Even basic interface functions were still debilitated as of 2K3, in the
Windows UI at least. The problem with scrolling remained (i.e., not
respecting the up/down/left/right arrows for page motion, no proper wheel
functions, and no continuous redraw when dragging a scroll bar) [...]
Getting rid of tools, folding them in to each other, and providing proper
context menus would go a long way to help. It's time to dump the scroll
view as a separate entity -- every view should be a page view, with a
'scroll emulation' (that is, an infinite page width combined with
functional scrolling). In other words, scroll view is easier to use in many
ways, but its non-WYSIWYG nature should have been repaired long ago.
I agree entirely -- and see my thread on Sibelius 3 for info on a better way.
Sibelius 3 has virtually seamless scrolling and dragging. No lag for redraws or screen updates, everything simply draws instantly. I believe they have done this by taking advantage of OpenGL, the 3D graphics engine integrated into Mac OS X. It looks to me like instead of using a traditional 2D approach of redrawing the screen every time you change resolutions or scroll the screen or change pages -- or even using "live" 2D redrawing when scrolling -- Sibelius is caching the entire score on the graphics card as a series of 2D bitmapped textures. (The bitpmaps are presumably created at 1600%, which is Sibelius's maximum resolution, and would allow for smooth display of any size below that.)
This way, any "scrolling" or "zooming" is done by the graphics card, not the CPU. The score becomes an object in a 3D environment -- imagine a room with your entire score printed out along the far wall -- and that you control a floating video camera inside that room. If you want to zoom in, Sibelius says -- "Camera, move closer to the wall." If you want to scroll horizontally, Sibelius says -- "Camera, track right along the wall." If you want to scroll vertically, Sibelius says, "Camera, track down the wall."
This is a *much* better approach, one that results in almost seamless scrolling. There is no constant recalculation of curves and lines because the whole thing is already cached on the video card. In fact, words cannot describe how much faster this is than Finale. It's an idea that just seems so obvious in retrospect -- let the graphics card do all the heavy lifting -- but it also requires a complete rewrite of the way Finale draws screens. Instead of drawing to the screen, it would have to draw to the video card, and Finale would have to be updated to support OpenGL.
[I should add that I don't know if this is supported -- or even possible -- on the Windows side of things. It's possible in OS X because OpenGL is such an integral part of the OS. The OpenGL integration is not supported in Sibelius for OS 9, which means that the OS 9 version of Sibelius is actually *slower* than the OS X version (if you can believe that!). Maybe Sibelius for Windows uses DirectX instead of OpenGL, or maybe there's no 3D acceleration in the Windows version at all. Perhaps someone could download the WinSib demo and tell me if there's a "Smoothing..." item in the View menu?]
I *really* hope that now that Sibelius has thrown down the gauntlet, Coda are working their butts off to add this feature to Finale 2005. Because frankly, all Sibelius has to do to win converts is demo Sib 3.x next to Finale 2004 on OS X. Finale is so much slower it's embarrassing. (And Finale used to have the speed edge, at least on the Mac!) I still think Finale 2004 is ultimately a superior program -- but try telling that to the guy watching Finale struggle to redraw a complex page, when he can drag a the same page around in a Sibelius window with absolutely no lag.
- Darcy
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn NY
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