[Muine] Re: Introducing Muine, Rhythmbox in 2.8 and other things

[Mike Chavoustie <chavoumd clarkson edu>]

Lee Willis wrote:
> We did originally have a "first time" dialolg that tried to address the
> problems you've encountered here, but we weren't entirely happy with it
> (Part of the solution hinges on Jorn's hint in an earlier email about
> having a standard Music directory - you might also like to check out
> http://freedesktop.org/pipermail/xdg/2004-February/003305.html). A nice
> interface for this is one of the TODO items.

A quick wizard might do the trick as well.  Rhythmbox (heh, I use this 
example all the time because that and iTunes [well, and Winamp] are the 
only music players I use) has a simple one on first use that allows you 
to point it at your music directory.

I think a standard ~/Music directory sounds feasible.  I have one that I 
made for myself.

> I think most users don't need this taking up screen real estate all of
> the time, the cases you would be interested would be:
>
> - Confirmation that "x" albums, and "y" songs have been imported after
> you've requested an import
> - An "alert"(In some form) that new albums/songs have been added when
> they're automatically detectedby muine
>
> Am I right, or is there a reason you need to know how many albums/songs
> you have all of the time?

I think the first option (x albums, y songs) sounds the most usable.  A 
hint to use "Play Song" or "Play Album" might be good to include in the 
same dialog, i.e. "X albums and Y songs have been imported into your 
library.  Use 'Play Song' or 'Play Album' to create a playlist using 
these songs." (or some such text)

Come to think of it, I can't see any reason why I would need to know how 
many albums/songs I have at any given time.  Aside from bragging rights, 
at least (134 days straight and still growing! :P).

> Muine will re-check the folder you imported on startup. It does this in
> the background to improve performance so you may have been too quick for
> it!. Noticing of new files on the fly while muine is running is in the
> TODO but is blocked on a mono bug (Lack of correct FileWatcher support -
> bug #58234).

The song I've added is in a subdirectory of the one I imported.  It 
looks something like this:

Library: ~/music/Song A.mp3
1. Import the above directory, "music".
2. Close Muine.
3. Make a directory called "~/music/ska/", and put Song B.mp3 into it.
Library: ~/music/Song A.mp3, ~/music/ska/Song B.mp3
4. Re-open Muine, and Song B isn't listed.

I hope that's a better description of what I mentioned earlier.

--Mike