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Topic: New FLAC frontend beta (Read 70523 times) previous topic - next topic
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New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #50
The scenario where I noticed the problem was that I had multiple files in the queue and I was working on a huge file that needed a long time to finish. I wanted to skip it and encode the rest but the program closed entirely. I think any alternate behavior would be better, like spawn new flac.exe process and continue encoding the next file or just remain open with the queue and let user reclick appropriate buttons.


I just found out I can't get it to work like this. First, I can't let it skip a single file because I pass files in batches of 50 files at a time to flac.exe. If I wouldn't do that, the console window gets full of
Code: [Select]
flac 1.2.1, Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007  Josh Coalson
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  This is free software, and you are
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.  Type `flac' for details.

which I really don't want. Second, trying to 'catch' clicking the close button on the command line is not possible when using Windows Forms. The link provided by robert only works for C(++) console applications, when using Windows Forms I can only use http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sy...enthandler.aspx
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #51
Once more a new release, beta 6. It can be downloaded from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfronte...ad?source=files

Fixes in this release:
- Upgrading and downgrading is broken! Please remove any previous beta before trying this one! This is because of the next fix
- Installer now installs for all users instead of just one, which was necessary because if more than one user would try to install this it breaks.
- Binaries are compiled from FLAC 1.3.0pre4 without any other fixes.
- Checks for a v1 of the Frontend and asks the user to remove it before installing this one, to avoid any confusion.
- One path was not updated last time when the binaries moved to have a semi-absolute path, which is fixed now.

I hope this is the last release before releasing the first stable. This first stable will not be released before a stable release of FLAC 1.3.0 is made.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #52
Finally, the first stable. You can download it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfronte...latest/download

This stable packs a checked and tested Visual Studio 2012 compile of FLAC 1.3.0. It has been tested on Windows 7 (with .NET 4.5), Windows XP SP3 (with .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 client profile) For those who don't want an installer, there is a portable installation as well. https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfrontend/files/ Both the installer as well as the portable install require .NET 2.0 or higher.

For more information, take a look at the new project homepage: http://flacfrontend.sf.net/

edit: By the way, any feedback is still appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #53
Finally, the first stable. You can download it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfronte...latest/download

This stable packs a checked and tested Visual Studio 2012 compile of FLAC 1.3.0. It has been tested on Windows 7 (with .NET 4.5), Windows XP SP3 (with .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 client profile) For those who don't want an installer, there is a portable installation as well. https://sourceforge.net/projects/flacfrontend/files/ Both the installer as well as the portable install require .NET 2.0 or higher.

For more information, take a look at the new project homepage: http://flacfrontend.sf.net/

edit: By the way, any feedback is still appreciated. Thanks in advance.


Hello . The new frontend is very bad :
1. It not keep the compression setting (i set to 8 and is coming back at 5 when i restart it) and is not keeping any setting at all
2. The window can't be maximized like the old one
Is it possible to make the frontend interface to be like the old one ? To remember the settings . Please !
I use it in Win XP SP3 .

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #54
Hello . The new frontend is very bad :

Yeah, sure, two little things that are not to your liking make it 'very bad'. You're welcome 

Quote
1. It not keep the compression setting (i set to 8 and is coming back at 5 when i restart it) and is not keeping any setting at all

That is by design, to keep the behavior consistent. If I would make the front-end such that is remembers the settings of the main screen, it should also remember the setting of the advanced screen. I don't think that is not a good idea, because there are a few advanced settings that are not for daily use, like ignoring the chunk length or using a specified cuesheet. Furthermore, I think remembering for example the setting "Delete input files" is not a good idea.

So no, I won't introduce this feature because it causes confusion, setting the slider to 8 isn't that hard, right?

Quote
2. The window can't be maximized like the old one

The frontend features mostly buttons and little dynamic content, why would you want to maximize it? To have larger buttons? The lay-out would screw up. Would a larger file listbox suffice?
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #55
Hello . The new frontend is very bad :

Yeah, sure, two little things that are not to your liking make it 'very bad'. You're welcome 

Quote
1. It not keep the compression setting (i set to 8 and is coming back at 5 when i restart it) and is not keeping any setting at all

That is by design, to keep the behavior consistent. If I would make the front-end such that is remembers the settings of the main screen, it should also remember the setting of the advanced screen. I don't think that is not a good idea, because there are a few advanced settings that are not for daily use, like ignoring the chunk length or using a specified cuesheet. Furthermore, I think remembering for example the setting "Delete input files" is not a good idea.

