From 649aa1e8aa0d362c753e88b7c4c180132857fc58 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Florian Jung Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2012 18:33:51 +0000 Subject: documentation --- muse2/doc/documentation.tex | 116 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 115 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'muse2/doc') diff --git a/muse2/doc/documentation.tex b/muse2/doc/documentation.tex index 6c12cfa4..d0f17dfe 100644 --- a/muse2/doc/documentation.tex +++ b/muse2/doc/documentation.tex @@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ \newcommand{\shell}[1]{\texttt{\textbf{#1}}} \newcommand{\menu}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \newcommand{\sym}[1]{\texttt{\camelhyph{#1}}} +\newcommand{\listing}[1]{\texttt{\camelhyph{#1}}} \newcommand{\usym}[1]{\texttt{\underscorehyph{#1}}} \newcommand{\file}[1]{\texttt{\camelhyph{#1}}} \newcommand{\screenshotwidth}[0]{0.8\textwidth} @@ -1025,6 +1026,105 @@ This chapter explains how MusE is built internally, and is meant to be an aid for developers wanting to quickly start up with MusE. For details on \emph{why} stuff is done please refer to the following chapter. + +\section{User interface programming} +We use the QT Toolkit for GUI- and other programming. The \emph{QT-Assistant} +is an important tool for getting help. Almost everything can be looked +up there. + +GUIs can be either be hardcoded (see \file{arranger.cpp} for an example) +or can be created using \emph{QT-Designer} (see the dialogs under +\file{widgets/function_dialogs/} for mostly cleanly-written examples). +Don't forget to add your \file{cpp}, \file{h} and \file{ui} files to the +corresponding sections in the \file{CMakeLists.txt}! + +Additionally, MusE offers some custom widgets, like menu title items etc. +Following, there will be a small, unordered list about custom widgets: +\begin{itemize} +\item \sym{MusEGui::MenuTitleItem}: Provides a title-bar in a \sym{QMenu}. \\ + Usage: \listing{someMenu->addAction(new MusEGui::MenuTitleItem(tr("fnord"), someMenu));} \\ + Defined in \file{widgets/menutitleitem.h}. +\item \sym{MusEGui::PopupMenu}: Provides a \sym{QMenu}-like menu which + can stay open after the user checks a checkable action. + Usage: just create a \listing{new PopupMenu( true|false )} instead of + a \listing{new QMenu()}. (\listing{true} means 'stay open') + Defined in \file{widgets/popupmenu.h}. +\end{itemize} + + +\section{Configuration} \label{portconfig_sucks} +Configuration is a bit pesky in MusE in its current state. If you get +confused by reading this chapter, that's a sign of a sane mind. + +There are three kinds of configuration items: +\begin{itemize} +\item (1) Global configuration, like coloring schemes, plugin categories, MDI-ness settings +\item (2) Per-Song configuration, like whether to show or hide certain track types in the arranger +\item (3) Something in between, like MIDI port settings etc. They obviously actually are + global configuration issues (or ought to be), but also obviously must be stored + in the song file for portability. (This problem could possibly be solved by + the feature proposal in \ref{symbolic_ports}. +\end{itemize} + +\paragraph{Reading configuration} +\sym{void MusECore::readConfiguration(Xml\&, bool, bool)} in +\file{conf.cpp} is the central point +of reading configuration. It is called when MusE is started first +(by \sym{bool MusECore::readConfiguration()}), and also when a +song is loaded. \\ %TODO: call paths! +It can be instructed whether to read MIDI ports (3), global configuration +and MIDI ports (1+3). Per-Song configuration is always read (2). + +When adding new configuration items and thus altering \sym{readConfiguration()}, +you must take care to place your item into the correct section. The code is +divided into the following sections: +\begin{itemize} +\item Global and/or per-song configuration (3) +\item Global configuration (1) +\item Code for skipping obsolete entries +\end{itemize} + +The sections are divided by comments (they contain \texttt{----}, so just +search for them). Please do not just remove code for reading obsolete entries, +but always add an appropriate entry to the 'skipping' section in order to +prevent error messages when reading old configs. + +\paragraph{Writing configuration} +Global configuration is written using the +\sym{MusEGui::MusE::writeGlobalConfiguration()} functions, while +per-song-config is written by \sym{MusEGui::MusE::writeConfiguration()} +(notice the missing \sym{Global}; both implemented in \file{conf.cpp}). + +\sym{writeConfiguration} is actually just a subset of the code in +\sym{writeGlobalConfiguration}. \textbf{Duplicate code!} % TODO fix that in the sourcecode. + +\paragraph{Song state} +Additionally to per-song configuration, there is the song's state. +This contains "the song", that is all tracks, parts and note events, +together with information about the currently opened windows, their +position, size, settings and so on. Adding new items here is actually +pretty painless: Configuration is read and written using +\sym{MusECore::Song::read} and \sym{::write}, both implemented in +\file{songfile.cpp}. There are no caveats. + +\paragraph{How to add new items} +When adding global configuration items, then add them into the second +block ("global configuration") in \sym{readConfiguration} and into +\sym{writeGlobalConfiguration}. + +When adding just-per-song items, better don't bother to touch the +"configuration" code and just add it to the song's state (there might +be rare exceptions). + +When adding global configuration items, make sure you add them into the +correct section of \sym{readConfiguration}, and into \sym{writeGlobalConfiguration}. + + +%TODO: how to write config, +%TODO: song/global stuff +%TODO: config lesen und schreiben fuer plugingroups + + \section{User controls and automation} \subsection{Handling user input} \subsubsection{Plugins and synthesizers} @@ -1418,7 +1518,21 @@ particular useful for stuff like "which low/high-pass filter type to use"). Maybe make this behaviour default for discrete controllers? - +\section{Symbolic names for MIDI ports} \label{symbolic_ports} +MIDI ports shall have a user-defined symbolic name (like "Korg" or "Yamaha DX 7"). +The mapping between these symbolic names and the hardware port (like +"ALSA midi out port") is stored in the global configuration. + +Song files only specify the symbolic names as the ports associated with +their tracks. No information about physical devices/port names, but only +symbolic names are stored in the song file. + +This resolves the issues mentioned in \ref{portconfig_sucks}, and also +allows the user to share his pieces with other people: They would only +have to set up that symbolic-to-hardware mapping once (collisions are +unlikely, because an equal symbolic name should usually mean the same +device) and are happy, instead of having to re-map \emph{every} port +for \emph{every} song. \end{document} -- cgit v1.2.3