New updates are nice...thanks for the hard work. This feedback is meant to be purely constructive. Should have titled it "2 things that would make belcanto better".
Also, the online seminars are excellent. Dave has some real gems that are a lifesaver. Like "eigenbrowser hey mixer console browse". Stuff like that makes life a lot easier. I wish it was possible to explore more on our own.
Also huge thanks to Sam and maybe Geert, not sure who to thank for the belcanto documentation which is very very helpful.
Still....two possibly simple things could make life a lot easier.
The thing with belcanto right now is that it operates on a graph of objects. The exact layout of these objects is not exposed to us, you have to be intimately familiar with the assembly and innards of the system to know the name or id of the objects in the system and what is connected to what. My brain is not good at memorization. I can understand a system and how something is structured and be able to navigate that.
2 things
#1 If we simply had a belcanto command that would allow us to traverse the graph by listing the objects connected to the object we are talking to, then we could discover and navigate this graph easily. This is precisely the way the "Live Object Model" works with MAX For live for instance. Even navigating something like the graph API in facebook, allows traversal of the object graph.
#2 If there was a way to list the belcanto commands that were valid at each point in the phrase then we could have something like code complete. For example:
>arranger 1 hey help
>[beat | fraction | ...]
arranger 1 hey beat to help
> [number{0...x}]
There is a command "help" but I don't know what it does. Maybe this has been thought of already.
The difference in usability would be tremendous.
I know there is this "workbench" coming, but still the command line needs "help"
Thoughts?
Still wish there was a programmatic way to interact with the system even if it was simply to send belcanto commands and get responses back.
I do like the promise of belcanto and even could see myself learning the notes to enter.
UK
