2. Getting to Know the User Interface

Getting to Know the User Interface

There are five areas of the main user interface (UI) that are by default visible in MAIDENS:

1. The Score: takes most of the screen real estate, and is located to the right as you look to the application. Provides an interactive screen rendition — using classical music notation — of all the music currently in the project (both generated and manually entered);
2. The Editor: located to the left of the Score, it provides a dynamic form that updates itself to reflect the currently selected element's properties;
3. The Project: displays an interactive tree control that takes up about the same place as the Editor and is located to the very left. Contains one tree node or leaf for every element that makes up the project hierarchy;
4. The Menu: displays near the top of the main window or the top of the screen, based on the operating system. It contains commands that are relevant to the current state of the application;
5. The ToolBar: displays underneath the Menu and provides dedicated buttons that access the most common functions in the application.

There are also a number of floating, or otherwise transient UIs. These are only shown in response to certain user actions:

• Notifications, a general purpose system for message delivering;
• Picker, a widget dedicated to making lists of things;
• Navigator, MAIDENS' custom build, three panel file system explorer;
• Configuration, a dynamic form for generator-specific properties.