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Comments on LMMS 0.4.6 (Linux/x86_64, Qt 4.5.2, GCC 4.4.1): These are some usability suggestions that could be expected of most apps on any OS, based loosely on conventions established by a host of "everyday" apps. While certainly some apps should have highly customized and/or unusual GUIs, I think LMMS is aiming for a more conventional user. Many of its current GUI nuances remind me of apps like Maya or SoftImage where convention is shunned and efficiency is embraced. Until everyone and their mother knows what LMMS is I think the opposite approach should be adopted. Here are a few discrepancies from what I feel is "conventional": (1) Mouse hover over left vertical toolbar shows nothing. User has no tooltips, which forces him to left-click to see what the button is, which causes a geometrical change in the toolbar and a reorientation of his workspace ("his" used loosely). (2) Right-click should bring up a context menu, not solely the track name or anything else. (3) Remove the "tool" icon from the left pane of a track in the Song Editor, replacing it with a context menu shown by a right-click in the left pane of the track. (4) Allow the addition of a new track from a context menu by right-clicking an empty area of the left pane of the Song Editor. Context menu entries could include each of the different input methods available (B&BE, PR), underneath which would include the samplers/synthesizers available for each. (5) Default SoundFont should be loaded when SF2 plugin is assigned to a track in the Song Editor (piano, of course). Other synths do this, why not the SF2 one (include some crappy/small but complete sf2 file for the plugin). (6) Control-Z doesn't undo the last action. Redo seems to be missing as well. Sequentially caching operations, even in a plain text temp file, could allow undo/redo operations minus destructive actions. Even saving a copy of the project after each user action could do this with minimum overhead for most projects. (7) Resizing an empty sequence in the Song Editor fails without error. Only adding notes to a given sequence visually increases its size. (8) Deleting a sequence from the Song Editor while it's open in the Piano Roll results in a dead but unclosed, Piano Roll window ("Please open a pattern by double-clicking on it!"). Keep Piano Roll window active, recreating the Song Editor sequence when a note is entered, or immediately close the Piano Roll window upon deletion of the sequence. (9) Child windows should be not be constrained within the confines of the parent window. Follow traditional GTK and QT conventions, treating them superficially as separate windows. This will easily allow such operations as Alt-dragging, Alt-Shift-dragging, Compiz Maximunize, and multi-head setups. I don't want to create a Wikipedia article or anything, but implementing these suggestions should make LMMS pretty f'ing awesome as far as interface is concerned. If not, please whip me into shape and tell me why I don't know what I'm talking about (or tell me to program that shit myself). Modifying the source code and unilaterally making it so is always the biggest hurdle, so also please let me know if there simply isn't the time to do so or if the project doesn't have a benevolent dictator. Thanks all and keep up the good work.
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