Corey Knafelz wrote at 12:19 pm (-0700) on 12 6 2005:
Just launched the new beta. Love the inspector. Much needed feature.
You love the inspector, but then you go on to say you hate it floating? What's the deal here? ;)
I agree... Every other control in DB is nicely contained in the main interface. The floating window seems out of place. I realize lots of other major applications use floating windows/palettes, but this just doesn't seem to jive with what's already happening with DB.
Well, I have been envisioning moving some of those controls out of the main window (e.g. master volume and tempo) into something else (a hidable window region controlled by a disclosure-triangle, or a sheet, or something) since I feel they kind of waste space relative to what are the more frequently-used window features. I am a little surprised at the aversion to the inspector; this is interesting. How do others feel? The advantage of the floater is that as soon as you have more than one song open at once, you are making better use of screen real estate. Everything in the inspector (with exception of the "default velocity" slider) reflects the current state of whatever is selected or around the cursor, and so it seems redundant to duplicate such controls in every window. My thinking was that this way you can place the inspector wherever suits you best, and enjoy more of the song window to see the actual song.
Other thoughts, maybe a sliding drawer?
Personally I have a distaste for drawers, but I'm open to the suggestion. Seasoned users may recall that DB 1.0 presented the drum kit list in a drawer on the left side of the window, which kind of looked funny. -b -- Ben Kennedy, chief magician zygoat creative technical services 613-228-3392 | 1-866-466-4628 http://www.zygoat.ca