Re: [Muine] Song information dialog

[Link Dupont <link subpop net>]

Obviously all this is IMHO only, so I'm not going to interject that
elsewhere in my comments.

On Thu, 2004-02-26 at 09:55, Jorn Baayen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've been paving the way for getting a song/album information window
> in.. but I can't figure out a design. Ideas/help would be most welcome.
> 
> Some things:
> 1. It will be read-only, we won't do tagging. Tagging is something that
> belongs in a tagging app, which will be much better at doing the job.
> (I've been planning to write a decent tagger supporting multiple artists
> for a while..)

Yes! A decent tagging app is much needed in my opinion. Something that
has a nice UI and can do advanced batch tagging (like easytag, only with
an infinitely better UI). I've hacked up a little tagger I call
musictag[0] (goes along with my now-in-deep-hibernation music playing
program musicbox).

> 2. We want it to display the following information, at least:
> - Song title
> - Song artists
> - Song performers, if any
> - Year of release

Genre? Or is genre going out of style/usage.

> Then, what do we do with the associated album information?
> - Cover image
> - Album tracks

Yes I'd say both for albums. Maybe lay it out in a way similar to
Amazon's, with the album image, info, then track listing down below.

> We could also have:
> - Link to the allmusic site, a link to a google query on the artist,
> whatever. 
> 
> Also, how will the user be able to call up the dialog?
> - From the tray?
> - From a menu in the playlist UI- but on the selected song or on the
> playing song? Selected song would be better probably, but all other
> items in the song menu work on the playing song ..
> - From the Add song/Add album windows? 

What about a small button somewhere with the light-bulb icon in it. Info
from the tray is fine as is, currently playing song title & artist.
It seems that both the light-bulb button &/| a "Song information" entry
in the Song menu would both be centered on the currently playing song,
and I think that's fine.
In the Add Song dialog, I'd consider adding in another light-bulb
button, but this button pulls up the dialog on the selected song.
Dare I suggest adding a right-click context menu to the playlist?
Frankly, I love the fact that Muine _doesn't_ have that, but it seems
like a logical place to put song info.
[ On second thought, I'd have the light-bulb button pull up the selected
song. The currently playing song info is displayed in the main UI
already. If the user wanted more information about it, would it make
sense to select it, then hit the info button? I'm leaving my other
comments above too, just in case it sparks anything. ]

> I'd like to display it in an attractive form, basically like a webpage
> or something.. not like the xmms file info dialog for example. That
> would be a pain for multiple artists, it would imply editing, and most
> of all it is not an attractive way to read information about what you
> are listening to.

I like the "webpage" concept rather than the GtkLabel/GtkEntry layout.
Maybe something like the GNOME About dialogs? Use some pretty pango font
markups and layout on a simple canvas. What about something kind of like
the actual GNOME About (right-click on gnome-panel, select "About
GNOME"). That might break UI conformity though.

> 
> Anyway, please help! :)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jorn
> 
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[0]: http://musicbox.sourceforge.net/screenshots/musictag-0.1.1.png
-- 
Link Dupont <link subpop net>