Re: [linux-audio-user] Any MIDI apps that don't suck?

On Saturday 30 November 2002 05:42 pm, Chris Cannam wrote: You want me to say it? I'll say it. Because I'm a jerk. I didn't actually mean to send that message. I was very frustrated. I write messages like that to vent, but I try to be more tactful and appreciative in public. There's not really any excuse for my behavior, so I appologize for being a jerk. I deserve any ill will you and other volunteer developers bear toward me and my attitude. But I'm still very frustrated. MIDI is working in today's CVS, finally, long after the trouble was reported fixed. Probably the result of all the stuff I've been updating and compiling on this quest. It might be because I have a newer ALSA now, or because I stopped loading the snd-seq-oss module. I haven't managed to break it since the final (third) compile of yesterday's CVS, and I've actually gotten Rosegarden to run long enough and well enough to begin to explore it in a serious way. I've been snagging CVS for awhile. After the initial message on the matter, I got some arcane explanation as to why it was an issue, and the _impression_ that fixing it was low on the list of priorities, and that I should stop worrying about something so unimportant. I found that off-putting, since if MIDI is broken, the entire thing is completely useless. How can anything be more important to a MIDI sequencer than MIDI? That's like working on changing the layout of the dash board of a car that doesn't have an engine. I like where your project might go, if it goes there. I would probably be happier, as a user, never to have seen it at all, and then suddenly stumble across it two years from now. I think part of my antipathy toward Rosegarden stems from the user interface shift. Seemingly overnight you became this really great looking, super promising app that really doesn't work very well. I got to see the candy through the window, but when I tried to eat it, I smashed my nose on the glass; so I became bitter and cynical without just cause. It's not your fault I opened the oven before Rosegarden was done. I'm going to break off here. I've been working on this message for three hours. Every time I complain about something, I wind up going in new directions. I'm finding some of the functionality, and discovering new problems. I've found real bugs, such as the seeming inability to export useful .ly files, and my total failure to print anything by any means, so insetead of a mad dash to find new things to whine about in a haphazard way, I'm going to try to use Rosegarden on Rosegarden's own terms, and try to quit reminding myself how much I miss Cakewalk. Let me sit down and try to write something with this from start to finish, instead of starting with an imported MIDI file, and I'll try to get over my attitude and give you some useful, calm feedback, bug reports, and suggestions for how things could be done more easily from a user perspective. Or you can write me off as an asshole, and deservedly so. -- Michael McIntyre USDA zone 6b in SW VA, USA Silvan Pagan [silvan(a)windows-sucks.com] Linux Druid ---------[ registered Linux user #243621 ]--------- http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/index.html