Mixer: Keystroke focus

• Mar 16, 2021 - 04:52

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

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 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 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 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.

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