OpenMPT 1.18 - small interface questions

[Skaven]

I've previously used MPT 1.17 and notice a few small things have changed in the pattern editor, so I gotta ask a few little questions.

• Previously, when I entered a NoteOff command ( == ), the instrument number didn't get entered next to it. Now it does. It's not a big deal, but is there any way to stop it from appearing, besides choosing "No Instrument"?
  
  (in old Scream Tracker ]I[ you could choose which columns get re-entered by turning on the little ▲▲▲ markers on and off in the bottom of the colum by pressin comma)
  
  
• Is there a way to make Special Commands work with Row Spacing, so that you could quickly enter a long volume slide like this:
  
  DF1
  D00
  D00
  D00
  D00
  D00
  . . .
  
  ... without having to tappety-tap D ↓ D ↓ D ↓ D ↓ ..... but just hold down D? It worked like this in Scream Tracker (I - III).
  
  
• I used to be able to drag-copy mouse-selected areas by holding down Shift and dragging the area to copy. It no longer works... or is there a setting to make it work?  No... wait.... I figured it. Start dragging first, THEN press shift to copy. OK, never mind that.
  
  

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Saga Musix]

Previously, when I entered a NoteOff command ( == ), the instrument number didn't get entered next to it. Now it does. It's not a big deal, but is there any way to stop it from appearing, besides choosing "No Instrument"?

Apparently, your keymap has changed! Go to Setup -> Keyboard and select "Pattern Editor - Note Col" from the dropdown menu. You need to assign the "Note off/fade/cut (don't remember instrument)" keys instead of the "Note off/fade/cut" keys. I also prefer it that way.

Is there a way to make Special Commands work with Row Spacing, so that you could quickly enter a long volume slide like this:

Yes, partly. Not with row spacing, but with the new "paste flood" command! You copy the part of the pattern that you want to repeat (in this case the "D00") and use the "paste flood" paste method (i think the default shortcut should be shift+v or something like that).

I used to be able to drag-copy mouse-selected areas by holding down Shift and dragging the area to copy. It no longer works... or is there a setting to make it work? No... wait.... I figured it. Start dragging first, THEN press shift to copy. OK, never mind that.

Yeah, I added a new shift function to the pattern editor which makes this process a bit different. If too many people find this annoying, I could simply remove the shift-select feature again.

[Skaven]

Thanks, that helped.  Looks like I needed to delete a couple of key definitions, too, to make it work.

My keyboard layout hadn't changed... I just installed OpenMPT 1.18 to a different folder than the old MPT 1.17.  (Guess I could have loaded the keyboard configuration from there?)

[Saga Musix]

Yeah, you could just copy the old MKB file to the new directory - overwriting it isn't advised, though, as OpenMPT 1.18 uses a slightly updated format version which still loads in OpenMPT 1.17, but results in a big list of warnings. Be sure to check out the new handy shortcuts (like "Duplicate Pattern") when copying over the old MKB file, though!

[Saga Musix]

I used to be able to drag-copy mouse-selected areas by holding down Shift and dragging the area to copy. It no longer works... or is there a setting to make it work?  No... wait.... I figured it. Start dragging first, THEN press shift to copy. OK, never mind that.

In the next version, this will be easier again. Marking a selection with the Shift key (the new feature) now only works if there was previously no selection made. A bit of a regression for this feature, but I guess it's not as important anyway. Sorry for this regression, but it didn't expect it to change the old workflow so severely for more than one person.

[Skaven]

It wasn't a problem, really, once I got used to it. It was more a problem with ... you know... documentation? The exact behavior is not covered in OpenMPT Wiki and there was no help file.

Changes are OK, as soon as they're documented.

BTW, the Paste Flood is only useful if you want to fill the rest of the pattern fully. Sometimes I just need to type a quick

D01
D00
D00
D00
D00
D00
D00
D00
(ie just a limited length, not all the way to the end)

... and since Spacing doesn't work in the effect column, it takes a lot of D ↓ D ↓ D ↓ D ↓ ing, or copy-pasting. But since there are ways around it, this is not such a big deal either.

[LPChip]

I always use enter, space to quickly fill in the same note/command/volume.

[Skaven]

Oh! I didn't realize it works that way too. *tries it*  Yup, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for the tip!

[Saga Musix]

It wasn't a problem, really, once I got used to it. It was more a problem with ... you know... documentation? The exact behavior is not covered in OpenMPT Wiki and there was no help file.

I would have included it in the release notes for the final version, but it was not mentioned before because I didn't even know that it broke something. The new feature will be explained in the release notes, though.

[Saga Musix]

As coda pointed out some time ago, the interpolation command worked a bit differently in MPT 1.16: Interpolation between a command and no command just filled that space with the same command, which should also speed up tracking a bit. So in one of the next versions (currently "nightly" build already has this), this is going to be possible again:

[Sam_Zen]

I checked the release notes. "history.txt" gives a dead link.

[Saga Musix]

Well, if there's no history.txt in your OpenMPT directory, I can't do much about it. But it's included by default.

[Harbinger]

I used to be able to drag-copy mouse-selected areas by holding down Shift and dragging the area to copy. It no longer works... or is there a setting to make it work?  No... wait.... I figured it. Start dragging first, THEN press shift to copy. OK, never mind that.

In the next version, this will be easier again. Marking a selection with the Shift key (the new feature) now only works if there was previously no selection made. A bit of a regression for this feature, but I guess it's not as important anyway. Sorry for this regression, but it didn't expect it to change the old workflow so severely for more than one person.

This Shift-click-and-drag behavior was addressed in one of my Requests, and Jojo tried to bring back the old behavior, but see here.

[Saga Musix]

This Shift-click-and-drag behavior was addressed in one of my Requests, and Jojo tried to bring back the old behavior

Actually it was the other way around - I didn't start caring until at least two people complained, and Skaven was the second.