Feedback on Measure (was Re: Another pass through some basic Activity test results)

[Arjun Sarwal]

(have changed the subject line since we are drifting off topic from
the previous subject )

Hi,

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 6:02 AM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> On 26 Sep 2008, at 19:31, Arjun Sarwal wrote:
>
>> 2008/9/26 Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>:
>>>
>>> Here's a set of basic Activity test results for build 8.2-763, hope the
>>> ASCI
>>> art doesn't get too mangled by the list server (need to view with a fixed
>>>      Measure-20 . . - . x x x . x Doesn't sleep when Activity is in the
>>>                                   background (eats 75% cpu). Can't seem
>>> to
>>>                                   record anything. Keep error when
>>
>> -- When Measure is in background and some other Activity comes in
>> foreground, then Measure releases sound device - you can record sound
>> using any other program/application. In this state Measure also
>> doesn't hog CPU.
>
> Just testing with Measure-21 and 8.2-765, yes I see this now. However
> switching to any of the Neighborhood/Group/Home views does not seem count as
> putting Measure into the background, it still consumes the cpu and claims
> the sound input device. I'm guessing this is a Sugar behaviour? Is this a
> bug or a feature (feels like a Sugar bug that would make the UI sluggish for
> no go reason)?

See #7856. Seems like a Sugar related issue to me. I had borrowed the
code and concept from Record activity, which now apparently uses some
other method to determine switch of view/context/activity.( I think
they detect whether one of the main gtk widgets is the topmost or not
etc. not sure) I should try exploring that. Any help on this would be
great.

>
>> -- For recording the waveforms, within 'Sound' in toolbar, if 'Now' is
>> selected  and the record button next to it is pressed, it will capture
>> the current displayed waveform. If you select an interval and then
>> press the record button, it will start saving waveforms at the
>> specified interval and the record button will change to a 'stop'
>> button. It will record a maximum of 10 waveforms.
>>
>> You will be able to see the waveforms as picture files in the Journal
>
> Ahhh, thanks Arjun, so that's where they go to. I was expecting some visual
> representation within Measure, perhaps like Record does, where there is a
> tray at the bottom of the screen, or Browse and its bookmark thumbnails.
>

Thats very much on my list for the next set of TODOs. I am however not
sure from the UI point of view where this tray could go, and where
this textbox could go...or if there is an alternate replacement for
both ?


> Is there a way to capture waveform images without the entire UI also
> appearing in the  screen shot?
>

There is and I thought about that. But then I figured that along with
the waveform one would also need to know things like, what was the
timebase scale when the waveform was being displayed, was it in time
mode or fft mode etc. So I took the whole screen shot that would also
have all other information included.

Maybe just the waveform area saved along with some meta-data stored in
the journal entry might be an idea to consider ?

>> --For recording sensor values, within the 'Sensors' context , when one
>> presses the record button it will start writing the sensor values (of
>> the sensor connected at Analog Input) at the specified interval.
>> You can have multiple recording sessions,i.e. stop it and then resume
>> it and stop it again and resume it.
>>
>> You can see the logged sensor values in the Journal.  They are saved
>> in csv format.
>> (I am waiting for the spreadsheet activity to come soon! :) )
>
> Thanks, I understand this now as well. I had not noticed that new entries
> were silently being entered in to the Journal. BTW: you can resume the CSV
> file and Write will display the list of values. I also tried copying the CSV
> to the clipboard, but it generated a blank clipboard icon and would not
> paste anywhere (probably a Sugar issue, the clipboard isn't very robust
> yet).
>

I tried that too. It didn't work - Write doesn't copy anything on the
clip-board if one is viewing a csv file. Seems like a bug?

> Some quick suggestions:
>
> - The "Start Recording" text could say "Start Recording to Journal", that
> would have pointed me to check in the Journal after clicking record.
>

Agreed, good idea.

> - The time section menu could say "Every 30 seconds", "Every 2 minutes" etc.
> Before you explained, I believed that the times were the duration of the
> sample to be recorded, not the interval between each sample. The little
> toolbar interval icon makes more sense now that I know what the menu does
> ;-)

Hmm...so the interval needs to be made more intuitive...

>
>> Lastly, thanks for the feedback, its really useful. It helped me
>> figure out a minor problem in sensor values recording (#8683) and I
>> released ver21 that corrects that!
>
>
> Glad it was of use! I'm a bit of an electronics type, so I'm really glad
> Measure is up and working again.
>

Please keep the feedback coming!

One of the things that I want to do is to display the logged values in
the small textbox below. How does that sound ?

Also, when logging is started and is stopped -- there should be a
visual cue of some sort.


> --Gary
>
> P.S. Any chance of solving the "keep error" bug every time Measure is
> closed? I'm not quite sure what causes them.
>

Don't know yet -- need to figure out. Browse also has this keep error
I observed.


Regards,
Arjun