Sunday, April 29, 2007

Porting Model Railroading Software to OS X From Windows

Last week, TrainPlayer International released a Mac OS X version of Train Player, their application for designing model railroads. I had something to do with this. I setup the general structure of the application at the start of the porting project, implemented a number of features, and worked into the debugging stage. But my real job has been nothing but debugging for the last two months, and I have nothing left to give to side projects, so they've had to get along without me.

This blog entry is the first of two on the project. This will cover GUI differences between a Windows application and a Mac OS X application, in terms of user expectations. The second will be on designing an application under the hood to share code between a Cocoa application and an old MFC application.

What Mac Users Want

The first thing I noticed about the interface was the surfeit of toolbars. With buttons for nearly every action.

When I worked in Illinois, we called this "Marketing Mode." Compare this with the left

and the right side of Apple's Pages word processor.

Apple Pittsburgh spent untold hours categorizing the actions required to lay out text, and distilled them into six icons. I can imagine the pressure they felt to add a special button here or there for someone's pet function. "What about a spell check button?" But it is important that toolbar icons be few and large in order that mouse acquisition times be short, requiring thoughtful selection of buttons. Notice there is plenty of room under the large icons for actual descriptive words; sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures.

The second thing I noted was how often the user was required to open a modal dialog box, sometimes two, or even three nested modal dialogs to configure some user interface element. For example, to change the labels for a series of railway cars you would select a car, choose "Properties..." from the "Train" menu, to bring up this modal dialog:

which you would modify, hit "OK" and repeat for every car in the series. Modal dialogs are great for programmers; work flow is linear and controlled. If the user hits "Cancel" you just don't change your data structures, while if they hit "OK" nobody expects you to allow them to undo it; you've already given them a chance to back out. It's just so easy. But, Mac users these days are used to more.

The more they expect is a modeless, floating inspector window.

This allows the user to select, change and rapidly select and change again, all without losing focus on the document. It should allow for undoing changes (although apparently that functionality hasn't been added yet to Train Player, but should). The user should feel more comfortable and able to work in a more free flowing manner.

The Windows version used GDI graphics for its rendering needs, resulting in pixelated track paths like this:

I felt OS X's Quartz graphics environment would create much cleaner lines if we treated tracks as continuous paths instead of discrete segments and the Windows programmer was willing to make the changes needed to get nice anti-aliased and beautifully joined paths like these:

Similar effects could be achieved under Windows with GDI+, but I felt the typical Mac user would immediately see what was missing and demand higher quality. Quartz also allows any object to cast a shadow, making this effect: extremely easy to produce. Simple as it is, this translucent shadow makes the cars pop out and resulting in a more realistic look.

Along the same vein, Windows users see this clock:

while Mac users will see this clock with a composited reflective crystal and hands throwing shadows:


The Windows version had a modal dialog to choose individual cars from collections. It had two modes: an icon view and a table view, with each collection selectable via a tab.

I felt there was no need for two modes as the Mac table class was capable of displaying the larger image; and I am leery of using tabs to represent categories, especially when the user could install or create their own. Therefore, I replaced the tabs with a single column table as you might see in an iLife application, and I merged the two modes into a single table grid.


In other areas, I left it up to the experts at TrainPlayer, they know model railroading, whereas I only know generic applications. So when they say this is how you build up a set of tracks, this is how you build a set of tracks:

And this is how you run a simulation on a completed railroad:

I wish YouTube didn't add an ugly filter to its videos. You have to see how pretty it is.

What Was Achieved

In many ways, I'm proud of the result so far, and I expect the application to go through a rapid process of refinement now that it is available to a wider Mac user audience. Areas of the GUI where I varied it from the Windows original are definite improvements, some of which could be back ported to give the Windows user base a taste of Mac refinement.

In other places, I'm not thrilled. After I left the project, too many buttons crept into the GUI, and text fields really should support undo. Today's standards are high, it's hard to keep up, especially while reusing large chunks of C++ code, and bitmap images from a Windows application. The good thing is there is always version 1.0.1.

