Plugin manager window update

[vsverchinsky]

Resolves: #3865

QA: Group toggling with mouse click does not work as in spec, though it works via spacebar.

• [x] I signed CLA
• [x] The title of the pull request describes an issue it addresses
• [x] If changes are extensive, then there is a sequence of easily reviewable commits
• [x] Each commit's message describes its purpose and effects
• [x] There are no behavior changes unnecessary for the stated purpose of the PR

Recommended:

• [x] Each commit compiles and runs on my machine without known undesirable changes of behavior

[petersampsonaudacity]

@vsverchinsky

You have a small typo Vitaly - it should say Disabled

Plus the Consistency>Spelling page in the Manual (and on Manual pages) has long had

"built-in", not "builtin" or "built in"

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But otherwise all seems to work fine

[vsverchinsky]

Last branch update aims to fix compilation and keyboard navigation issues on platforms other than win. Remaining accessibility problems are yet to be fixed

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240227+067c5e1-x64

The list of EGATS is still NOT in strict alphabetical order - rather it has alphabetically ordered subsections.

a) This makes it harder to use.

b) It is not really necessary as the user can filter by Type to see the subsections.

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240227+95f0559-x64

That looks better to me now with proper alphabetic ordering.

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build for this: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240229+0df2b93-x64

I see we now have an additional filter for Category (type of EGAT)

The cute thing is that the default setting you get for Category depends on the way you get to the Plugin Manager, so coming from Effect>Plugin Manager will default to Category Effect and similar for the other EGAT categories.

I just hope that users are curious enough to explore the Category filter and realize that there is still an All category choice.

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240306+c6c5a1c-x64

a) The cycling based on initial letter now seems good

b) if you are lower in the list that the first letter you type it will go back and find the EGATs starting with that letter

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But I observe a small oddity with the alphabetic ordering of the list.

A couple of my VST/VST3 plugins are out of order at the bottom of the list. This does not appear to be a VST/VST3 problem per se as I have other VST/VST3 plugins further up the list which are in the correct alphabetic order.

Interestingly though if I use "i" or "m" as my first letter it cycles through the correctly ordered ones and then these out of order ones at the bottom and then cycles back up.

[DavidBailes]

@vsverchinsky . Having C as the access key for Category has created a duplicate, as Cancel also uses C. Suggest you change the access key of Category to a. Also as noted above by @petersampsonaudacity , the alphabetic ordering should not be case sensitive.

[petersampsonaudacity]

Also as noted above by @petersampsonaudacity , the alphabetic ordering should not be case sensitive.

Ahhhh, so that was the problem - thanks @DavidBailes

[LWinterberg]

this dialog is going to be the closest thing to perfection we have in this app

[petersampsonaudacity]

this dialog is going to be the closest thing to perfection we have in this app

I'm certainly liking it a lot :-)

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch for this: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240311+dcc70d2-x64

The alphabetic ordering now properly ignores case:

[dozzzzer]

@vsverchinsky

These two issues can be reliably reproduced:

1. On Windows, when clicking into a checkbox to enable a plugin/effect, it wrongly clicks in a different row:

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/assets/70063970/cee9135a-2053-4c66-a497-aa5e50696537

2. On macOS, when double-clicking on an empty row in the Plugin Manager, Audacity crashes.

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[!NOTE] The following issues occur seemingly at random and only on macOS, but still, it isn't too hard to come across them since they exhibit themselves frequently although not in 100% of the cases. These issues are:

3. Audacity crashes after having disabled some built-in effect(s), then switching the Category to Generator and trying to rescan.

Example 1:

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/assets/70063970/8413ff05-79c4-4d7d-840e-cde3d54232f2

Example 2:

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/assets/70063970/11e90f59-580b-420d-8b5d-35f187e24c1c

4. Audacity may also freeze sometimes with or without the "Audacity Support Data" dialog popping up when performing pretty much the same set of actions, i.e.:

1. Effect > Plugin Manager
2. Disable one-two effects
3. Click Rescan
4. Click Cancel to abort scanning
5. Click OK to dismiss the dialog
6. Select Category: Generator
7. Click Rescan

Example 1

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/assets/70063970/432aecc0-c6b5-41d9-8635-36aabab21467

Example 2

https://github.com/audacity/audacity/assets/70063970/b34d122f-68bb-4bb1-9f21-ac3c3a37f31c

5. And lastly, much more rarely Audacity may freeze when canceling scanning. For this one, I don't have a screen recording.

