[Rhythmbox-devel] Jukebox playlist

[Thomas Lunde <tlunde mac com>]

Colin wrote:
> I think that most of the time you'd either be browsing your music to add
> to the queue, or reordering/deleting things in the queue.  That's why I
>  think it makes sense to have the queue replace/hide the browser.
>  

I agree that most of the time you'd be browsing to add music, or
managing the upcoming tracks in the queue.  One doesn't need either the
browser or the library to manage upcoming tracks.  But how do you add
music to the queue by drag and drop if you can't see the browser and/or
the library at the same time?

By having all three areas --  a queue (whether for a normal playlist or
a semi-automatically generated one such as the jukebox (party shuffle in
iTunes parlance)), the browser and the library -- potentially visible by
the use of disclosure triangles, it would be easy to do both sets of
tasks (adding to and managing the queue) at the same time.  

If you don't like the disclosure triangles, then the visiblity could be
affected by toggle state menu items.  (Although the additional
discoverability of disclosure triangles strikes me as a win here.)  

If I'm just adding tracks to a playlist or a jukebox queue, I only need
to know the track's name. Which is why a (potentially viewable) Track
column makes sense in the browser and why it would be possible to add
songs to the queue by drag and drop with the Library not visible.

Earlier in this thread, there was a debate over whether a double click
should prepend or append a track to the jukebox queue.  And I recognize
that we need to have a default action if a double click is made. But by
having the playlist/jukebox queue visible and the library and/or browser
visable at the same time, managing the jukebox queue goes from a four
step process (make song visible, add song to the queue, make queue
visible, reorder song from the end/beginning to the desired position in
the queue) to a one step process (drag the track/album(/artist/genre?)
from the library or browser to the desired place in the upcoming
playlist or jukebox queue.

Colin wrote [about having an optional rating widget in the control
area]:
> This seems like a good candidate for a right-click menu item to me...

Cool!  It'd be neat to be able to rate the current song as it comes up
while working I'm working on a document in OO.o without having to expand
the UI.


thomas