Thread: Representing tones visually in blocks

Cross-posted:http://www.java-forums.org/new-java/...tml#post310040
Good day.

My first post, yay!
I'm working on a project for school, the requirements are that we must have at least 10 classes and implement the usual stuff like inheritence, overriding, ...
I wanted to do something special, so I'm working on a visual drag'n drop program for sounds. So you can specify the frequency and duration of a tone, and add the specific block to a channel. A channel is something I created so blocks don't have to overlap. A channel is actually just an additional of blocks beneath the other one. The amount of channels is unlimited, so is the length of a Channel. Channels will be played simultaneously. Now comes the problem..

I have a class named 'SynthBlock', which contains the starting time, duration and frequency of this tone. It is a part of my Channel class. (= arraylist)
I wanted to represent a synthblock visually, so I made another class: ToneBox. This must be a child-class from JComponent and override the paintComponent method.

I wanted to ask... is it wise to inherit from the JComponent class? And how would I best calculate the coordinates needed for my drawRectangle?
Project is included if needed. I am certainly not trying to give my schoolwork away to someone else, I just want to find out the best way.
I uploaded it here: https://rapidshare.com/files/1086823385/project.zip

Greetings,
Nindustries

Greetings and welcome Nindustries.

I don't understand your goal. Or maybe I do but not clearly. Describe what it should look like, perhaps with an example.

And how would I best calculate the coordinates needed for my drawRectangle?

I don't understand what type of visual you plan to create.

A channel is actually just an additional of blocks beneath the other one

Is this supposed to be a description of how to draw them on screen or how they are organized for playback?

This must be a child-class from JComponent and override the paintComponent method.

is it wise to inherit from the JComponent class?

Are you supposed to as in a requirement? Sure you can, do you need to? Ask yourself if what you are building is going to be a JComponent or not, and if it is, make it one.

prog_sample.jpg

I don't understand what type of visual you plan to create.

Well I want to represent each block (so each tone/sound) visually by a rectangle. (See image above)

Is this supposed to be a description of how to draw them on screen or how they are organized for playback?

Both, each channel will get a thread that will play the blocks in order.

Are you supposed to as in a requirement? Sure you can, do you need to? Ask yourself if what you are building is going to be a JComponent or not, and if it is, make it one.

I tought that if I need something visually onscreen, I needed to inherit JComponent. Maybe not, because I'm just going to draw rectangles with some text on them.

So It looks like starting at the left edge of the screen moving to the right, is time.
Stacked top to bottom are channels.
Any single channel can play one tone at a time, and to play multiple tones simultaneously you use multiple channels.
...
if I understand correctly
...
So the length of time the tone plays is represented by the left to right (width) of the rectangle. You will need to establish a relationship between pixels-in-width and time-the-tone-plays. Perhaps w pixels wide per ms milliseconds long or something.
The channels are arranged channel 1 on top counting up as you move down (the same way pixels are numbered on the screen in java), nothing wrong with that.
So the only thing missing is the frequency. How will you represent the frequency? The height of the rectangle within the channel would be one way. Change the color of the block.

So once you determine how you will represent the frequency you finally have designed the rough draft on your plan.

I tought that if I need something visually onscreen, I needed to inherit JComponent. Maybe not, because I'm just going to draw rectangles with some text on them.

Do you have a window showing already? I am more trying to mention options than give suggestions.

Originally Posted by jps

So It looks like starting at the left edge of the screen moving to the right, is time.
Stacked top to bottom are channels.
Any single channel can play one tone at a time, and to play multiple tones simultaneously you use multiple channels.

Exactly! I think that Frequencys will just be represented by a label printed on the Box and the color of the box.
I'll try to find a decent relation between duration and block length, and default block heights.

Originally Posted by jps

Do you have a window showing already? I am more trying to mention options than give suggestions.

I already have a JPanel forum showing everything except the grid and the blocks :p

Originally Posted by Nindustries

Exactly! I think that Frequencys will just be represented by a label printed on the Box and the color of the box.

What happens if the duration is very short and there is not enough room on the block to print the label?

Originally Posted by Nindustries

I already have a JPanel forum showing everything except the grid and the blocks :p

I would reuse what ever I could, but also don't be afraid to write something new or add on to something old. Make it work the way you see it in your head regardless of what it takes.

Originally Posted by jps

What happens if the duration is very short and there is not enough room on the block to print the label?

Well the user could always hover their mouse over the block, the label will be textwrapped I think.
I already coded the 'basic' stuff like the forms, Channel classes and SynthBlock classes.

Okay guys, so I figured:
I will be using a Component-child class from JPanel(or JButton) where I use the GridBayLayout. I will use the dynamic aspect of the constraints of this LayoutManager.
I will then implement drag-and-drop onto this JPanel, if it is dropped out of the constraints, the Panel will generate new and bigger constraints.
After being dragged and dropped, the panel will paint lines to visualise the columns and rows. (Or the constraints as you can call it.)

So first things first, how can I determine the user dropped it onto an existing 'constraint'/cell or not?

Greetings

To thank you for all your good support, I hereby upload my finished project.
It's not a masterpiece, but it does the job.
Note: It's a NetBeans project.

Download link: http://rapidshare.com/files/817242814/VGO.zip

Well done! And thanks for the update.