пн, 21 сент. 2026 г., 17:59 Sam via Cin <cin@lists.cinelerra-gg.org>:

A note on how this version came about, and what to expect from it

 This is an experimental build. Please do not use it for real projects.

Most of this work was done with Claude Code. For me, for this kind of work on a large codebase, it has been the most productive tool by far. It started as an experiment, mostly for fun: I wanted to see how far one can get. Out of that grew the new version, and along the way I realised what this technology can actually do.

The result makes no claim to be free of bugs. The goal was to develop and port quickly, and the version certainly still has many bugs and a lot of headroom. The existing version will continue to be maintained.

The wider goal is faster development and, above all, making the work easier. We are a small team with hardly any developers. This technology lets us add things we have been missing for years, and that is why we use it.

What is new

The user interface now runs on Qt6 instead of the old X11 toolkit. The code base is still Cinelerra-GG 5.1; Qt6 replaces the X11 layer underneath, and the old code path is kept in the tree. Concretely:

- Native Qt6 main panels: timeline with waveforms and thumbnails, viewer, compositor with tool overlays, resource panel with bins, and a dockable Deliver panel for rendering.
- Redesigned dialogs: Preferences, New Project, Set Format, Proxy, Transcode, Export Project, Export EDL, Batch Render, Create BD and Create DVD, Record, Backup.
- Native plugin GUIs with an effect inspector for the first 13 effects, plus in/out markers and labels on the ruler.

Known issues

- Loading long files with an audio track can crash the program. Reproduced this week, a fix is in progress.
- Rendering is software only, OpenGL is disabled for now.
- Seven plugins are not built yet.
- Translations are incomplete, several of the new panels are English only.
- Loading a file from the command line crashes; use File → Load.

Getting it

I will create a new AppImage in the course of this week.

What helps me most

Try the new dialogs, the plugin panels and the effect inspector, and tell me what is missing or in the way compared to the old windows. That is the feedback I can act on fastest. Known issues from the list above need no report.

For bugs, please include the build date from the AppImage name, the steps that lead to the problem, and the file /tmp/cinelerra_<pid>.dmp that the program writes when it crashes.

How the AI work is done

A word on process, because "AI-written" rightly raises the question of who checks the code. The recent changes follow a fixed routine: a written plan, implementation, review by a second AI instance against the plan, unit tests, headless runtime tests against the running program, and a screenshot of every new panel before anything counts as done. On top of that comes extensive manual testing, and the concepts themselves are refined together with the AI, with a human in the loop at every step. I will be honest that the early phases of the experiment ran with less rigour than that. Nothing is merged into the existing version by this route.

One last word

This is an experiment, and I mean that literally. If you feel uneasy about using software written with AI, that is a perfectly good reason to stay with the existing version, which was built the conventional way and continues to be maintained. This build is here for those who want to see where this goes.

Sam

Am 21.09.26 um 16:31 schrieb Phyllis Smith via Cin:
It is incredible! Without Sam using AI, it would have taken years to get to QT6 which will remove a big hurdle in getting the flexibility for users to better set up Cinellera for their individual needs.

FYI, the credit is all Sam's and I mostly just provided moral support and got to do a little testing with AppImages. I will continue supporting the original GG version as I can.

Thanks for this (building qt6 on unsupported OS/architecture is a big pain, so I like to have something less modern for my odd usecases).

Thanks Sam, this is indeed Big Surprise - I see a lot of emulators or even FPGA implementations supercharged with "AI" tools.

My other problem with AI (apart from resource use and how it shoveled into everything) is who control it - as those companies increasingly look for some profitability "free" options will dry up, leaving users with expanded codebase uneasy to navigate/fix manually. It was "a bit" of problem with original Cinelerra, too, I must admit.

I am relatively happy that I am not only person poking those C files now. For now I live mostly on Macintosh forums, testing new software for PPC machines or emulators for/on said machines.


There are some talks about upcoming harder times (due to all those wars etc), so stay safe from preventable dangers!



On Mon, Sep 21, 2026, 07:58 Andrea paz via Cin <cin@lists.cinelerra-gg.org> wrote:
What a wonderful Surprise! Thanks, Sam and Phillys.
I can try to build and test...
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