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f4exb / sdrangel

SDR Rx/Tx software for Airspy, Airspy HF+, BladeRF, HackRF, LimeSDR, PlutoSDR, RTL-SDR, SDRplay and FunCube
GNU General Public License v3.0
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Revamping of the SDRangel main UI #1193

Closed f4exb closed 2 years ago

f4exb commented 2 years ago

This is the main point of the corresponding project: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/projects/6

This ticket deals more specifically with the main UI organization and is the starting point of all dependent re-organizations. It further details the main UI organization and different components.

As mentioned it revolves around the concept of workspaces where any kind of widgets can be placed together corresponding to their functional affinity rather than technical. In order to implement this kind of workspace in the Qt world the MDI area seems to fit best (QMdiArea). Then in order to be able to move a workspace to another screen in multi screen configuration the docking area concept becomes handy therefore this MDI area will be attached to an containing QDockWidget. The main window will not have a central widget and each new workspace will be added to a dock widget area. Think of it a little bit like what Gimp does. On its main window there is nothing in the background except a shaded Gimp logo. However in this case you could detach and attach back the workspace to the main window while with Gimp all windows are floating but Qt does not allow such a thing. Multiple workspaces can be stacked on top of each other and in this case they become switchable by tabs.

In the MDI area the devices, channels and main spectra can be placed and therefore the UI must derive from the QMdiSubWindow. By default a QMdiSubWindow has a non customizable top bar which is not really convenient therefore it should be customized by first removing the frame with the Qt.FramelessWindowHint window flag.

The QMdiSubWindow will be specialized into the device, channel or spectrum flavors. For the channel a new kind of RollupWidget without title bar will be designed (RollupContent for example) because the top bar will be handled in the containing window.

The present presets will be kept as "deviceset presets" and the feature set presets will be kept also so that the complete configuration can be assembled from pieces. However the global configuration may be saved in a full configuration preset to preserve the arrangements of all workspaces. As a matter of fact the assembly of the whole configuration is more complex and should be preserved across program starts. This provides by the way an implementation of #1050

Here is a Python/PyQt5 example to have a very basic idea and see how things may articulate at the top level: https://gist.github.com/f4exb/dfbfa0aa4397240d1d55110241e5c6c9

f4exb commented 2 years ago

This is a preview of what it will look like. Only the features for now: image

f4exb commented 2 years ago

Progressing with the devices... Now able to show two running devices in the same workspace: image

f4exb commented 2 years ago

v7 branch is now online: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/tree/v7 It works mostly but still need a few bug fixes, improvements, API updates and of course documentation.

f4exb commented 2 years ago

Not completely there yet for a release candidate but I can build a fully functional dual receiver for Amateur VHF (Airspy HF) and UHF (Remote) all on the same display (workspace): image

f4exb commented 2 years ago

First alpha release is here: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel/releases/tag/v7.0.0-alpha.1

srcejon commented 2 years ago

Excellent job :) This opens the door to a lot of interesting and powerful configurations! I also like that the frequency for each channel is now always displayed.

f4exb commented 2 years ago

Deployed in v7.0.0-alpha.3 This concludes the UI features part.