So no, I won't introduce this feature because it causes confusion, setting the slider to 8 isn't that hard, right?


The settings we choose should be our choice and responsibility, not yours.  Why should you dictate this?  I agree with dissnite that this behavior is backwards and not correct.  If I set it to 8, it should stay at 8.  If I screw up and delete a source file because I checked that box, then that is my fault.  Lesson learned if I didn't want that result/behavior.  Defaulting to your preferred settings makes this front-end useless.  No need to treat your entire user base as if we're incompetent children.  The legacy front-end saved settings, so does Foobar, so does, well everything else....so why not yours?

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #56
Why should you dictate this? [...] Defaulting to your preferred settings makes this front-end useless.

Really, is it that hard to tick a few boxes? It makes the entire frontend useless? You can download the source code and fork your own if you don't like it.

The thing is, if I save settings, I should save either all of them or none of them. FLAC strives to be a lossless codec in all aspects, but it has a few not really lossless options (--delete-input-file, --ignore-chunk-length --(no-)keep-foreign-metadata), -F, -f) and I don't want to save those, because I know I would forget about them someday and regret it. If I'd set -f in the advanced options window I would certainly overwrite something that I didn't intend. I'm not treating anyone like a child, because people just forget these things or hastely skip over them. I could only save safe settings like compression level, but there's no real point in them (as they're few) and it's confusing.

If you don't like it you can still download the old one. It works, you only have to move it from Program Files to an user folder.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #57
ktf....my apologies.  Apparently you take feedback, whether it be constructive or critical, personally and defensive.  Sorry I didn't pick up on that before posting my thoughts on something as trivial as saving the most common level setting.  You are right....there are other programs out there that do what the majority of us are seeking out of a FLAC front-end, so I'll just move along.  Good luck.

P.S.  If you were open to just saving the level setting I would think that 95% of us would be content.  I agree with the advance stuff....no need to mess with that.  But a ton of people encode a ton of stuff, so yea having to change the level setting every single time is a nuisance.  Just sayin'.  If you had an open mind to just that one setting you'd have a comparable and useful tool to the legacy original.  Otherwise, as others are saying it's not the same and we're somewhat disappointed.  That's all.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #58
The thing is, if I save settings, I should save either all of them or none of them.


Not that I can speak with any authority, but IMHO it's mostly about "sensible defaults", not just for default values, but also for default behavior. There are some settings that users will likely always use, like the compression setting, or the amount of padding. I agree that such settings should be remembered.

I do not agree that it's either all or nothing, though. Some parameters are definitely a one-off thing, like you said yourself. Your role as the author is to make sensible choices that are most likely to suit your users best (because you're supposed to know better), and make their life a tiny bit easier. And yes, it would bug the hell out of me if I had to check the same boxes every single time I use a piece of software.

Another solution would be to implement user-defined "profiles", where users would save one or more configurations to a file, which they could later load with a single click (i.e. your front-end would list all available profiles directly in a combo box or whatever).

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #59
Apparently you take feedback, whether it be constructive or critical, personally and defensive.

This feedback has been in no way constructive. What would you do when people tell you your work is 'very bad' or even 'useless' because they have to click two times more than they would if a certain feature was implemented? I thought this over and was under the impression this might be confusing, saving certain settings but not others.

Quote
If you were open to just saving the level setting I would think that 95% of us would be content.

I have explained why I chose to do it this way, that's all. If this feature requested was posted with, I don't know, a 'thank you' maybe, I might reconsider it, but instead the effort is trivialized and the program is called unusable. As I said before, you're welcome. 

There are some settings that users will likely always use, like the compression setting, or the amount of padding. I agree that such settings should be remembered.

The only settings that I can think of are compression level and using verify. Compression level is the main problem apparently, but that's one point-click-drag and you're done. The verify setting is on by default and it's so fast you won't even know it's on. ReplayGain shouldn't be on by default because of album ReplayGain issues, neither is delete-input-files, ogg-flac, keep-foreign-metadata or decode-through-errors. There are no other non-advanced settings.

