Re: ID3v1, anyone still using it?

[Zhang Weiwu <zhangweiwu realss com>]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2014, David King wrote:

> It has been 14 years since ID3v2.4, yet a large number of players (mostly 
> only hardware players at this stage) still only support ID3v2.3. ;-)

I guess it is different: there is no pressing need to support ID3v2.4 - 
"don't fix it if it ain't broken" attitude. But ID3v1 is broken. Even 
without Chinese, it breaks at title like this:

Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - I Adagio Sostenuto
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - II Allegretto
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - III Presto Agitato

Note that such title has been there for a few hundred years - not a new 
trend, so such titles break ID3v1 since day one.  But, ID3v2.3 is not a 
broken standard.  Ain't broken, ain't fixing.

> unless the user is comfortable managing that override themselves.

That user chose "TotalTagging" and "PowerTagger" instead of EasyTag, I 
guess:)

> If writing only ID3v1 tags, you can see that a large portion of the 
> tagging UI is hidden. EasyTAG is actually much worse at supporting all the 
> (many) fields of ID3v2, and a new design is needed so that they can be 
> shown in the UI without taking up more space.

> EasyTAG does not change the UI at all if writing both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags.

A "PowerTagger" can position themselves anywhere from black to white, but, an 
EasyTag must be either working or not working.

Suppose all these 3 titles are trimmed from:

Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - I Adagio Sostenuto
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - II Allegretto
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" - III Presto Agitato

to 30 characters:

Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp
Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp

The user, when playing back with ID3v1 player, will think EasyTag is bugged.
The fact that bottom is trimmed for user's convenience is too hard to 
conceptualize, especially in this example when trimming the head is better. 
If you do not write ID3v1 at all, thes user will think EasyTag doesn't do the 
work. EasyTag can accept that user may feel the software didn't do the work, 
but we don't accept users thinking the software is bugged or confusing. The 
principle is: "If it is unable to do it, it should look like it unable to do 
it, not went dead while trying".

So if we must retain ID3v1, the UI must be carefully designed to allow users 
to control the behaviour that would be otherwise considered bugged, to allow 
users to to fix it or prepare user for the knowledge that something is broken 
- that is to make UI really messy.