Porting is a balancing act. You've got to know what code and what GUI elements can be reused, and which must be re-implemented in order to avoid the dreaded "Looks like a Windows port" review. I think we've avoided that, and that's an accomplishment in itself.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Wii Remote + MythFrontend + Remote Buddy + OS X

In most aspects of my life, I have decent impulse control. But when I discovered IOSpirit's Remote Buddy software allowed me to use a Wii Remote Controller to control my Mac, I just had to have one. One-click buying on Amazon, right now, need to have!


I don't even own a Wii; I've never even seen a Wii; I don't know how to pronounce Wii.


I downloaded Remote Buddy, and in 30 seconds determined it was worth 10 Euros. I am impressed by the degree of finish this little product shows. As an application developer I can tell when somebody put their love and creative soul into a product, and Remote Buddy shows this. And IOSpirit is actively improving Remote Buddy too, just last night they released an update which made a marked improvement in the interface and, apparently, in the reliability of button pushing.


When the Wii Remote Controller arrived from Amazon, the longest step in the setup was inserting the batteries. Remote Buddy paired quickly with the remote and I was soon driving my Mac from across the room.


IOSpirit has full support for all the buttons on the remote except the power button, which I guess must control an infrared emitter instead of using Bluetooth, nor does it have any apparent tie into the accelerometer's inside the remote, or the speaker [Update: After looking over the support forums at IOSpirit, there is support for virtual mousing with the accelerometer, but it involves providing a strong infrared beacon (a candle) to give the infrared sensor on the remote an extra frame of reference, and is therefore probably not very practical] [Update 2: I built a 3 Infrared LED based emitter using the circuit generated by this online calculator This is a lot more convenient than mousing via cursor keys, but is a bit wobbly especially when double clicking]. The way it controls Front Row and iTunes is extremely slick, with lots of use of the Heads Up Display (HUD) windows which are so popular these days.


There was no pre-set for the MythFrontend application, so I ran the "Behavior Construction Kit" to create an identity for MythFrontend, and then went to the Behaviors preference to configure the buttons. Note that some buttons can have separate actions assigned to when you briefly press the button, and also when you press and hold the button. For other buttons, Remote Buddy requires you to press and hold the button, presumably to avoid inadvertent presses with one's palm.


Button Action
Up Cursor key up
Down Cursor key down
Left Cursor key left
Right Cursor key right
A / Play/Pause "P"
A / Play/Pause (held) Spacebar
B / Menu Escape
B / Menu (held) Open Remote Buddy menu
Home Escape


The trigger shaped "B" key on the facing side of the remote was the most complex to figure out. In normal practice, its used by Remote Buddy to bring up its HUD menu, but I liked its behavior in Front Row where clicking the "B" key goes one menu layer up, while clicking the round "A" key digs one menu layer down. Also in Front Row, clicking and holding the "B" key brings up the Remote Buddy HUD, and this seems a good compromise.


For simple watching of TV and recorded programs, you can drive MythFrontend with 7 buttons, which is a little unfortunate because the Wii has 6 buttons in comfortable reach of the thumb and forefinger. The space key which is used to press some buttons, such as the quit confirmation, and to bookmark show positions is infrequently enough used that I assigned it to holding down the "+" button. I also assigned space to the hold state of the "A" button, but time will tell if I get into the habit of using it. [Update: Time has told, and I use the held down A button.] I could assign the other buttons ("-", "home", "1", "2") to handle less frequent commands, such as zooming, or bringing up the program guide, but I've never gotten into the habit of using those MythTV features. For me 7 buttons are sufficient. I do wish MythTV allowed the right cursor button to push any selected onscreen button. The few that act differently stick out and annoy.


For pure driving of the interface, the Wii remote is excellent. The remote has a heft I miss with the Apple remote, and fits comfortably in either hand with the forefinger and thumb resting next to their buttons ready to spring into action, rescuing me from commercials. Being wireless, there is no need to point, and button pushes are reliable, with little need to look at the remote during use. I haven't felt the need to use the attached strap, my TV watching is not quite that kinetic.



