Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Re: Jukebox playlist

[Dan8827 <dan8827 snet net>]

On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 23:36, Thomas Lunde wrote:

> I took the liberty (hope that this is OK, Dan) of cutting a small bit of
> the empty space out as long as I was making a .jpg of it (in case anyone
> has an older browser) to show what it would look like for someone who
> doesn't have Dan's large screen. ;-}
> 
> http://www.lunde.net/thomas/2004/rhythmbox/mockup-dan8827-1280.jpg

I certainly encourage anyone to further improvise off this idea. 
Consider the image and idea just as "open source" as RB itself.  (I'm
just happy for an excuse to give Professor Longhair some publicity!  :) 
)

In a separate e-mail, Seth Hadley expressed concern over how it would
work on lower resolution displays.  Believe me, I share this concern. 
My normal desktop session is 1600x1200, but I also run a separate X
session at 800x600, and export that to the television in my living
room.  This session uses a different user with preferences optimized for
the lower resolution of TV-out.  With this set up, I use RB to pipe
music out of my living room stereo.

My concept does get crowded at 800x600, but it might work.  I did
another couple of mock-ups, and while it didn't work well with my normal
font (large enough to be read on a tv from a couch across the room, but
probably larger than would be used on a desktop), it did work better
when I bumped the font size down two points.  I only use the Track,
Title, Album, Time library columns on that set up, whereas I also
display Genre, Artist and Rating on the hi-res desktop.

Thomas - could I impose on you to host two more 90K images?  (One with
my application font set at 14 point, another with 12.)

> 
> I didn't want to mess with it further, but I'd add to the mockup by
> butting a disclosure triangle by the library area also.  This would
> allow the jukebox, the browser and the library areas to each be turned
> off on demand which would allow for a nice small control-only UI.  (If
> there was an optional Track column which could be displayed in the
> browser area when the library area was not visible, that'd be a neat way
> to add tracks quickly to the jukebox area without requiring so much
> vertical screen real estate.)

Would it ever be useful to have the browser visible but the library
hidden?  Perhaps in this jukebox/playlist/whatever view, the library and
browser could be collapsed/expanded together; they would drop to a small
pane at the bottom, and the playlist would expand downward to fill the
area.  This would also allow more space to show the last few previously
played songs, as David Hammerton has suggested.

I think there would be a need to somehow visually connect the browser
and library, and differentiate them from the playlist.  With the browser
sitting in the middle of two very similar looking lists, it would not be
immediately obvious that the browser controls one but not the other. 
Perhaps this could be accomplished with border and/or careful
spacing....

Again, I would only suggest this view be in addition to, not a
replacement of, the standard library view.  As others have stated, the
library view does what it sets out to do exceedingly well, and shouldn't
be messed with.  If it is desired to eliminate Sources, perhaps this
jukebox/playlist mode could be an option under the "View" menu?

-- 
Dan8827
Increasing The Entropy Of The Universe Since 1972