Does EVERY desktop application really need to run on mobile? Some apps are just... call me crazy... desktop apps! (NOTE: "native vs. browser-based" is separate distinction from "desktop vs. mobile".)
That's not to say that there can't be mobile audio apps, or mobile whatever. I just think that's a separate app, and should be designed and written as a mobile app from conception.
I realize that a large cohort finds desktop applications uncool today, but I'm just so frustrated with the idea that serious and powerful desktop interfaces need to crippled in order to fit into a "mobile-first" (a.k.a. "lowest-common denominator") paradigm. For audio listening, that's fine. But for serious audio creation and editing? FUCK an iPhone, sheesh.
> I realize that a large cohort finds desktop applications uncool today, but I'm just so frustrated with the idea that serious and powerful desktop interfaces need to crippled in order to fit into a "mobile-first" (a.k.a. "lowest-common denominator") paradigm.
Yeah, my primary issue with this sort of thing is that there is very little personal A/V content I'd feel comfortable uploading to some random server in the first place, but I agree that there are some tools better suited for the desktop and more specifically a keyboard and mouse.
The problem is that a very sizable part of the population doesn't have a desktop. It's not that they think it's uncool exactly but for a lot of people, kids especially, all they have are cell phones and tablets which were designed first and foremost for content consumption. I can't blame developers for wanting to target the needs of that audience to whatever extent they can.
You said it: Designed for content consumption. Hence it’s important to not cripple the UI of content creation tools for platforms that aren’t suitable for that.
You can use GarageBand perfectly fine on an iPhone, no reason Audacity can't do the same. It's literally just a UI issue, easily remedied especially on the web.
The difference is that Apple has a much higher dev budget and a clear economic incentive to promote mobile apps.
I think Audacity devs should instead focus their limited resources on desktop (mouse+keyboard+big screen) use. Also because if you just need some simple audio editing, you can be served by other simple mobile apps.
This is what people like me have been getting at for ages when we talk about decoupling interfaces from application logic. It's also incidentally a really strong argument for decoupling state presentation from visual presentation. I should be able to build a mobile interface for Audacity without rebuilding Audacity both because the audio processing logic should be separate from the interface and because the interface should be separate from the visuals -- I should be able to consume Audacity's interface as an XML tree and pipe it into a separate renderer.
Because if that was the case it wouldn't be that hard to make Audacity mobile friendly (or at least more mobile friendly than it currently is).
As a bonus, if your interface is consumable as an XML tree without rendering anything, it's very likely going to be much easier to make the interface accessible. From what I can see in the documentation, Audacity as a native app on desktop doesn't work with screen readers on Linux.
This is not necessarily anyone's fault beyond GUI toolkit designers, it's not particular to Audacity, but it's a paradigm shift. Some visual controls wouldn't work well on mobile, but for most apps including Audacity there's really no reason (other than lack of existing infrastructure and toolkit support) why people shouldn't be able to just swap out those visual controls with ones that do work on mobile and use Audacity normally otherwise.
Sometimes I don’t need to do “serious audio editing” with audacity. I need to trim a clip or something. I can’t think of a reason why I SHOULDNT be able to do that on my phone that has more processing power than most computers a decade ago
That's not to say that there can't be mobile audio apps, or mobile whatever. I just think that's a separate app, and should be designed and written as a mobile app from conception.
I realize that a large cohort finds desktop applications uncool today, but I'm just so frustrated with the idea that serious and powerful desktop interfaces need to crippled in order to fit into a "mobile-first" (a.k.a. "lowest-common denominator") paradigm. For audio listening, that's fine. But for serious audio creation and editing? FUCK an iPhone, sheesh.