Remote Buddy's menu system makes it easy to switch between media applications or control iTunes in the background while having a more reliable Bluetooth remote makes driving Front Row more pleasurable.

The downside of the remote is it's being radio frequency based, and thus can't be used to drive my TV or stereo receiver. I still need my Harmony 550 to control those, and since I can use the 550 to drive my MacBook anyway, by pretending to be an Apple remote, the question then becomes is it worthwhile to have a separate Wii remote just to control the MacBook. That's a tough question. Certainly the integrated solution is simpler and cheaper, on the other hand, the Harmony is a complicated, general purpose remote and is not optimal for driving a 12 foot interface. You spend a lot of time staring at the Harmony, finding the button you've mapped to mimic the Apple Remote's "Menu" button, and the cursor buttons have nowhere near the smooth action of the Wii remote.


When the Wii loses touch with the Mac (sleep, leaving its range, baby takes the batteries out), you will have to re-pair it, which can quickly be done by pressing the 1 and 2 keys simultaneously. Remote Buddy will re-detect it within seconds.


In summary, using a Wii remote to drive the MythFrontend, and other multimedia applications is fun and convenient. I'm looking forward to the day when I can put a Mac Mini in my TV room and get down to doing some serious viewing.
[Update: I notice that Remote Buddy will go into a mode where it uses a lot of CPU cycles (10% of a core) waiting to pair with a missing Wii remote. I'm assuming this is something IOSpirit can fix.]
[Edited for grammar, and inserted photo since first published.]

[UPDATE: I spent a happy weekend with my MacBook hooked up to the HDTV in the TV room. I mounted a SMB share from the Linux box in the basement with a bunch of video content selected from DVDPedia, drive the Apple DVD Player, as well as watching TV via the Myth Frontend, listening to iTunes, watching movie trailers in Front Row. I even lazily browsed the Internet using the remote as a mouse. It was fun--and yes, I should get out more. The only problem with the remote itself was Myth Frontend would not get the pause command the first time so I will end up clicking it 3 times to pause.

The RemoteBuddy DVDPedia setup did not include the command key for launching linked files (Command-L), so I mapped it to the home button on the Wiimote. Annoyingly, the DVD Player had to be quit before moving to a different movie, as the DVD Player / DVDPedia interaction would go into some sort of loop preventing playback.]

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Streaming video to VLC from MythWeb

After building and installing the latest MythTV version, I browsed through the mini-website, MythWeb, which gets installed and served by Apache. There is a page for all my previously recorded programming which comes up as a table:



It's a nice refinement from previous versions, but what caught my eye was this newly added icon:



Mousing over it gives a tooltip: "ASX Stream" and clicking on it causes a file to be downloaded with the double extension ".asx.asf". What is that? By default, on OS X, Quicktime was set to open .asf files, but Quicktime didn't know what to do with it. So, I reassigned the file type to the VLC player. Now opening the file (which you can do by right clicking on Safari's download window) launches VLC and starts playing the recorded program. No more relying on the, somewhat clunky, MythTV frontend for displaying recorded content. Instead, you can use the much more refined, and Mac-like VLC player in either windowed or full screen mode.

This is not perfect. VLC can't fast forward, jump forward, or scrub through the stream. So the MythTV frontend is still more functional, unless you want to watch commercials. OS X gives 5 applications which are registered to handle the .asf file type: VLC, MPlayer OSX, MPEG StreamClip, Windows Media Player, and WMV Player. Only VLC can actually use the file as generated by MythWeb.

I don't know what is missing from the stream (or VLC) but I wish somebody would add arbitrary scrubbing. It would be very cool to use VLC for my TV viewing. And it'd also be nice if MythWeb added a TV tuning page, and live TV streaming. And it would be even nicer if it the tuning page handed off my HDHomeRun's network stream directly to VLC instead of acting as a proxy.

Still, a really cool feature.

[Update: I couldn't actually watch a whole program without losing the stream, but it'd be cool if it worked.]