crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs

Asking for a file without stopping the window.

The defect this exists to fix

Every file picker in this application was opened with rfd's blocking API, straight from the frame that handled the click:

if ui.button("choose file…").clicked() {
if let Some(path) = rfd::FileDialog::new().pick_file() { … }
}

pick_file does not return until the person has chosen a file or cancelled. It is called from inside update, which is the render loop, so for as long as that dialog is open VeilVoice draws nothing at all: the window does not repaint, animations stop, the meters freeze, and dragging it leaves a trail of stale pixels. Somebody browsing for a recording for thirty seconds has a frozen application for thirty seconds.

It is also the answer to "it lags when I select things", which is a real report and an accurate one. There were seven of these.

How this is avoided, and the one platform where it cannot be

The dialog runs on a thread of its own and the answer comes back down a channel, which Pending::poll reads without waiting. update starts the ask and returns immediately; the window keeps painting the whole time.

macOS is the exception, and it is not a shortcut. NSOpenPanel must be driven from the main thread; opening one anywhere else does not work, and on some versions it does not fail politely either. So on macOS the ask is made inline, exactly as before. That platform keeps the old behaviour because the alternative is a picker that does not appear, and a frozen window is better than no dialog.

In plain words

When you click "choose a file", the box that opens used to freeze the rest of VeilVoice until you picked something. Now it opens beside the application and everything carries on running while you browse.

On Apple computers it still waits, because macOS insists that file pickers are opened by the main part of a program and there is no way around that which actually works.

WHAT THIS FILE CONTAINS

425 lines defining 11 functions (9 public), 2 types and 0 constants. Everything below is read out of the source, so it cannot disagree with the code.

The types it owns.

• enum Ask line 53 · What is being asked for.
• struct Pending line 158 · A file dialog that is open, or has just been answered.

What happens when it runs. These are the ways in: public, and nothing else in this file calls them, so they are what an outside caller reaches first.

• Ask::open line 72 · An open dialog with no filter.
• Ask::open_filtered line 77 · An open dialog restricted to these extensions.
• Ask::save line 87 · A save dialog offering this name.
• Ask::save_filtered line 95 · A save dialog offering this name, restricted to these extensions.
• Pending::new line 164 · Nothing is being asked.
• Pending::is_open line 173 · Whether a dialog is open right now.
• Pending::start line 178 · Start asking.
  reaches can_show
• Pending::taken line 229 · The answer, if one arrived and was a path.
  reaches poll

WHAT CALLS WHAT

The functions this file defines, and the calls between them. An edge means the callee's name appears, called, inside the caller's body. This is a syntactic reading, not a type-resolved one.

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flowchart TD
    n_open(["Ask::open<br/>line 72"])
    n_open_filtered(["Ask::open_filtered<br/>line 77"])
    n_save(["Ask::save<br/>line 87"])
    n_save_filtered(["Ask::save_filtered<br/>line 95"])
    n_show["Ask::show<br/>line 106"]
    n_can_show["can_show<br/>line 147"]
    n_new(["Pending::new<br/>line 164"])
    n_is_open(["Pending::is_open<br/>line 173"])
    n_start(["Pending::start<br/>line 178"])
    n_poll["Pending::poll<br/>line 210"]
    n_taken(["Pending::taken<br/>line 229"])
    n_start --> n_can_show
    n_taken --> n_poll
    click n_open href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L72" "open the source"
    click n_open_filtered href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L77" "open the source"
    click n_save href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L87" "open the source"
    click n_save_filtered href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L95" "open the source"
    click n_show href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L106" "open the source"
    click n_can_show href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L147" "open the source"
    click n_new href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L164" "open the source"
    click n_is_open href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L173" "open the source"
    click n_start href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L178" "open the source"
    click n_poll href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L210" "open the source"
    click n_taken href "https://github.com/tilas01/veilvoice/blob/main/crates/veilvoice-gui/src/dialog.rs#L229" "open the source"
    classDef entry fill:#1f2335,stroke:#7aa2f7,color:#c0caf5
    class n_open,n_open_filtered,n_save,n_save_filtered,n_new,n_is_open,n_start,n_taken entry
    classDef api fill:#1f2335,stroke:#7dcfff,color:#c0caf5
    class n_poll api
    classDef helper fill:#1f2335,stroke:#bb9af7,color:#c0caf5
    class n_show,n_can_show helper

ITEMS