Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Feature-Request: Advanced Filters, Playlist,Advanced Id3 Ver.2 Support

[David Mansfield <rb dm cobite com>]

> On Fri, 2004-01-16 at 15:17, Lee Willis wrote:
> 
> > This is how Media Player 9 works under M$ and seems to work quite well
> > [And it's called "Now playing"]. When browsing the library and you find
> > something you want to listen to you can either:
> > 
> > (a) Play it
> > (b) Queue it up
> 
> What's the UI for this?

(I almost replied last week, but used the wrong From account and it got 
bounced...).

I think that 'now playing' should be the default action.  Double-click in 
library should:

1) append to 'now playing'
2) activate/show all of the play controls in the header
3) activate 'play' mode in now playing, if not already playing.

'play now' should be available via the context menu in the album or song 
listing windows.

'play now' will have the functionality of:

1) insert to 'now playing' at top
2 and 3) as above.
4) if 'now playing' was already playing, immediately switch to top song in 
'now playing', but DON'T delete the previously playing song.  it will be 
played in it's entirety later.


> 
> > Playing it replaces whatever is in the "Now playing" playlist with your
> > selection/album/etc
> 
> Hmm.  That seems kind of confusing to me.  I'd rather simply have a
> preference for whether or not there is a play queue at all.  If you
> choose not to have one, it works exactly like rb does now.  Otherwise,
> double-clicking on a song just queues it in now playing.  

I think we have now defined at least three different semantics, which is a
bit much.

Mode 1 (play queued): double-click appends to 'now playing' queue
Mode 2 (play now): double-click inserts to top of 'now playing', play 
immediately switches to top song
Mode 3 (replace now playing): double-click deletes all songs from now 
playing and puts this one in.

I think mode 3 doesn't make sense, and I think just 1 and 2 make the most 
sense.

To me, mode-1 as default with mode-2 on context menu would make a really 
intuitive interface.  I was surprised when RB worked as it does.  I really 
expected a built in queue.

However, we could make a pref for mode-2 as default, with mode-1 as 
context menu.

In either case, however, I think RB should *always* play via the 'now 
playing' list when selections are made from the library, and only have 
these two modes of operation defined there.

> 
> If you want to get the behavior of (a), you could just go over to "Now
> Playing", Edit->Select All, Edit->Delete.  Then double-click.

Right.

> > Queueing it up adds it to the end of the playlist. It doesn't however
> > delete items from the list when they're played (That would break
> > "Repeat")
> 
> Ok.
> 
> > I think "Now playing" makes things fairly obvious, as long as it is
> > specially identifiable in the list of playlists, and maybe if it gets
> > jumped to when you "Play" 
> 
> Hmm.  Not sure I like the jumping.  Maybe have a music note next to it
> when it's playing.
> 
> > > Also, should "Now Playing" be used for Radio?  And what about regular
> > > playlists?
> > 
> > Yes - if you do this then, at least for regular playlists, it means you
> > can play a particular playlist, but with a few changes, by adding/
> > removing songs from the "Now Playing" playlist without affecting the
> > original.
> 
> This seems like it'd be fairly confusing...but I could be convinced it's
> a good idea.  At least at first I think we should make "Now Playing" an
> obvious subcomponent of the library.

This does seem like a further extension.  Right now, I agree 100%: 'now 
playing' is an extension of the library.

David

-- 
/==============================\
| David Mansfield              |
| rb@dm.cobite.com             |
\==============================/