starts selection mode, releasing Shift -- stops); 3) "Hybride" (as 2., but 
releasing Shift doesn't stop selection mode, only Ctrl + B (C,X)). In 2. 
and 3. user also can start selection mode by pressing Ctrl + B and stop by 
pressing Ctrl + B,C,X

In instrument/sample/maybe even module loading dialog single click to preview 
the instance, double click to load (optionally)

Put channel numbers directly at the oscilloscopes, not below.

Play/Play pat/Stop/arrows icons from Gtk+/Gnome icon theme (optional).

ESC keyboard shortcut to leave all dialogs

Arrows in file selection/module info

When out of editing mode, note keys pressing produce sounds independent on the
cursor position (note/instr/eff column, muted channel)

"Jazz trying mode" (configurable): when out of the editing mode, the sound is
playing like in Jazz mode, when the new pressed key doesn't finish the sounds
triggered previously.