TimeLineAnnotator / desktop

A GUI for graphical analysis and annotation of video and audio files.
https://tilia-app.com
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Selecting a component should probably not move the cursor/slider #204

Open johentsch opened 1 week ago

johentsch commented 1 week ago

Selecting the exact position on the slider is one of the central tasks when annotating. Having spent some time to stop playback at a precise position, it causes great pain to lose it again, e.g. because one forgot to add the child to be split. Currently, there is no way (that I know of) to select a node without losing the cursor position. In my view, the value of a precisely selected position would warrant to make moving it to a component's beginning optional (e.g. through Alt + click which currently duplicates the functionality of Ctrl + click).

FelipeDefensor commented 1 week ago

Selecting the exact position on the slider is one of the central tasks when annotating. Having spent some time to stop playback at a precise position, it causes great pain to lose it again, e.g. because one forgot to add the child to be split.

Good example, thanks for pointing this out. It is possible to create a child without moving the cursor by using the right-click menu. That does not apply to all operations, unfortunately. You can't split or group using the context menu, for instance.

Currently, there is no way (that I know of) to select a node without losing the cursor position. In my view, the value of a precisely selected position would warrant to make moving it to a component's beginning optional (e.g. through Alt + click which currently duplicates the functionality of Ctrl + click).

The solution that most audio and video editing software adopt is to have two separate "cursors", one for playback and one for editing. I have tried to avoid that separation as it can be frustrating to try to move one cursor and end upo moving another. It might be the case that the conventional approach is the better one, after all. Having something like using Alt+click to temporarily separate cursosr, like you suggested, might also be a good, middle-of-road, solution.

I think this should be considered for v0.5.