Re:Apple Designs a Virtual Knob
by duped on Saturday October 11, 2025 @05:15PM
(#45552774)
If you've ever used pro audio software you come to love rotary over linear sliders. They're simply more flexible and dense when you have many parameters to tweak.
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Linear sliders are also finite, while rotary encoders can spin forever.
In the physical world, sure, but there's no reason why a virtual linear slide could not be made endless
Re:Apple Designs a Virtual Knob
by squeaky-clean on Sunday October 12, 2025 @03:52AM
(#45556215)
You'd have a discontinuity. A knob naturally rotates back to its start. A slider never does and would have to pacman-wrap itself back to the start.
There's no motion you could make that would infinitely increase without a break. A knob you can just move your cursor in a clockwise circle infinitely.
Yeah but that doesn't have much value as you lose the value indicator.
If you don't need a value indicator, you don't need a circular knob as an affordance. You can have a whatever as it just reacts to your input.
If you do have a value indicator which is "infinite", such as a numerical value display, it's better to make it interactive and place the interaction on top of it, instead of splitting the UI between a value indicator and the input.
A lot of software does this.