Re: [Banshee-List] Rock Box and iPod DAP extensions

["Charles Mason" <charlie mas gmail com>]

On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 12:14 AM, Gabriel Burt <gabriel burt gmail com> wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:07 PM, David Spreen <netzwurm debian org> wrote:
>> In any case, great job writing that code. What do other people think?
>> Could we get some input from the maintainers? How would you like to
>> integrate this into banshee?
>
> Yeah, great job Charlie, it sounds like you've done a lot of good work.
>
> David, I agree that if possible we should make this a
> CustomMassStorageDevice subclass.

What I was really trying to get away from was the need for the user to
edit any hidden files before they can sync their device. If they
decide they want to tweak some default setting then fair enough but it
shouldn't be a requirement. Rock Box now has a very slick installer so
it would be nice to provide a similar seemless syncing experience
comparable with the iPod one. It doesn't necessarily need to be a
separate extension just one that has some specific knowledge of
RockBox rather than just being able to read and write the tag cache
DB. I admit there is a lot of overlap with the Mass Storage extension.

I suppose knowing its a Rock Box player banshee could just generate a
default config file with workable defaults. There will need to be some
consideration made for iPods which of course could be synced in the
tradtional way or via Rock Box. Some users may have experimented with
Rockbox so have a .rockbox folder but still want to sync with the
iTunes DB, so I think banshee would have to ask the user if it detects
multiple options.

To be honest I imagine there quite a few occasions where banshee has
multiple syncing solutions available. It would be nice to have a
general way of letting them choose the one they want to use. That way
any future DAP extensions could by more easily integrated without
having to worry about the interests and capabilities of the existing
extensions.

Could we modify the DAP extension to let each enabled DAP extension
decide if it is interested in the device, rather than doing it on a
first come first served basis as it is at the moment. If there are
more than one then display a dialogue asking the user along with a
sentence about the merits of each of the interested DAP extensions.
There could also be a check box to let the user save their choice.

Perhaps there could be a confidence rating from each DAP extension as
well. If you have a normal iPod you could use the Mass Storage but
chances are you want the iPod extension but if you have Rock Box
installed you probably want to use that extension rather than the
other two options. The GUI could display the DAP extension choice in
descending order so the most likely option is at the top.

What does everyone think?


Charlie M