[petersampsonaudacity]

@dozzzzer @vsverchinsky

1. On Windows, when clicking into a checkbox to enable a plugin/effect, it wrongly clicks in a different row:

I cannot reproduce this on W10

Well, I can if I have run older versions and get multiple copies of the same EGAT - buut not if I clear the Audacity settings folder before launching the latest branch build for this.

[petersampsonaudacity]

3. Audacity crashes after having disabled some built-in effect(s), then switching the Category to Generator and trying to rescan.

@dozzzzer @vsverchinsky

I cannot reproduce this on W10

[petersampsonaudacity]

@dozzzzer @vsverchinsky

4. Audacity may also freeze sometimes with or without the "Audacity Support Data" dialog popping up when performing pretty much the same set of actions

5. And lastly, much more rarely Audacity may freeze when canceling scanning. For this one, I don't have a screen recording.

I can never get to the Cancel button on the Rescan dialog anything like quickly enough - so I find myself unable to test this.

[vsverchinsky]

@dozzzzer

1. On Windows, when clicking into a checkbox to enable a plugin/effect, it wrongly clicks in a different row:

Nice catch! When I was debugging this issue I've found out that to reproduce this you'll need to have multiple rows with equal values in the column and enable sorting for this column. "Type" is a best option.

[vsverchinsky]

@dozzzzer It seem that all 2-5 crashes/freezes may have same origin. At least I could reproduce any of 3-5 after I caught and fixed second issue.

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build for this: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240314+cfb3b3a-x64

The list of Types has had "effects" trimmed from them as per @LWinterberg 's request And "Native Audacity" is there for Audacity supplied EGATS (thanks for that)

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build for this: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240314+cfb3b3a-x64

A few posts ago in this thread @LWinterberg requested that in the Type field we should lose the term "effect" from the type listings as not all EGATs are effects. And this is now done as reported above.

BUT in the EGAT lists the non-effect EGATs show as "Built-in Effects" in their path listing:

[petersampsonaudacity]

Testing on W10 with @vsverchinsky 's latest branch build for this: audacity-win-3.5.0-alpha-20240320+4f4b2e0-x64

@LWinterberg @dozzzzer @Tantacrul

From a user and usability perspective all seems fine but with one small oddity/niggle - and that is the behavior of the space-bar shortcut with multiple selections (basically it acts as a toggle).

a) If you select a single EGAT in the displayed list and press the space-bar it toggles the enabled/disabled status of that selected EGAT. All well and good and as expected.

b) BUT if you make a selection of multiple EGATs in the displayed list (with Shift or Ctrl modified selection) and press the space-bar it toggles the entire selection based on the status of the last EGAT that you select- rather than toggling the status of each individual EGAT in the list based on its current status (and it is topmost not the first one you select).

Is this intended and desired behavior ?
Is it what a user would expect ? I would have thought that most users would expect a toggle of existing status for all selected EGATs (my "Mystery-Shopper" thought so too when I ran this past her).

@DavidBailes - what would VI users expect in this case ?

BTW if you make a multiple EGAT selection with a Shift modified click to select a contiguous range of EGATS, then the toggle is based on the status of the whichever EGAT you clicked on second to make the contiguous selection.

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STR

1. Effect > Plugin Manager
2. set Type filter to native Audacity
3. Observe: Classic Filters is the only disabled entry
4. Click on Classic Filters to select it
5. Ctrl+Click on Auto Duck and Bass&Treble to select those too
6. Press the space-bar:
7. Observe all three become un-selected i.e. Classic Filters does not toggle

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I partly ask this question as the editor of the manual as this existing behavior is somewhat tricksy to explain.