I am hoping that this is the right place to make this comment/request regarding what is essentially the ergonomics of the WSJT-X GUI.
I've been using the devel versions of WSJT-X for several hours a day for the past several weeks for 144 MHz EME reception in a location with significant and constantly varying noise levels that cause the noise floor to undulate continually. I find the waterfall zero control to be very awkward to use for frequent, very small adjustments of this parameter. I understand that it is possible to use the arrows on the keyboard to adjust this parameter after selecting the waterfall zero level control with the mouse or trackball, but that too is awkward to do on a frequent basis. I would much prefer either arrow up/down boxes, ideally with a user-adjustable increment size, or a text box where I could type in the zero level that I want. To help you understand what I want, I will refer to Linrad, which uses each of these types of controls for some functions. For example, the up/down arrow boxes are used in Linrad to set both the gain and the zero level of the main spectrum, and the text boxes are used to set the gain and zero level of the main waterfall. This is more than just a whimsical preference. If that were all that it is, I would not bother the development team. What prompted me to post this rather than just grinning and bearing the current user interface is the fact that the 4th and 5th digits on my right hand have become painful when performing this activity, as a result of the need to tense the muscles and make tiny movements to make tiny changes in the zero level value without "going too far" in one direction or the other repetitively day after day for the past few weeks. Either arrows or text boxes would eliminate the production of this kind of musculoskeletal stress by the WSJT-X GUI. I have no problem with the spectrum gain and zero controls, for they do not require such fine motions to set appropriately. As an aside, in all of the pieces of software that I have used over the years, I have found the "auto zero", "auto gain", and "waterfall AGC" functions to NOT set the zero level or gain of the waterfall to my satisfaction. So I would NOT suggest adding such a function as a possible solution to this problem. Thanks in advance, and thanks for all of the great work that you do! 73, Roger Rehr W3SZ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. Training and support from Colfax. Order your platform today. http://sdm.link/xeonphi _______________________________________________ wsjt-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
