Re: [Muine] CD burning

[Matthew Good <muine matt-good net>]

On Thu, 2005-01-06 at 17:52 +0000, Matthew Kay wrote:
> > Yes, the state of CD burning capabilities on the Gnome Desktop does seem
> > to be slightly lacking at the moment, but I don't think that's an excuse
> > to hack it onto Muine.  The thing I like so much about Muine is that its
> > interface is so simple and focused on a single task. 
> 
> I can see your point, although I don't really see the harm in a plugin -
> not everyone shares the one-program-one-task philosophy, and it's nice
> to give users choice.

In terms of UI and usability, what makes a plugin distinct from
launching an external application?  If I click an option in the menu and
it opens a CD burning window with the tracks I want to burn, does it
matter whether the window was created by a plugin or another
application?  By writing a Muine plugin to burn CDs you've basically
rewritten a CD burning application, but now it's tied specifically to
Muine and can't be used independently.  

In terms of "one-program-one-task" I suppose my thought is that rather
than thinking about a program as an entity, the focus should be on User
Interfaces.  Rather than thinking about what program you want to use to
burn a CD, what UI do you want to use?  I don't think that people should
need to use a whole variety different UIs for accomplishing the same
task.  When I want to burn a CD, I'd like to see the same UI each time,
it shouldn't matter if the tracks are coming from a Muine playlist, or
from a folder on my HDD.

Now actually in terms of implementation the integration method might be
through a plugin.  Someone could write a couple plugins for launching
Coaster, or GnomeBaker, or whatever your choice may be, but leave the
actual CD burning UI external from Muine.  

-- 
Matthew Good <muine matt-good net>