Bugzilla – Bug 1531
Timeline Quick-Play selection dragging creates subliminal selection if no selection existed before drag
Last modified: 2018-08-20 11:45:38 UTC
Same with Loop Play. Same if you start playback by click in Timeline. Seems to have been like this since dragging Timeline selections was introduced. Moving an already existing selection does not look odd, but creation of a subliminal selection where none existed is arguably a little disturbing.
Doing these steps: 1 Enable dragging selection in Quick-Play context menu. 2 Generate Tone 30 seconds. 3 Click in waveform at about 15 seconds. 4 Drag in the Timeline to right of 15 seconds... Is that "click and drag"? Have I held the mouse button down from step 3, or is step 4 a new click and drag? Does it matter where I click? 4 (continued) A subliminal selection appears in the Timeline from the editing cursor to the dragged edge, What do you mean "subliminal selection"? If in step 3 I left click and release, then in step 4 I do "click and drag", I see a selection and play region appear where I did "click and drag".
(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #1) > 1 Enable dragging selection in Quick-Play context menu. > 2 Generate Tone 30 seconds. > 3 Click in waveform at about 15 seconds. > 4 Drag in the Timeline to right of 15 seconds... 3 is click and release mouse, yes (otherwise SPACE to play would not work except on Mac). 4 is click and drag in Timeline somewhere to right of 15 seconds, yes (otherwise I could not drag a region, only the widget). The click and drag is separate from the click and release at step 3. > What do you mean "subliminal selection"? > If in step 3 I left click and release, then in step 4 I do "click and drag", > I see a selection and play region appear where I did "click and drag". That is what should happen, but doesn't. Suppose I click and drag at 20s at step 4. I see the momentary appearance of a selection from 15s to wherever the mouse pointer is, perhaps about 21s. Then the selection is trimmed to what it should be, 20s to the mouse pointer. When I tested it now on Win 10, it wasn't happening. Then I disabled region dragging and re-enabled it in the Timeline Quick-Play menu and did Step 3 then Step 4. The ghost selection happened immediately. I restarted Audacity, did Steps 2, 3 and 4 and it happened immediately and is (for now) totally reproducible.
(In reply to Gale Andrews from comment #2) Fixed in https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/e239ef
Testing on w10 audacity-win-r597da6f-2.1.3-alpha-26-oct-16 and on Mac El Capitan edb9948 27Oct16 Behavior is slightly different on these two platforms: 1) On Windows the behaviour is as I would expect - the selection appears in the Timeline and the Waveform as you drag. 2) But on Mac, the initial selection while you are dragging shows only in the Timeline and only then shows in the waveform when you stop dragging.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #4) Did the bug (as described) occur on Mac (prior to the fix)?
(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #5) Do you mean 2.1.2 or an earlier alpha (and if so which date)?
Behaviour on latest alpha on Mac is a huge improvemnet over 2.1.2. In 2.1.2 the click and drag in the Timeline with the "dragging selection" enabledcauses horrible flashing (the sort that could eaaliy be seiously bad for epileptic sufferers).
(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #5) > Did the bug (as described) occur on Mac (prior to the fix)? Yes. I see the selection in the waveform on Sierra. I don't know what version of macOS Peter uses now. The waveform selection below the dragged Timeline selection is slow to appear but it does not wait for drag in Timeline to be released. There can be half a second or so while the original waveform cursor or selection remains where it was and so does not correspond with the Timeline selection being dragged. The time taken on Mac to achieve a matching waveform selection underneath the Timeline drag is slower than on my slow Linux netbook, but it's been this slow ever since the white flashing has been fixed. It's also slower than in 2.1.1 where you get the subliminal selection between editing cursor and dragged edge. But I agree the subliminal selection is fixed. If Peter agrees that 2.1.1 was faster to draw the waveform underneath the Timeline we could create a new P4 issue for that.
Testing on macOS Sierra 10.12.6 with 53c3adf 03Aug17 3e39771 all seems to be working well on Mac now (nd still test ok On w10 latest 2.2.0 alpha - accordingly I will mark this as OK on Mac and resolved
