The Tool Slider
The tool slider is located in the tool section centered above the application's toolbar. It shows a collection of buttons and display items. In addition the entire surface of the tool slider can be dragged to the left or right dependent on its current position. Dragging the Tool Slider to a different position effectively changes the application's main mode. Quincy has 3 operational modes: Play, Edit and Draw.
Play Mode
As seen above there are 4 buttons: Play, Step, Reset and Loop. They function pretty much as one would suspect, but we'll get to them in a bit.
Slider Move Buttons
Way off to the right side is a Slider Move Button. These buttons appear in all three states of the Tool Slider and serve two purposes. They indicate additional toolsets to the left or right of the current toolset. As seen above there is at least one additional toolset to the right side of the current one so dragging the Tool Slider to the left will reveal it. Slider Move buttons also function as a button - hence the name. Tapping them will move the Tool Slider to reveal the next toolset.
BPM and Loop Indicators
Additionally there are the BPM and Loop indicators. These are purely indicators and are only visible in Play mode. The number display below the Loop indicator will light up in orange if Loops are enabled.
Play and Reset Buttons
The Play Button
The Play button in Quincy functions like a Play button in an mp3 player or such. It turns into a magenta Pause button as seen above when tapped and the application is playing. Also note that the Step button is disabled while the Quincy is playing and that the Reset button is now colored in red.
The Reset Button
The Reset button in Quincy is akin to a Stop button. The only difference is that it also rewinds the ainmation, meaning that the display goes back to showing generation 1 of our Life world.
NOTE: In any state the Reset button also functions as MIDI Off button.
Pause and Step Buttons
The Pause Button
Tapping the Pause button during playback (and it is colored magenta) renders the Tool Slider as seen above. The Reset button has not changed, but we see that the Start button has reverted back to its triangular shape - lit up in green as is the step button. The display and all music are now effectively stopped. Tapping the Start button will resume where we left off and stepping will advance the display to the next generation.
The Step Button
The Step button advances the animation by one generation per tap when Quincy is not in play mode. Subsequent tapping of the Play button will then start play from that generation. No sound will be produced when tapping the Step button in stand-by mode (i.e. the application is not playing). As mentioned before the Step button is not available during play. When Quincy is paused, however, as in the picture above, the Step button lights up in green. Tapping it in this state will again advance the animation by one generation per tap and play the generated sound.
Loop Button
The Loop button latches and changes its color to orange when engaged. As seen above also the number under the loop indicator is now lit up in orange. Orange is the color Quincy reserves to indicate activity.
Edit Mode
We'll take another more in-depth look at the edit mode in a later chapter. For now let's just briefly review what happens in the Tool Slider. As seen above we now have a different toolset. Some buttons are enabled, the Paste button is grayed out. This has to do with selections and such, as we will see.
This button deletes content under the selection rectangle and places it on the clipboard.
This button copies content under the selection rectangle and places it on the clipboard.
This button replaces the area under the selection rectangle with the content of the clipboard.
This button rotates the content under the selection rectangle by 90ยบ clock-wise. This option is only available for square selection. If the selection rectangle is a square, the Rotate button will light up.
NOTE: In this toolset we have Slider Move buttons on both ends of the Tool Slider. That means dragging the display to the left or to the right will display another toolset. Remember that both buttons are indicators as well as buttons. So we can just tap them instead of dragging the display.
Draw Mode
Quincy's Draw mode again has its own set of tools. And again - we will dedicate a chapter to this mode a bit later on. The Pen button and the Color Eraser button inherit their color from the current draw color. If you change it to another color in the Color Mixer or via the buttons in the Color Indicator, these two buttons will then take that color.
Of note here is that the Pen tool is highlighted and thus the currently active tool. Inactive tool buttons are displayed filled and inactive once just as outline.
The Pen tool indicates that Quincy is ready to draw. Drawing will take place in the color indicated in the Color indicater. The style of drawing depends on the selected draw pattern. If a pen shape is selected, cells under the finger will turn to the selected color while dragging in a kind of smear effect. If a pattern is selected the tool functions like a stamp and will draw the pattern where the finger lifts off.
As you remember every cell you draw in Quincy has a specified color. With the Color Eraser tool only the currently selected color gets erased even if you drag over cells with a different color.
The general Eraser tool erases anything under the finger while dragging in the Quincy's display section.
The Clear tool erases the entire display area.
NOTE: As you can see above we are left with one Slider Move button to the left of the display, meaning that there are no further toolsets to the right.
Summary
The Tool Slider is a very intuitive control even though it may look somewhat complex in print. The main point to remember is that this slider shows a mode's toolset and that it is also used to switch between the three modes Play, Edit, Draw. The Tool Slider's appearance is identical on all devices.