Talk:Summit II

Pipeline Browser

What does a hierarchy mean?

When I look at Mark's diagram, it seems clear to me that we're asking the wrong question. Let's turn the problem around, and look at things from the user standpoint.

Take this simple test: Look at a Pipeline Browser representation, and without thinking about (code, etc.) implementation, draw the graph that it represents. Think as a user, not a programmer.

The Test

What does this Pipeline Browser representation show? To me, it logically represents this filter graph.

What does this Pipeline Browser representation show? To me, it shows this filter graph.

Conclusion

In other words, when I look at the Pipeline Browser hierarchy, I think it naturally leads to 'indentation means connection'. If we do it this way, I think we solve several problems - the thing makes sense, and I think it's easy to understand. Of course, this comes at the sacrifice of width - large chains of filters will be 'wide', because we always indent. Remember - we decided not to indent during our design discussion, because we didn't want these things becoming wide.

To me, the 'indent means connection' design makes sense, and it makes the whole widget easier to understand. Because of this, I like it for the first rev. We can, through user testing see how long a typical pipeline becomes (how wide they become), and address that problem.

--David 15:30, 28 March 2006 (EST)