SergeModular

>been a while since I looked at the planner but how about ....
>1) having it display a message when you fill up what turns out to be a
>shop panel?
>Something like 'This is available as a Red Voice Shop Panel'.

I was thinking of having the shop panels as drop ins to use as a starting
point or for larger configs where you just wanted to see everything
together. Does it happen often enough that a panel ends up being a shop
panel that this feature would be useful?

>2) Also, if you select the FS, there's that extra inch of space... can
>you insert a CM or interface jack module into that space?

I was thinking of just defaulting in a CM but I suppose I can make it
selectable. Are there any other modules besides the CM and the interface
that would work there?

>3) Do you have some database space? Can you save a panel config
>session, or let a user save multiple panels under a user code? Maybe
>you're already doing this...

The old version did this. You could always save you config and download it
as an XML file and upload it to continue working on it. I plan to keep this
functionality. The only thing I'm not sure about is if existing config
files from the old planner will work with the new one. You might have to
reconfig and resave old configs again under the new one.

>4) When the user is done with a panel, have a 'high res' button that
>will let the user download the panel graphic as a high res image?

While the planner is "unofficial", Rex has always been very supportive of
it. To that end, he provided me with excellent full size, mostly color
images that will be used for the small images as well as the large. So,
this is definitely going to be a feature of the new planner.

>5) If the user is planning a larger system, have a form to fill out of
>modules and module count, and an auto-config mode where the planner
>fills out panels automatically from the list (or is that less fun than
>laying them out yourself?)
>(or were you doing that already?)

Hmmm. I hadn't thought of this. Assuming the file is in a standard format
(ie, what I say it should be) how would the planner go about determining
what went where? It is possible, I'm just not sure how to make the
decisions and would the decisions be tolerable to all users? All of the
configuration data is stored in XML format so you technically could do a
configuration in any text editor or word processor and upload it to the
planner to see the results. Then, you can make manipulations and download
the saved files.

>6) As the user fills out the last 3" of a panel the list of possible
>modules to fill that space becomes restricted. A list of appropriate
>modules might be helpful. Going a step further, a 'suggest' button
>could make some educated guesses as to how to fill the panel out, so if
>they've filled out most of a Red Voice panel it could suggest the last
>module or two... or if the panel is mostly of a particular kind (say, a
>panel of audio modifiers) it can make suggestions based on that. If
>you've got a bunch of filters but no mixers, you can suggest AMX or MIX2
>for example.

Possible, but how do I determine what is appropriate? See the problem here?
I need some way to code the logic so that the app can determine what is a
"reasonable" possibility. Some sort of a wizard function perhaps?

Keep them coming...

The plan now is that once I get a reasonably stable version of the planner,
it will go up. Initially, I want to get it running pretty much like it was
from a feature point and get it back online. Further additions of features
will be added after that. It appears that most of the new feature requests
are logic and cosmetic type stuff which won't require underlying "engine"
type changes. So, once the core engine is running, I'll get it posted and
then begin to implement the new stuff. Any more thoughts? Again, this is
almost certainly the last coding that I'm going to do to this.

James