Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Play Queue Bounty

[Dan8827 <dan8827 snet net>]

On Mon, 2005-03-21 at 13:43 +0100, Christophe Fergeau wrote: 
> Fwiw, I still prefer something like
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/rhythmbox-devel/2005-January/msg00009.html

> I feel adding another pane to the library view will add too much clutter
> to this already cluttered ui.
> 
> Christophe

(I love trading these screenshots and sharing peeks at each other's
music collections....)

A couple comments right off the bat - I really liked the suggestion over
the weekend to just get this working and worry about the UI specifics
later; secondly, Peter's actual $200 takes precedence over my 2 cents.  

Still, lively discussion on the UI is a sign that everyone's excited, so
that's a good thing, and it doesn't seem to have slowed down the code
writing.

Having said that, I'll vent on why I prefer the queue be off to the
side.  I got to thinking this way after trying Amarok, which has all the
bells, whistles and eye candy in the world, yet it's harder for me to
pick a song with than RB.  Amarok lets you browse in a narrow column,
then shows your selections in a wide area off to the right.  The more I
thought about this, the more it seemed completely reversed from how it
should be.

Everyone's got a finite amount of area on their display.  The trick is
to put it to use most efficiently.

When your browsing, your searching - either for something specific, or
whatever jumps out at you.  For this, you want a lot of information to
guide you, and the library accomplishes this.  Devoting both width and
height to this functionality is appropriate.

Others have already mentioned that for the queue, you're working with
songs you're likely to already know the details of.  Exceptions have
been noted, but no system's perfect, and again, we're working with a
finite amount of area here, so we just can't have it all.

By moving the queue to the side panel, you keep it narrow and conserve
space where it's needed more - browser and library.  Also, based on my
own experience and many of the screenshots I've seen, the queue ends up
where there is presently unused space.  Those with enough playlists to
extend to most (or more) of the height of their RB window may feel
differently, however.

Plus, and this is purely subjective and may be just me, having it long
and thin makes it feel like a list, and reinforces what its function.
Having it show up as another matrix similar to the library doesn't
"feel" like a list to me.  Also, as others have noted, it looks almost
exactly like the library, but serves a different purpose, leading to
confusion.

> 
> Le samedi 19 mars 2005 à 12:32 -0500, Peter Schmidt a écrit :
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I'm announcing a $200 bounty for a play queue in Rhythmbox. The first
> > person to check in play queue support or at lease provide an Arch
> > branch will receive $200 via PayPal at the address he specifies.
> > 
> > Here are the specifications:
> > 
> > The queue window should be an expandable panel, just like the Browser
> > panel. When collapsed, the label should say "Queue (X tracks)" if
> > there are any tracks queued or just "Queue". When expanded, the queue
> > panel should look just like the library table, showing the same
> > columns as the library table. The queue should only be about 4 rows
> > tall, but should be resizable with a sash.
> > 
> > When Rhythmbox is picking which song to play next (either when the
> > Next button is clicked or when the current song finishes), it should
> > always check the queue first. If there are songs in the queue, the top
> > song should be played and it should be removed from the queue. When
> > the queue is empty, the next song should be picked the way it's picked
> > now, following shuffle/repeat/etc. logic.
> > 
> > Songs should be able to be queued through a menu option in the popup
> > menu of each track, by pressing Ctrl+Enter or by dragging a song to
> > the queue panel. Queueing a song with the menu option or the key
> > shortcut should put it in the end of the queue, while dragging to the
> > queue panel should put it wherever the song is dropped.
> > 
> > If the queue is empty when a track is added, the queue panel should be
> > expanded. When the last track in the queue starts, the queue panel
> > should be collapsed. Tracks in the queue should be rearrangable, just
> > like they are in playlists. Dragging a song from the queue to the
> > library view should delete the song from the queue.
> > 
> > The queue panel should be visible and effective in all playlists, not
> > just in the Library.
> > 
> > If you have any questions, let me know. I'm also available in
> > #rhythmbox on freenode. My nick is nomad-.
> > 
> > Happy hacking,
> > 
> > Peter Schmidt
> > _______________________________________________
> > rhythmbox-devel mailing list
> > rhythmbox-devel gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/rhythmbox-devel
> 
> 
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-- 
Dan8827 <dan8827 snet net>