[fso based] Simplified mixer app

[Laszlo KREKACS]

On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 11:24 PM, Al Johnson
<openmoko at mazikeen.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> Feedback would be welcome.

There have been many attempts to implement volume control;)
Angus looked into it, did two versions (gtk, and after elementary)....

I have also researched some of the things.

Nice to see, that there is an another attempt. I hope you will done it right;)

I have only one suggestion:
Please implement a help button on every near every group, where you
explain shortly the most essential infos about the options.

I just launched your program and it picked up the stereout .state file, and
displayed the sliders. Screenshot:
http://laszlo.krekacs.googlepages.com/fso-mixer-screenshot.png

The screenshot is a bit wrong, because it does show the "Stereo Out" string,
in the middle (above Microphone). So it looks normal in real life,
dunno why the
screenshot didnt included it. (maybe it was rendering while captured the screen)

I would like see the following help buttons:
Stereo Out [help]
Microphone [help]
Speaker [help]

Help of the Stere Out page should be something similar:
"""
Stereo Out state is corresponds, when the phone is idle
(ie waiting for incoming call, or playing music).
Microphone is disabled in this state, and Speaker corresponds to
the speaker at the bottom near to the Neo text.
[Should show a picture with a neo indicating where the microphone and
the speaker are.]
"""

Help of Microphone page should be something similar:
"""
Mic2 corresponds to XXX alsa settings (or group of alsa settings)
Mono corresponds to XXX alsa setting
Mono Sidetone corresponds to XXX alsa setting.
Microphone can be altered also by this alsa settings: XXX,YYY, ZZZ
However it is strongly discouraged to touch them.

Advices:
The monoside tone is used for XXX. You should hear XXX, when you
raise it. Highest state does not automatically means better/louder
voice transmitted.

Also some other advices how to correctly adjust the sliders. Like on
the wiki page:
reduce #5 by some 15..30 steps
do testcall:
you get very low volume at far end. but tone should be clear, no
clipping (sharp agressive noise)
if there is clipping: reduce #48 by one step (i.e. to "2")
then adjust #5 to your preferences and taste

"""

Keep in mind that your program should be self-explanatory and
useful for even for the first time user.

If you want the explanatory pictures, Im sure somebody can draw it
for you. If nobody step up, I look into what can I make;)


There is also some AT command to affect the voice quality.
Mickey told me, that on his freerunner, value 4 works better then
value 5 (the default).
I think it should also be included in your program, to give the
ability to play with it...
(if the user are still not satisfied with the result).


Usability reports:

IT is nice, that your program switch the display automagically when the
incoming call happens.

However I think these are defectives:
1. when clicking on save there is no report what you did exactly, and was it
successful.
I think on shr, you should save the .state file to /usr/share/shr/scenarii/ dir.
So I expect something similar:
Copying /usr/share/shr/scenarii/stereout.state to
~/.simplemixer/backup/stereout-20091002-1424.state... Success!
Overwriting /usr/share/shr/stereout.state... Success!
Saving was successful, even after reboot you should have the same
voice experience as now.

2. When you adjusted the microphone while talking, and other hangup,
your program automagically switch back to stereout.state display
-> no ability to save the adjusted gsmhandset.state (the state file
while talking)

We should be able to switch between states, and adjust/save them invidually.
Also you should display which one is active currently (bold text, or
something similar).

However I like your program! Keep it up!

Would be nice to create a googlecode project for this.

Best regards,
 Laszlo