After 5 years development and 1500 functions, it's time for me to reflect back on Ultraschall-API and
what its future might be.
But for this, I need some help from you.
In case you don't know, what Ultraschall-API is(you can skip this part, if you already know it):
It's basically a collection of 1500 Lua-functions, that allows you to code different aspects of Reaper, just like e.g. SWS and JS-extension allow you to.
This includes Rendering, Parameter-Modulation, Razor-Edit, Automation-Items, FX-Management, Envelope-Management, improved Defer-Stuff, getting/setting project-file-states, File Management, a programmable Event-Manager that runs actions when certain states are met, etc etc.
1) It's especially interesting for fast prototyping a new script without having to code some tedious things over and over again.
2) The functions are also helpful for beginners, who want to do some more advanced things but still lack the experience
for some of the more complex stuff. Especially coding of rendering is quite advanced, but easy to do with Ultraschall-API.
3) It also serves as some kind of example-code-snippet-library. Many of the functions are more or less self contained, so, if you find a function in Ultraschall-API that does something you want to do as well, you can look up its code and get an idea for your own code and scripts.
4) and it includes a lot of technical documentation, if you want to go deeper into coding stuff in Reaper.
You can find an incomprehensive list of features
over here
Or a full list of all available functions
over here
When I started developing it, its main goal was to give the Ultraschall-podcast-mod a stable backend, that
makes programming it more comfortable and the codebase more bugresistant. Many of the features I've added in the past
were done with podcasting-needs in mind.
And to make it as stable as possible, I made it independent of Ultraschall, so everyone of you could install and use
and write scripts with the Ultraschall-API backend, even if you wouldn't use Ultraschall itself.
Because of that, many of you could help me finding bugs and therefore made the code-base better than before(I'm very grateful
for all your feedback and bugreports
)
Now, I've reached a point, where I basically added everything, that I had started to add in the beginning, so,
apart from some gaps here and there, it's basically, where I wanted it to be.
So the question is, should I continue and if...how?
And here I need your help.
I would like to ask you:
1) Do you use Ultraschall-API and if not, what would you need to use it?
If you simply don't have a use-case for it or like to develop things yourself rather than using functions by others,
it's ok to skip this question
2) What do you use it for, mainly? Which aspects are helpful and which concepts do you use?
It doesn't matter, if you just use it for your personal scripts or for shared scripts. Knowing the used aspects gives me a
hint to where I could add some more developing-love to.
3) What is missing for you? What aspects of Reaper you would like to have functions for? And what is tedious to use
in Ultraschall-API and what would you prefer instead?
This will help me to get a little on how you actually use Ultraschall-API and what aspects are rather uninteresting for y'all.
Or if I'm currently riding a dead horse developing it(I honestly have no idea...) and should refocus on other areas instead,
that are more helpful for the community.
ATM, I know, that the Rendering-functions and Parameter-Modulation are the most popular features, but maybe there are others as well, while others are completely unimportant for you.
If the whole Ultraschall-API is rather unused, I would mostly cease development on it and only do maintenance and bugfixing on it,
but this really depends on what you need, or if you need this at all.
Thank you in advance and I'm curious for your feedback
Poll: Do you use Ultraschall-API and for what and how?
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