Sander de Regt wrote:But would you be fine with it if Visual Studio's next version came with a Midi composer, a spreadsheet, powerpoint creator and a CAD tool?
Since I design and create software for a living, I think you make a particularly good point about different UI styles. Your example about VS (which, sadly, is lacking a good latte interface) also brings up some relevant thoughts.
I think it's the Integration part of IDE that's the key to these considerations. A CAD tool might be useful in VS to build models I use in my app. Midi, spreadsheet and power point, not so much. On the other hand, I'd love it if I didn't have to leave Word to get to Excel or Power Point. I don't see the value in them being separate apps since they're all logically related.
Cubase (my DAW of choice these days), on the other hand, manages audio files but also has a midi composer with several different UIs as well as a sheet music writing tool. The sheet music UI isn't of much use to me when I'm mixing a song, but it interacts with the Midi data, which in turn creates audio that I mix. Even though these are all very different user interfaces, I very much like having them all together because of the I. All of those features interact in some significant way. Back in the day, when all DAWs had very limited Midi functionality, I had to use Cakewalk for Midi and then the DAW for other audio. It was a pain in the posterior. Having that all integrated in a modern DAW is awesome.
I think a DAW is a good analogy to where Resolve is going. What started as a best of breed colorist's tool expanded to include an NLE. Then they added Fairlight for pro audio. Now they're bringing in Fusion. All of these aspects meet my criteria for the big I. They're all related aspects of film and video production and interact with each other, so a unified interface makes sense to me.
Of course, the caveat is, "if it's done well." A bad integration of good tools is still a bad product. The same goes for bolting on inferior aftermarket parts to your shiny new hot rod. And this is where, respectfully, I disagree with a lot of the negativity I see about this. Perhaps it's because I know what it's like on the developer's side of the street but my reaction to all of this is geez, give the guys a chance. If they do crappy work, pounce on them then. People are assuming there's no possible way they could do a good job of this, and I don't believe that's a given.
It's also worth noting past efforts. The first cut of their NLE was very useful. The chatter was all about yeah, but FCP does this and Premeire does that, and Resolve is way behind. That's fair. But it was 1.0, and they've continually improved it.
Also, and this is particularly relevant to Fusion, they wrote the NLE from scratch. Fusion already exists, most of it in dlls, lattes notwithstanding. They don't have to reinvent the wheel. The just have to put it on another car. And because of the big I, that gives everyone more flexibility. Not a colorist or editor? I can dig it. I can read music, but I came up playing rock, and printed scores are of little use in a typical band. So I don't always need it. When I do, it's there, and it's good. When I don't, it's just a menu entry. It's not like it's in the way.
No matter how good a job they do of bringing in Fusion, I promise you they're going to screw some things up or, more likely, omit doing something in a certain way that a lot of people feel is important. That's not BMD holding up the social finger to the VFX guys. That's about deadlines. You guys all know something about that. It might take a few patches, but they'll get it cleaned up.
When it's all said and done, everyone gets the big I. If you don't need a feature, don't click on the menu. If you do, having all aspects of film production playing nice with each other in a single app is a very good and powerful thing.
I say give these guys a chance to show you what they can do. No programmer ever gets up in the morning and says you know, I think today I'll just write a crappy app. We're every bit as passionate about our work as you are with yours, and we face the same arbitrary deadlines and other dilemmas as you do.
By the way, I really enjoy the fact that I can speak contrary to the general consensus here and yet still have a friendly conversation about it with everyone. It's a pretty cool community.