Walter Assistance Application

[Lawrence]

I'm going to work on this tonight and basically, what it will start out as is a simple GUI that allows you to drag icons around and when you have a configuration you like, create a rtconfig.txt file for Walter.

It's going to be REALLY basic early on with the focus being on coding in all of the default icon file names so that whatever collection of theme icons you navigate to from the app will load and be available for dragging in to arrange in any way you want.

Here's what the very first design screen looks like. It's formatted in pixels so every control will fit the walter postition/size numbers exactly. The additional space is for later, MCP, Transport, whatever. For now I'm only dealing with the TCP.



If anyone wants to collab on this feel free to write variable declarations for all of the default TCP icons to start or something similar. Once I get the TCP done I'll move on to the MCP next. My very first code will be simple drag and drop from the icon collection on the right to the TCP, and then from there just simple drag and/or nudging around there.

[plamuk]

sweeeet, lawrence. good move. are you going to release the code for others to use?

[Subz]

Oh,

Umm,


WoW!!

[schwa]

It should be called "Donny".

[jedstar2000]

Top Banana

I was really hoping someone would have a crack at this , so my upmost appreciation goes out to you

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by nym

sweeeet, lawrence. good move. are you going to release the code for others to use?

That's the plan but obviously it's going to take some time... especially if I don't get any help.

[musicbynumbers]

Exciting stuff!

no good at programming (yet) but I'm up for testing it!

[Subz]

Originally Posted by schwa

It should be called "Donny".

Donnie & Walter (who's the she then? well it is the 21'st Century )

now someone that can code better than me but has less to do than Schwa help Lawrence make this dream a reality!

PLEASE!!

[PerunZG]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

especially if I don't get any help.

And the dev platform is? C#? VB?

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by PerunZG

And the dev platform is? C#? VB?

Looks like VB classic (VB6) .... I think

Karbo

[BenK-msx]

this would be awesome - hmmm i can knock up a macro but thats where my tinkering powers end unfortunately

can't help thinking that J&co could do this with one eye closed during a coffee break (or perhaps offer some startup assistance!).

maybe could recruit the SWS boys perhaps? contract it out!

but the devs do have the task of stemming the tide (to use a Schwa-ism) of bugs n nitpicks and developing v4, and probably guessed some eager beaver would go there in the spirit of community activism that goes on here.

best o luck Lawrence - wysiwyg for walter would be childs play to get awesome themes.

[plamuk]

It should be called "Donny".

PERFECT.

[Lawrence]

What does DONNY stand for?

Originally Posted by karbomusic

Looks live VB classic (VB6) .... I think

Karbo

Yeah, VB6. As I make progress I'll post some LICEcap gifs'. It's going to be a basic array of the icons with data tags for the drag/drop and nudging around after that.

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

What does DONNY stand for?

Was just gonna ask that!

[Lawrence]

Just to be clear, the basic Walter export code for buttons and controls will be really easy here. It will pull the current X/Y & width/height from the application and print those lines to the rtconfig.txt lines. After everything is positioned in a static way it's a simple loop through the icon arrays to export their current postions and sizes.

I'll add the bordering options afterward.

The hard part is just setting it all up to cover all of the default icons and designing something useful for nudging them around.

[fuseburn]

Device Optimized for Necessary Nocturnal Yelling.
I didn't understand it either.

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by fuseburn

Device Optimized for Necessary Nocturnal Yelling.
I didn't understand it either.

Uh... ok. Not sure what it means but ... ok.

[d.bop]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

What does DONNY stand for?

d00d,
0ur
n00bz
n33d
y0u!



(I need to get off the internet... now.)


edit: This really is a great project! I used to know VB6 pretty well but I haven't touched it in about 5 years. Maybe I'll start diving in again and help out! (Job hunting gets first priority though..)

[run, megalodon]

Originally Posted by schwa

It should be called "Donny".

It should be native!

