peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (03/22/88)
Just a quick note while the idea's fresh in my mind... some thought to user interface... How about, when you register a port, providing an icon for it... and having the icon show up in a SoundScape-like patch panel? Probably be best to have it set up with a work area and an icon palette. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |o| Patch Panel | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | %%% | %%% | ### | @@@ | &^% | +++ | | | | | | | ICONS +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | $#$ | @@@ | | | | | | | | | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | WORK | @@@ ----- ### ---[+++] | AREA | | | | | +------+ | | GO | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Inputs: FORM.ILBM RAST BMAP MAC.PICT | INFO | Viewer | Commands: [ ] | AREA | | Outputs: --none-- | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ The currently selected icon has its info displayed in the info area. The mechanics of moving them to the work area and connecting them up should be pretty simple. Rubber-band-lines would be good. Each program would have three kinds of ports: input ports, a command port, and output ports (internally the command port could be the input port). The command message would contain a simple text string the user would provide. This would be the "Command line" for that program. -- -- a clone of Peter (have you hugged your wolf today) da Silva `-_-' -- normally ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter U -- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich) (03/23/88)
In article <843@nuchat.UUCP> peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >How about, when you register a port, providing an icon for it... and having >the icon show up in a SoundScape-like patch panel? Probably be best to have >it set up with a work area and an icon palette. >The currently selected icon has its info displayed in the info area. The >mechanics of moving them to the work area and connecting them up should >be pretty simple. Rubber-band-lines would be good. Hey! No fair! That's the toy i have been wanting to build, pending a good IPC. So i am going to sue you for, oh, say, $10 gigabucks. Just let me talk to my firm, Leech, Crumball, Leech. Anyway, note that soundscape defined their own IPC standard based on UDP. It is an interesting design. It is also an example of what could happen if we don't decide on something soon: a million different IPC standards. SIGH. -- ron (rminnich@udel.edu)
page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (03/23/88)
peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) wrote: >How about, when you register a port, providing an icon for it... and having >the icon show up in a SoundScape-like patch panel? I like it! Users need something like this. The extra image/gadget/window overhead would be worth it. For another example of a 'patch panel', see the Interchange screen (although it's a little too simple for large IPC applications. On the other hand, I'd like to be able to say: 1> IPC Emacs [to|with] TeX and get a one-way or bidirectional IPC port made. But this is user-interface stuff, and should probably be dealt with later. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!page "Nicaragua" is Spanish for "Vietnam."
pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.edu (Pete Yadlowsky) (03/24/88)
>In article <843@nuchat.UUCP> peter@nuchat.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >How about, when you register a port, providing an icon for it... and having >the icon show up in a SoundScape-like patch panel? Probably be best to have >it set up with a work area and an icon palette. >The currently selected icon has its info displayed in the info area. The >mechanics of moving them to the work area and connecting them up should >be pretty simple. Rubber-band-lines would be good. I have such a thing, and I use it in my small MIDI studio. With it, I can start MIDI processes (delays, filters, etc) and (graphically) connect them as nodes in a network. The "system" handles all message routing, merging and even some filtering. All communications with the outside world are handled by a process which manages the serial.device, so that it may be shared by virtually any number of other processes. The whole thing is built on Bill Barton's (Plink: PEABODY) MIDI utility library, which really amounts to being a MIDI extension to Exec. Rather than managing ports (and their icons), this system works with whole processes, and the stringing of these processes into pipes (nets, actually). Anyone interested in hearing more? I originally intended to use this for musical applications, but it could certainly be extended and generalized. Peter M. Yadlowsky Academic Computing Center University of Virginia pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.EDU