Re: Todays FCP X announcement

[Craig Seeman] "The number of people and organizations who used spreadsheets instead of databases because they had no idea how to use a database was pervasive IMHO."

Certainly. I've seen this many times as well. That doesn't change the fact that even though they have some functional overlap, they're really different tools for different jobs.

[Craig Seeman] "Being able to use Roles to line up content in rows (tracks) as needed would be good. I don't want my NLE to limited by that mode, as most are. "

Fair enough. I'm curious - do you do a lot of work in nodal compositors? If so I can imagine why you you'd find this liberating. For me, tracks are a foundation. They provide inherent structure and organization, both temporally and visually. I've never felt limited by them. Just the opposite, in fact.

[Craig Seeman] "One thing that FCPX hasn't broached, and may not for some time, is that a powerful database not only allows for complex relationships but allows for flexible display. FCPX has a ways to go in that area but my own guess is that Apple is going to move the database further along for a bit before it can really get into more flexible interface control."

This is something Walter Murch alludes to in that interview from a couple months ago. The idea being that if you have a robust database backend, you can build whatever UI you want on top of it to visualize the data. Great idea and hope it's possible.

My hunch though is that the timeline UI itself is designed around a data model that is considerably less flexible than people think. My gut is the UI design decisions are deeply baked in. I'd love to be wrong about this though! The possibility of a malleable database backend that could be poured into any type of frontend UI is what keeps me paying attention to FCPX's progress.

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David Lawrence
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