Edited:
WALTER is awesome in that it allows for whatever you want, but it also puts the simple along with the complex operations out of the reach of those who can't or don't want to bother with learning the code and diving into RTconfig, even if it is basic as far as code goes. I forsee problems with casual non-WALTERers wanting to adapt their themes to include a specific element they want: vertical meters or a mixer sidebar. In many cases this would involve rearranging most of the elements, a task that is just too cumbersome to do with the code compared to dragging around visuals when weighed against the simplicity of the desire. Just look at some of the problems even us forum geeks are having in WT's guide thread. IMO, we need a first party editor included with the program (or obviously available as an add on). It seems to me that it could even be simple enough to fit in a page of the preferences. This will also help insure that if WALTER grows, the GUI editor grows with it. Alot of perceptions about Reaper fall onto two sides of the same coin: "It's the versatile app, you do what you want with it" or "it's the programmer's app, it's futzy and unintuitive."

Walter as code = futzy
Walter as gui = versatile

But good job Lawrence, I would help if I could code.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

Just to be clear, the basic Walter export code for buttons and controls will be really easy here. It will pull the current X/Y & width/height from the application and print those lines to the rtconfig.txt lines. After everything is positioned in a static way it's a simple loop through the icon arrays to export their current postions and sizes.

I'll add the bordering options afterward.

The hard part is just setting it all up to cover all of the default icons and designing something useful for nudging them around.

Might be able to just let the controls used for positioning hold everything with no need for an array and just enable drag n drop on the container control. Maybe name the controls in a WALTER friendly name and just loop through them all and write the code for you with just a few lines... I'll shut up since I said I don't have that much time and I don't want to back seat drive your great idea.


Karbo

[Kundalinguist]

Awesome idea, Lawrence.

As for a name, anyone remembering the show MAUDE will remember that Walter was her husband. And if these two apps work together, then (in my limited perspective) MAUDE is a good way to say "MOD."

Failing that, Walter And Jack (Lemmon?)

But you can't beat naming something after your kid, I guess. How about a planet?

[PitchSlap]

Originally Posted by run, megalodon

It should be native!

Edited:
WALTER is awesome in that it allows for whatever you want, but it also puts the simple along with the complex operations out of the reach of those who can't or don't want to bother with learning the code and diving into RTconfig, even if it is basic as far as code goes. I forsee problems with casual non-WALTERers wanting to adapt their themes to include a specific element they want: vertical meters or a mixer sidebar. In many cases this would involve rearranging most of the elements, a task that is just too cumbersome to do with the code compared to dragging around visuals when weighed against the simplicity of the desire.

I totally agree. For WALTER to really take off, there needs to be an easy way for people to do simple tasks without having to dive in and code.

This looks like a great first step so, kudos Lawrence, I can't wait to use this when it's finished.

[planetnine]

It was a ridiculous stunt, demoting it to "Dwarf-Planet" status, scheming and peurile, pointless...

oh, sorry, wrong forum.

>

[Lawrence]

Pre-Alpha, testing concepts. Remember, the positioning and sizes (I'll add controls for resizing selected icons etc) will be identical to what WALTER will use.



On "publish" that button will easily spit out "set tcp.mute [button.left, button.top, button.width, button.height]" as a text string for the WALTER config. Again, once I get everything in there I'll circle back and add the options for the bordering which is a little more complex.

[plamuk]

I forsee problems with casual non-WALTERers wanting to adapt their themes to include a specific element they want

all walter mods will be available in the themes that people can download, no?
once the wizards have at it and increase the available functionality of the themes out there, this (non-coders wanting to WALTER) will be a nonissue

but i agree, a graphic interface for walter is/will be great, but in my opinion does not require reaperdev attention - esp when we already have forum users workin on it.

[J3FFR3Y2692]

WOW im glad I joined this Forum.

[Lawrence]

So... help would speed this up considerably. What I need is for someone who wants to help to code out the ICONS arrays so when I write the code that navigates to an icon directory, and choose the directory, all of the standard icons will load into my image controls.

Use (if you help) the array name "ThemeIcon" which is the name of the image arrays I'm using there in the ICONS box. It just needs to go through whatever the default total number of avaiable standard TCP icon name and assign them 0 to X to the array and load the images.

Example:

themeicon(0).Picture = IconPath & tcp_mute
themeicon(1).Picture = IconPath & tcp_solo

etc...


The IconPath VAR will be set globally by me from the file dialog directory path. So if someone could write that code block while I tweak the UI it would speed this up a little. You don't need to know VB to do this, just follow the pattern above for any and everything that might be a TCP icons and post it.

