www.megadrum.info

For several weeks I've been working on a completely new MegaDrum Manager which uses JavaFX instead of Swing/Awt.
And it is now called ... of course MegaDrum Manager FX!
(history of older MegaDrum Manager see in http://www.megadrum.info/forums/viewtop ... f=4&t=1504 )

One of the main reasons to re-write it for JavaFX was due to lack of support of HiDPI displays in Swing.
The other main reason was that old MegaDrum Manager had badly structured source code which was quite hard to maintain.

It is almost a total re-write and uses less then 5% of code from the old MegaDrum Manager.

It is now available for download from http://www.megadrum.info/content/megadrum-manager-fx

The source code is available at GitHub.

I'm first!

Dmitri, what kind of feedback are you looking for? Only bug-wise, or also usability-wise (look & feel)?

For the latter:
- Please make all the buttons exactly as big as the dropdown menu's (consistency);
- Make all the font-sizes as big as any other, or change the sizes to be more logical (section headers a tad bigger than the underlying options);
- I'm "missing" a header for the "Global settings" (while it wasn't there in the previous versions, it's no big but better to have one);
- The app-menu Main/View/About, could those be moved to the MacOS menubar at the top? Am I right that all these options inside the menu's are a sort of redundant? Could you remove them all together, because they are already available in the UI somehow?

Don't take this as criticism.. I'm trying to help to make your app better, and easier to use.. Hope you appreciate these points, as I'm currently thinking about to to improve it even more..

One question:
- Is that the Modena-theme you are using in JavaFX?

Hi, I don't seem to be able to run it on Linux; I get the following error in the terminal:

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: info/megadrum/managerfx/Main : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:803)
   at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:442)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:64)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:354)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:348)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:347)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
   at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:312)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
   at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.checkAndLoadMain(LauncherHelper.java:482)

I've installed jre 1.8, tried with several versions of OpenJDK, IcedTea... no luck.

stefan1982 wrote:Dmitri, what kind of feedback are you looking for? Only bug-wise, or also usability-wise (look & feel)?

Any feedback, both bug-wise and usability-wise.

For the latter:
- Please make all the buttons exactly as big as the dropdown menu's (consistency);

I think they are. Can you take a screenshot showing where they are not?

- Make all the font-sizes as big as any other, or change the sizes to be more logical (section headers a tad bigger than the underlying options);

I use smaller font for comboboxes to allow as much texts as possible to fit in. In spinners I make fonts as big as to fit spinner boxes.

- I'm "missing" a header for the "Global settings" (while it wasn't there in the previous versions, it's no big but better to have one);

It is always visible and at the top. I did not give it a header to preserve space. Where would you suggest to put it?

- The app-menu Main/View/About, could those be moved to the MacOS menubar at the top? Am I right that all these options inside the menu's are a sort of redundant? Could you remove them all together, because they are already available in the UI somehow?

I will see if it is at all possible with Java. Not all of them are available in UI.

Don't take this as criticism.. I'm trying to help to make your app better, and easier to use.. Hope you appreciate these points, as I'm currently thinking about to to improve it even more..

It is greatly appreciated and you will be able to improve it when I publish the source code.

One question:
- Is that the Modena-theme you are using in JavaFX?

I think so, it is the default one.

ignotus wrote:Hi, I don't seem to be able to run it on Linux; I get the following error in the terminal:
I've installed jre 1.8, tried with several versions of OpenJDK, IcedTea... no luck.

I will check it.

Here is the screenshot on macOS Sierra 10.12.5, resolution 2560x1440:


Please do make all the font sizes in *all* the options equal. It's easier for the eyes and look more professional..

- I suggest to put the "Global settings" header on top. But I'd rather and preferably have it under it's own section and not always visible because those are somewhat "one time settings".

Would you accept a fast mockup of a total other UI? Which I think would be easier to understand, more scalable and much easier to work with with less options per page?

Right... Modena it is then..

Send all has gone from 12 down to 2 seconds - Wow!

Gui looks the same to me, needs sexing up a bit!, that said, I do prefer playing the kit rather than staring at MDM.

Well done Dmitri.

stefan1982 wrote:Here is the screenshot on macOS Sierra 10.12.5, resolution 2560x1440:


Please do make all the font sizes in *all* the options equal. It's easier for the eyes and look more professional..

As you noticed, all Misc, Pedal, Pads, Pads, Pads Extra and Midi Log views are resizeable. So you can resize them to match fonts/button sizes of the top part of the window.

- I suggest to put the "Global settings" header on top. But I'd rather and preferably have it under it's own section and not always visible because those are somewhat "one time settings".

If I put a header there it would make the Global Misc view to take 3 rows of valuable screen space instead of 2. I think it should stay visible all the time. You can detach all other views if you don't need to see Global Misc settings.

Would you accept a fast mockup of a total other UI? Which I think would be easier to understand, more scalable and much easier to work with with less options per page?

Yes, of course, you can totally redesign it once I published the source code.

ignotus wrote:Hi, I don't seem to be able to run it on Linux; I get the following error in the terminal:

Code: Select all

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: info/megadrum/managerfx/Main : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:803)
   at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:442)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:64)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:354)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:348)
   at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:347)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
   at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:312)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
   at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.checkAndLoadMain(LauncherHelper.java:482)

I've installed jre 1.8, tried with several versions of OpenJDK, IcedTea... no luck.

Maybe you have multiple Java versions installed and the default one is not 1.8? See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/103 ... inor-versi