Mixer: Keystroke focus
I know MuseScore is revamping the mixer in v4. Nevertheless, I want to suggest the following.
It appears that usability and accessibility are not well refined in Musescore's Mixer.
Amoung audio and MIDI applications the "space" keystroke is "universally" dedicated to playback control.
But in Musescore's Mixer keystrokes aren't passed to Playback control.
In contrast if the Mixer's Mute or Solo button has been clicked (or tab activated) subsequent space keystrokes merely toggle that setting and have no effect on playback. This behavior provides little value and comes at the high cost of preventing the user from starting or stopping score playback via the keyboard while in the mixer.
A click is the most likely cause of checking/unchecking Mute and Solo. And it follows, if a click "checks" Mute or Solo button then I'd expect "unchecking" be allocated to a click as well, not a keystroke—and certainly not the very import "space" playback control keystroke!
And from a accessibility standpoint, if a user is able to click an object they can likely click it again.
scorster
Comments
Yes, this has already been observed in #315192: Allow space to control playback after clicking elements that do not require keyboard focus.. My assumption is the MuseScore 4 mixer will be sufficiently different this won't even apply there.
Just tested on MacOS Ventura 13.1.
This focus issue remains in MuseScore 4.01's Mixer. Pertains to the Mute and Solo buttons toggling when the user presses the spacebar. A large portion of users support accessibility but want the spacebar dedicated to playback toggle.
In reply to Just tested. This issue… by scorster
What OS are you testing on? For me it works correctly on both Linux and Windows. If I click the mute button then press space, playback starts (or stops), as it should. The issue definitely seems fixed to me. If you are seeing otherwise, can you post the precise steps to reproduce the problem?
In reply to What OS are you testing on? … by Marc Sabatella
Sorry that I failed to mention I'm on MacOS Ventura 13.1 I've updated my post to state that.
I posted steps to replicate in this post.
I understand that you're getting the behavior you expect, namely the spacebar presses toggle playback even when you had just clicked a Mute or Solo button in the Mixer.
In reply to Sorry that I failed to… by scorster
~~Sorry, I don't see the precise steps listed~~. EDIT, oh, now I see, "this post" was a link, I think you meant literally this post.
Still, those steps are not sufficient, the bug may depend on other variables. See my followup questions in the issue thread.
In reply to What OS are you testing on? … by Marc Sabatella
I just tested again on MacOS Ventura 13.1. with MacBook Air M2 and a older Cinema 27 inch monitor configured into "extended display."
Using MuseScore 4.x's Mixer undocked appears to be a trigger. Or perhaps toggling the Mixer open and closed.
I experience this:
• Open a default New Score
• Click Done
• Undock the Mixer
• Press the Mute button in the Piano (track 1) channel strip
• Press spacebar
Result: MuseScore toggles the Mute button rather that toggle playback on/off.
Dock the Mixer
Result: Same behavior
Close and reopen mixer
Result: Issue temporarily resolved
Undock Mixer:
Result: Issue recurs
Hopefully someone else can test this on Mac OS. I'll wait for a report from MacOS Ventura users before creating a screencast.
scorster
In reply to I just tested again on MacOS… by scorster
I can now reproduce the issue with the mixer undocked on Linux as well - undocking definitely seems to be the key. I suspect that might be trickier to deal with because I suspect the separate window then is given focus by the OS and I'm not sure that can be defeated. But perhaps it's possible. Anyhow, definitely worth reporting on GitHub now that there are precise steps to reproduce.
In reply to I can now reproduce the… by Marc Sabatella
Glad you were able to confirm on Linux.
scorster
In reply to I can now reproduce the… by Marc Sabatella
I've reported this on Github today:
https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/16148
scorster