In the meantime, I have to go through one by one and capture and render each default icon to use in this application which will take a little time since VB6 doesn't load PNG's.

[run, megalodon]

Originally Posted by nym

all walter mods will be available in the themes that people can download, no?
once the wizards have at it and increase the available functionality of the themes out there, this (non-coders wanting to WALTER) will be a nonissue

I don't think so. Maybe an issue that can be tolerated, but not a non-issue. For a layout (such as your track with vertical meters) to be available, a themer has to design it and write it into WALTER. Since walter elements like the tcp will be non-standard and basically designed from scratch from now on, you cannot have standard layouts that will work for every theme. So if you want something that the themer did not not decide to include, (including small things like switching meter orientation, removing/adding buttons such as phase or volume/pans label) you cannot get it without editing WALTER, afaik. I doubt that themers are going to be creating layouts for every possible users desires.

So if someone comes and posts on the forum:
"Hey, everyone, new to Reaper and loving it. Just one question, I noticed that other themes have phase buttons and mine doesn't, how can I turn it on? Forgive me, I'm from the old school and getting up there, DAWs are a whole nother world to me.

We just say, "deal with it, use a different theme, or go here and download this."

...and plus it's just easier!

[Airspeed]

If you need a name that describes something that changes WALTER then how about WENDY? If you don't know what I'm taking about then here's a few clue words: Moog, Bach, Clockwork Orange...

: )

[J3FFR3Y2692]

Sorry if im unhelpful, I would love to contribute back for everything you guys have done, unfortunately I don't know a whole lot about coding and theming and things like that.

[plamuk]

a themer has to design it and write it into WALTER. Since walter elements like the tcp will be non-standard and basically designed from scratch from now on, you cannot have standard layouts that will work for every theme. So if you want something that the themer did not not decide to include, (including small things like switching meter orientation, removing/adding buttons such as phase or volume/pans label) you cannot get it without editing WALTER, afaik. I doubt that themers are going to be creating layouts for every possible users desires.

i understand. it's the nonstandardization that i missed.

[RichardM]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

So... help would speed this up considerably. What I need is for someone who wants to help to code out the ICONS arrays

Check your PMs

[Fivebillion1]

damn!

fantastic idea,

My incompetence makes me useless, but I will happily take adavantage of anyone's hard labours

I'm getting a felling that the walter thing is more then a flashy ui

[lawrs]

Wow. My mouth is "waltering"..

Couldn't resist.

Looking forward for this release Lawrence! The whole world (of Reaperites) is looking your direction now.

[RichardM]

Lawrence ... tried to contact you again, but your PM mailbox is full. I can probably assist with the icon array.

[Lawrence]

Hey Richard (and others), scratch that icon array thing above. I'm going to have to approach that a different way since I can't load PNG's directly.

I'll figure that out later, a way to bring in icons from any theme. For now I'm just focusing on positioning using the default 4.0 icons. I may have to dig up an image control that loads PNG to allow doing what I was going to do with the image arrays, show icons from any theme.

That idea is tabled for the short term.

[Dannii]

Originally Posted by Airspeed

If you need a name that describes something that changes WALTER then how about WENDY? If you don't know what I'm taking about then here's a few clue words: Moog, Bach, Clockwork Orange...

: )

Sounds like a carlossally good idea to me!!!!

Oh and big kudos to you Lawrence. I'd help you if I knew vb6 but I never got my hands dirty with that.

[Kundalinguist]

Originally Posted by lawrs

Wow. My mouth is "waltering"..

Couldn't resist.
....

Hey, your punchline worked for me. Made me smile. Maybe this thing should be called "Saliva"?

[pixeltarian]

I'm pretty sure all this could be done web based with a javascript library like jquery. I guess it might be a lot more work though. I only mention it because then it would be cross platform.

also, reaper has a "theme element finder" couldn't that just be extended to "theme element finder and manipulator" ???

[karbomusic]

I'm pretty sure all this could be done web based with a javascript library like jquery

Think AJAX etc or even Flash/Silverlight. However the image resources might be a PIA since referencing them locally via browser can be a bit sticky security wise. Otherwise, that would be a very good way to go multi-platform wise.

Karbo