Comments Text Component for text in Filter editor - 9 YEARS waiting for it

I have been waiting for this comments component all these years to be able to comment my filter so I can document it when needed and the best reasons to have this available are given by Skybase (see below the quote)

Why would we must and need to do it in the bad way as shown on the screenshot at the end?

Below is also a list of other threads requesting for this

It started the suggestion already in 2006 Comment Component

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moonrancher wrote in JUNE 2006 I'd like to see a comment component, that would let me type in some remarks for future visits to the filter editor, when I had to leave some items in an unfinished state and test something.

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Vladimir Golovin wrote in JUNE 2006: Already on our plan (low priority).

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byRo wrote in 2006: I know you and the guys (and girls) have a lot of things to do, but please do not abandon the commentaries to a "low priority".

Well it has really been abandoned for 9 years and there is no news yet

We are now on at the end of OCTOBER 2015, more than 9 YEARS after and this is still NOT available, I understand of course that in 2006 obviously was a low priority and even on FF 2.0, but there is no news about that it will appear either in FF 5.0 and considering that FF does not put any new feature after, will we have to wait until FF 6.0 ??? Why?

As far as I know this comments component is just a plain panel where you can enter text, there is NO relation with any other component so there is no beta test or possible problem with interaction and does not affect render. Sorry that I have no idea about how FF is built and what is needed to do it.

REASONS TO HAVE THIS AS A FILTER FORGER


As said Skybase has given very good reasons

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Skybase wrote on July 2010 here Using the Script component indeed solves the problem, but it's a work around not a solution. Regardless I'll just throw in my suggestion about this and the reasons. 1. Commentary is the author's way of communicating with it's users. When I use python, I write comments to save others fr om attempting to understand what's happening. It's very hard to read code without them and sometimes you just don't get what's happening. In FilterForge, I also throw in some commentary just so that I can explain why I did it that way. Much easier to understand than not seeing anything. FilterForge has a decent reputation for being a programmable graphical interface, meaning it's not just a graphics package with buttons. We're talking "programming" here and not Photoshop. 2. It's a way to keep things organized. In order to keep one's self organized I use comments. I use comments to show that's happening to myself. I title classes, definitions, and loops. In FilterForge, the current way I keep my stuff organized is to simply drag out sub-groups of nodes. This is still, however, makes a mess. I would desire a much clear indication that I am dealing with a group / block of items that does something that I wanted it to do. I don't want to figure it out again. 3. It's a good way to have others understand the work. FilterForge does NOT have a learning curve. Yes, we can plug-n-play. BUT more over, when new-comers arrive, there's nothing for them to see or learn. FilterForge as of this point has no "true" tutorial. I mean ok, there are a couple, but there's nothing that explains how things work, why they work and so on. There's NOTHING that explains why my node structure is necessary to the new comers. So yeah. Basically the same reason as #1. Regardless here's an interface of Quartz Composer. Note how detailed the notes are and how intuitive the interface is. We're not dealing with just nodes that make no sense. We're dealing with words not just nodes.

I think that the comment text component does not need to be included or be joined to the a group of components, although it would be good, it maybe would make more difficult to implement this.

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uberzev wrote: They could look like sticky notes to stand out from the rest of the components.

I agree with this

ADDITIONAL THREADS AND COMMENTS ABOUT THIS

The 2006 thread has not been the only time suggested

Comment Block

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Greg M wrote in 2010: Would it be possible to add a Comment Block - just a blank somewhat like a slider except no input/output and space for maby 512 characters?

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Equator wrote: very necessary addition!

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uberzev wrote: Plz add this!

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CorvusCroax wrote: I agree! This would make a fine addition to FF!

comments or labels

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gypsyBytes wrote in 2011: hey guys, you know what would be cool, if we had a "comment" component. Just a little text box wh ere we could jot down notes, and not have any effect on the render.

Comments, self-documenting filters

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jrp wrote in 2013 Perhaps I have missed the feature, but it would be helpful to be able to add comments to nodes so that you can remember at a later date what they are doing. The ability to add comments or annotations to controls, resulting in tooltips in the final slider would also be helpful. Finally, a comment node (aka post-it) would help to add freehand comments.

POSSIBLE WORKAROUNDS

In this thread here GMM and Vladimir wrote

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GMM wrote on 2012 : Why not use Map Script as a place for comments?

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Vladimir Golovin wrote: Quote Why not use Map Script as a place for comments? Because it's an ugly, inelegant approach.

I agree with Vladimir, and the Mapscript component does NOT show the text in the filter editor window and does NOT HAVE A TITLE to make a difference from one map script component to another. Also you have to OPEN it to see what is the text inside each time you want to read it and it does not have a title you have to try each one component to find the text you want

Here below is a bad way to make a workaround used here by CFandM

I agree with SpaceRay. It would be useful to have it.

In general, about text, there are some parts of FF where we should have small or bigger changes.

The first is what SpaceRay suggested.
Maybe FF staff is afraid to have to check these components before to post the filter, to avoid that they may contain offensive comments. Is this the reason?

Another small change should be in the Settings menu.
All controls names start from right to left.
It is a bit weird.
Considering that we don't write these controls names in Arabian or Hebraic, but in alphabet, having the names appearing on a line from left to right would have much more sense and would keep them in better order.

In the past I also asked if it was possible to add few more characters to the controls names. Not many more. Just about 10-15. It would allow us not to cut the words and have more explicative controls.

lol I figure posts like these are just SpaceRay's character at this point.

Frankly, these "collection-reposts" copy-pastes don't really add very much to the current conversation anyway. At least for the comments feature it's set to low priority so it's recognized. No need to remind people.

But surely, at some point would be lovely to have this anyway. I think it's a key / critical feature that should be done.

Until then, check out commentary in the scripts nodes I may or may not add into filters.

Yes, I also don't think any normal person would post offensive comments.
I was just wondering what could be a reason for not making a so simple component till now.

SpaceRay, feel free to install 9.003 and enjoy your comments

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SpaceRay wrote: although is not known yet how it works or is not explained and what can be done with it

What kind of explanation are you missing? I'd be happy to provide more details but I'm not sure what to say beside this screenshot.

https://filterforge.com/images/version9/note.jpg