[LV2] Implement UI:sizeConstraints extension

[Vladimir Sadovnikov]

Hello all!


I suggest to implement UI:sizeConstraints interface as an addition to UI:resize.


The main reason is that plugins may provide sizeable interface which is 
currently not very good handled by hosts.

Case 1.

If user manually resizes the plugin window in the host, we can catch the size 
change event by two ways:

a. The X11 event that is sent to the plugin about window size change.

b. The host calls ui::resize () to inform the UI about the window resize (Ardour 
5.12 doesn't do this).

In both cases all information is related to the plugin window which can be 
embedded into the other toolkit's window.

If the size is too small, plugin probably will trigger ui:resize event. But 
after that, host (like Ardour) won't be able to set the size less than plugin 
has reported to it anymore.

And here's the Case 2.

User changes something in the UI that causes the UI do change it's size. When 
the UI becomes larger, plugin just initiates ui:resize and host changes the size 
of plugin's parent window.

But if the size becomes smaller, then host keeps the same size of the parent 
window as it was set previously and doesn't allow the user to reduce the size of 
plugin window.

If the plugin forces to call ui:resize, then host forces the parent window to 
resize and user observes smaller window.

This is not always expected behaviour, especially when the window is maximized 
or manually enlarged by the user.


If we rely on a toolkit that should properly arrange child window inside of 
parent, we get different results on different versions of toolkit: on latest 
Ubuntu all works just fine with

Ardour installed from official repositories. But on my openSUSE Leap with 
official Ardour distribution, I get the plugin window clipped from right and 
bottom side.


For this situation, the good option would be if plugin could report size 
constraints (minimum and maximum possible sizes) of it's window to the host.

When user changes something in UI that causes it to resize, the plugin reports 
both size constraints and actual size to the host and it makes a decision about 
how to resize it's parent window

that holds the plugin. Moreover, it sets proper size constraints to the parent 
window allowing the user to set window size within strictly defined ranges (if 
they are).


UI:sizeConstraints extension prototype is designed to deliver additional 
information from the plugin to the host about size constraints of it's main window:

> typedef struct LV2UI_SizeConstraints {
>     /**
>        Pointer to opaque data which must be passed to ui_set_constraints()
>     */
>     LV2UI_Feature_Handle handle;
>
>     /**
>        Report UI size constraints to the host
>        When provided by the host, the UI may call this function to inform the
>        host about the minimum and maximum size of the UI.
>
>        @param min_width the minimum allowed width of the UI (negative value 
> means no limit)
>        @param min_height the minimum allowed height  of the UI (negative value 
> means no limit)
>        @param max_width the maximum allowed width of the UI (negative value 
> means no limit)
>               if both min_width and max_width are non-negative and max_width 
> is less than min_width,
>               then it is considered to be the same as min_width by the host
>        @param max_height the maximum allowed height  of the UI (negative value 
> means no limit)
>               if both min_height and max_height are non-negative and 
> max_height is less than min_height,
>               then it is considered to be the same as min_height by the host
>        @return 0 on success.
>     */
>     int (*ui_set_constraints)(LV2UI_Feature_Handle handle,
>                               int min_width, int min_height,
>                               int max_width, int max_height);
> } LV2UI_SizeConstraints;


The usual behaviour in code:

> // Somewhere in the code
>
> LV2UI_Resize  *lv2_rs;
>
> LV2UI_SizeConstraints  *lv2_sc;
>
>
> // Method that synchronizes the size of the plugin window with the host
>
> void sync_size(Window *wnd)
>
> {
>
>     int w, h;
>
>     int min_w, min_h, max_w, max_h;
>
>     // We obtain actual size constraints and size of the plugin window
>
>     wnd->get_size_constraints(&min_w, &min_h, &max_w, &max_h);
>
>     wnd->get_size(&w, &h);
>
>     // We inform the host about size constraints and actual size of the plugin 
> window
>
>     lv2_sc->ui_set_constraints(lv2_sc->handle, min_w, min_h, max_w, max_h);
>
>     lv2_rs->ui_resize(lv2_rs->handle, w, h);
>
> }
>

Please let me know what you think


Best,

Vladimir