Re: [Banshee-List] Mockup for Banshee 2.0 toolbar.

[Michael Martin-Smucker <mlmartin13 gmail com>]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 3:33 PM, IBBoard <ibboard gmail com> wrote:

 c) are we really gaining anything more than a few pixels, or are we basically removing the status bar only to pad out the top bar?

This is my biggest concern with this proposed toolbar revamp.

Several posts ago, Bertrand asked what problem this is trying to solve, and I don't think I've seen a complete answer to that question yet.  Is the goal of this change to save vertical space?  If we eliminate the status bar and keep the toolbar at its current height, we might free up enough vertical space to show one extra song in the library.  That isn't, in my opinion, enough of an advantage to justify adding clutter to the toolbar.

Also, from a consistency point of view, I don't think that the track count / total length / file size information belongs in the top toolbar.  Nautilus, Rhythmbox, Windows Explorer, Mac Finder, and iTunes all show this kind of information in the status bar, and I don't see any reason for Banshee to go against that convention.  Adding that much text to the top toolbar makes that corner feel cluttered, and I'm afraid that it would be even more so with the search box there.

In my opinion, gtk-based music players are all a bit bland in the toolbar area, so I'm excited that you and others are exploring the possibilities. I'm just not sure I agree with the idea of merging the toolbar and status bar, and I'd be interested in hearing how individual changes that you're proposing are an improvement on the current Banshee interface.

Michael