New UI Main menu: 1 step backward & 2 steps forward

[riban]

Of course you will get as many opinions as there are forum members . I think the following are useful contextual operations:

• Power Off
• Panic
• Return home
• Recorder

I can see that access to the mixer is also useful but maybe the ability to return to the home screen will mean we have two presses to get to many of our most useful screens.

My preference for button allocation is:

Panic on the Layer button because some of us aspire to having the volume control default to this encoder so it ties in with audio level.

Return home on Back button because it is intuitive to go back to the beginning by long pressing the button that head that way.

Power off on Select button because that is where it has always been.

Record on Learn / Shot because we have run out of options.

[mheidt]

I get your point. I was irritated myself when I saw, that it was microseconds…which would be 3000000 “only”, though…

I would change zynthian_gui_config and use ms instead of us, but I don’t know if @jofemodo agrees on that.

Otherwise I had to hack the webconf and change the variable before saving by multiplying with 1000.

@jofemodo, your call

[jofemodo]

@mheidt

But I would need to remove an escape() in config_block.html to achieve that.
What was the reason for the escape around the title?

I can’t remember . Try and let’s see if something breaks …

[jofemodo]

OK! Forget it! @riban is right, we should use a select with 3 options:

• fast
• medium
• slow

And we should discuse about every value and reach consensus about it …

Or we use ms …

Regards,

[jofemodo]

@mheidt

I would change zynthian_gui_config and use ms instead of us, but I don’t know if @jofemodo agrees on that.

I agree

[mheidt]

I am going to name the vars
ZYNTHIAN_UI_SWITCH_BOLD_MS
ZYNTHIAN_UI_SWITCH_LONG_MS

[mheidt]

@jofemodo

And I would put the stuff under meter,

You are aware, that it will look like that?

the grey tones because of the different advanced settings?
thats why I would put it before meter

[jofemodo]

@riban

Return home on Back button because it is intuitive to go back to the beginning by long pressing the button that head that way.

Main menu is assigned to bold-back, that is very fast in comparison. I don’t want to wait 2 second for going the Main menu. Also, i prefer having more available actions and not wasting them by assigning to repeated ones.

The assignment of actions to the 12 available push events is a compromise of logic, workflow optimization, ergonomy, ease of learning, elegance and of course, it depends heavily of personal likes and use-case. Reaching a consensus on this is almost impossible …

Anyway, i would change assignation of long non-contextual actions like this:

• Long-Layer => ALSA-Mixer
• Long-Back => PANIC!
• Long-Snapshot => Recorder
• Long-Select => PowerOff

if you promise to send a nice audio track

Main menu will continue to be assigned to Bold-Back, that is faster. And contextual short-back, will continue to jump from Main to Control, because normally, you want to jump to Main and return quickly to Control. I like the idea of cycling the “main sequence”, and it’s more time-saving.

Regards,

[jofemodo]

@mheidt

thats why I would put it before meter

OK! Put it before meter

[jofemodo]

Hi @zynthianers!

So, thanks to @riban and @mheidt, we have now:

• Bold & Long Push actions timing is now configurable from webconf
• Long Action assignment is, finally, like that:
  • Long-Layer => ALSA-Mixer
  • Long-Back => PANIC!
  • Long-Snapshot => Recorder
  • Long-Select => PowerOff

I changed my timings to:

• Bold: 200ms
• Long: 900ms

And now i manage my zynthian faster than light … jejee!!

Update and Enjoy!

[riban]

@jofemodo

if you promise to send a nice audio track

I am trying… if only I can stop finding bugs!!!

Here you go:

A little noodling on the guitar synth driving one of the ZY/Fantasy patches. I can’t remember which as Zynthian crashed when I tried to play it back. (Expect (yet) another bug report…)

[jofemodo]

The long-back PANIC! is ready … and documentation, updated:

[hal80]

started a new thread on this snapshot related freeze bug that I was observing.

Snapshot bug

Hi, @jofemodo, with reference to this post, I thought it would be better to branch out a new thread. (Actually wanted to post a new issue in github but I couldn’t figure out how to attach files there). So the problem was as follows: Pushing short-back twice led to empty screen and UI freeze (just blue / black background and zynthian logo). Access via ssh was still possible. This situation appeared (only (?)) when the zynthian was booting directly to the LAYERS screen if I remember correctly…

[hal80]

What do you think about the idea of a combined power off / reboot / restart ui menu upon long-select? All knobs could be assigned an action in that menu:
short-back = Back / Cancel
short-select = Power Off
short-snapshot = Restart UI
short-layer = Reboot

[riban]

I love this idea. I often want to do something like reboot or restart and have to think how to do it.

[wyleu]

The mouse functionality doesn’t follow the encoders. It relies on you releasing the mouse button for Long press.

[pmatilai]

@riban

As previously suggested, I would prefer a dead stop at the Main screen with BACK button not doing anything. I find it confusing that pressing BACK will never stop. It seems counter intuitive to me. I am used to interfaces where you navigate back to a higher level until you reach the top

I concur, back button endlessly looping around in a structure feels like one of those mazes in eighties text adventure games. No doubt one will get used to it eventually, but it does break the principle of least atonishment.

[jofemodo]

Please, think about how you will use it. You want to return to control as fast as posible. You don’t want to make several clicks for that …

[riban]

I am sceptical but reserve judgement until after I have played with it more. It feels unintuitive but as @jofemodo says, workflow is king.

[pmatilai]

I’m too much of a newbie with the Zynthian to argue about usage patterns at all (just been toying around and enjoying the lively community). Like I said, one will likely get used to it, but as an initial reaction - it’s quite jarring.