Volume Control

[greyjeep]

Gents,

I just moved from 4.3 to 4.8. I was using field Inc/Dec buttons to control the volume of the zones for my Nuvo Grand Concerto. From what I read these buttons are supported in 4.8. What is the best way to control volume now a days? Knobs, Sliders, some new gesture process? Thanks for your input.

[Dean Roddey]

There are various ways you could go about it. Some are:

1. Have a set of << < > >> type buttons, where the inner ones bump or reduce by one and the outer ones maybe by 3 or 5 or something. If the value is write only this is usually one of the better schemes.
2. A slider is fine, but only doable if the value is readable since the slider has to read the current value.
3. Progress bars are also an option if the value is readable, and allow for a fancier presentation if have the graphics required.

[LesAuber]

Any particular reason the inc/dec widget went away? While sliders and knobs are more sophisticated anyone who has ever picked up a TV remote gets Volume + and Volume - .

[Dean Roddey]

It was just technically very difficult to support in the gesture based world. Even if sufficient work could have been done to make it happen, it would have meant that we' have had to keep a lot of complexity from the old world around just to support that one thing, as well as do a bunch of new work in addition to all of the gesture complications.

On a multi-touch screen, if you press and hold, it doesn't become a left button press, it becomes a right click. That's how they get two click types out of one finger. And, up until then, it's not anything, it's just waiting to see if you will release it (it becomes a click) or move (it becomes a gesture.) And the press and hold doesn't even become a right click until the gesture movement time interval has expired, so it would be slow to respond as well.

Anyhoo, it was just way, way too messy and too much work just to support one thing.