Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Right side bar for Rhythmbox

[Adolfo González Blázquez <listas infinicode org>]

El mié, 06-06-2007 a las 23:26 +1000, James "Doc" Livingston escribió:
> On Sat, 2007-06-02 at 10:03 +0200, Adolfo González Blázquez wrote:
> > I would like to know if is there any chance to get a right side bar for
> > RB, like the one on left, so plugins can put their stuff there.
> > 
> > In this sidebar you can get the Queue playlist [1], the lyrics [2],
> > album related information, and future plugins, like a Wikipedia plugin,
> > web stuff, and whatever you imagine.
> 
> Adding a right sidebar is fairly simple. If we want one, we should
> figure out how we want it to work.
> 
> What do people think of the idea of a sidebar which you can change the
> content of, with one thing being displayed at a time? I've personally
> never found it that great, but several apps do it (in varying forms) and
> it does let you fit a number of things in a small space.

For example, Totem uses it, and i found it very useful. As I said
before, we can use that right side bar for plugins, so they can put
their info there, without clobbering the left side bar, and without
having to open external windows (ie lyrics plugin).


> Another question would what we use to change the content - some things
> use a combo-box, others tabs with icons (gedit), or sideways tabs
> (Amarok). A combo box takes slightly longer to change things, rather
> than a single click, but is probably better because it would be hard to
> design good icons for everything, and the vertical writing of sideways
> tabs is harder to read  for the majority of people with a LTR or RTL
> language.

I think the combobox is the best option (like totem does). It's simple
to use and understand and doesn't take so much space. The tabs are worst
'cause, for example, if you have 15 plugins adding stuff to this right
side bar, you will have 15 tabs, which is not very HIG compliant.

> 
> > I know this have been discussed before, but in those times where the
> > screens are getting bigger, the space is not anymore a problem.
> 
> More important than getting bigger (where I am at least, they haven't
> been getting bigger recently) is the fact that an increasing number of
> screens are coming in "widescreen" rather than "normal" (4:3). Although
> they may not be much bigger, they have more horizontal screen space.
> 
> If you don't have a huge number of columns turned on, there is probably
> some extra space we could use for something. So, I agree.
> 
> 
> > I've attached 2 mockups. The right bar should have a combobox to select
> > what info you want to see in it (wikipedia, lyrics, album info, queue
> > playlist...)
> 
> One idea I had a while back was that we could make these things special
> widgets which you could move around, similar to the "toolbar editor"
> some apps have. That way you could have things below the source list, in
> the right "switching" sidebar, move the art next to the song title and
> the like.
> 
> However there are all sorts of interesting UI issues with doing this
> kind of thing, and it is somewhat complicated to implement (especially
> implement correctly). But it sounded like an interesting idea.

This will be great, but i also think it's kinda difficult to get it
right. I think a fixed right side bar is easy to implement, HIG
compliant, and very useful.

I just hope the right side bar is implemented, so i can start writing
some plugins for it!

Cheers!

-- adolfo