So apparently it's only about the compression level. The problem is that someone new to FLAC (and FLAC frontend is made for people new to FLAC) might play with the compression level slider to experiment and forget which setting was default. Because of the big difference between -0 and -5 I think it's a good idea to not remember the setting.

Yes, you can call me overprotective or treating users as infants, but I remember having similar issues myself when I started using FLAC. Compression level 5 is a very sensible default.

Quote
Another solution would be to implement user-defined "profiles"

Which would defeat its purpose, because while it might save you one or two clicks it makes the program much more complicated.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #60
I find it strange that you resist a very old and very common aspect of software usability: the ability to store settings, preferences. But the question has been asked, and answered.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #61
Thank you ktf for your program! You have laid out clearly your design goals and they are reasonable. There are plenty of programs out there geared to more advanced audio geeks. No one is forced to use any one program.

Bottom line, it is YOUR program, and you should make it what you want it to be. While it may not fit the needs of some, it will for many others.

Thank you again for your efforts!
Glass half full!

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #62
I think I found two bugs
1.) When clicking "Add", the "File Name"-field is prepopulated with "dlgAddFile".
2.) When trying to encode the selected single WAV-file and also let the frontend embed a cuesheet, the CLI-window shows an error:
"ERROR: --cuesheet cannot be used when encoding multiple files"

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #63
I think I found two bugs

Thanks for reporting! I've uploaded a new version to SourceForge that should fix both issues.

Beside that, I've once again looked into the issue of saving settings/preferences. I'm sorry guys, but I really think that having a program that reverts to default (like the command line FLAC-program that it wraps) is better in this case. I think the issue of having to point-click-drag every time you use the program (is it really that anoying?) is less important than avoiding any confusion like I said before.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #64
Ooh! About time the old frontend was updated/replaced.
I found a bug, sort of. I think it's because of my system.
I have the DPI set to 125%, and so the buttons in the Advanced window are cut off.


New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #65
It's kind of a shame that the old FLACTester.exe was removed from the Windows GUI apps. I realize that it's replicated here, but the tester was the only FLAC GUI application that I ever used. Installed as an Windows Explorer context menu item, it could be easily run directly from Windows Explorer on a directory of files.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #66
I found a bug, sort of. I think it's because of my system.
I have the DPI set to 125%, and so the buttons in the Advanced window are cut off.

I'll look into that some time soon.

It's kind of a shame that the old FLACTester.exe was removed from the Windows GUI apps.

You can still download it from the website it originated from, here, the AudioTester. I don't know about the Explorer context menu though, did the installer do that for you or did you assign that yourself?
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #67
No, I created the Explorer integration myself. What I'm saying is that it really did serve a purpose and was perhaps dismissed too soon as a standalone application. It would be nice to see it updated to use the latest version of libflac.


New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #69
The original FLAC Front End 1.7 from 2003 used a .ini file to keep the settings. In the newest portable .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 versions, no .ini file is used and settings are reset every time.

It would be nice to have the Output Directory and window position/size stored in a .ini file for the portable editions. Version 1.7 did this. I only upgraded to this new version because 1.7 crashed with certain accented characters in the directory pathname and/or filename.

Thanks for keeping this project alive!

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #70
If it matters, add me to the list who would love to see the ability to save the compression level and directory settings from session to session.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #71
Seems to be the most recent thread.  The frontend is still bundled with FLAC 1.3.0, I cannot see any reason not to replace flac.exe and metaflac.exe ... ?

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #72
Also, wouldn't it be nice to support LossyFLAC?

Would be beneficial to people who don't know how to set the right blocksize. I think most normal (not tech savvy) people would use the wrong blocksize and other suboptimal settings...

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #73
Seems to be the most recent thread.  The frontend is still bundled with FLAC 1.3.0, I cannot see any reason not to replace flac.exe and metaflac.exe ... ?

I just didn't take the time to bundle it with the new executables, partly because I'm still at a loss which compiler I should use. You can just replace the flac.exe and metaflac.exe, it is as easy as that.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

New FLAC frontend beta

Reply #74
Not sure if this is an outright bug, but it appears quite a bit dramaqueen-esque to report "FAILURE" when it recompresses to a ratio of 1,000? (Wasn't there a longer version/vendor identification string or something, that could trigger this behaviour?)
Edit: hm. Seems like 1.3.1 does not improve for all files anyway.  Maybe the build ...?