mkozlows wrote:
The trick is to make all the voodoo, selects, outer joins, etc.
invisible to the user.
A centralized database is a fine implementation choice for a particular
player, enabling various sorts, filters, and views of the data. Which
is why almost all programs, from iTunes to WMP to Slim to Foobar, use a
database internally.
But a database is a TERRIBLE place to use as the primary storage for a
file's metadata. It's difficult to use with multiple applications,
it's a single point of failure that can wipe out all metadata, and it
means that files copied off somewhere else lose all their metadata.
Metadata belongs in tags, and players that use metadata should build
internal database caches of the metadata. Which is, fortunately
enough, exactly the current situation.
No, you can argue that, but you won't convince me.
I am not arguing that the internal tags are not good sources for the
database, but they can not be the sole data store.
The information about Beethoven does not belong in a song file of his
music. This was fully discussed when we were working on the design goals
of the 6.000 server over on the developers list.
We are not talking about "a particular player" we are talking about
SlimServer which is a music libary. All libraries have catalogs that are
not in the books themselves. Right now, I have a Transporter and two
SqueezeBoxes, that is three, not one player.
You are correct that moving files makes it harder to track the
descriptive data, but it is by no means all that hard. Clearly no harder
than keeping any other database working. Databases are everywhere, they
are well understood. Perhaps not by as many people we wish.
But is really not on topic for the Audiophiles list, other than that
audiophiles are more likely to have extensive collections of music in
"genres" that don't work well in in-file tags. There is no reason that
the SlimServer can't have a control switch that lets the 80% of the
folks who want to live within the limitations of tags held within a
file, while letting the minority of folks use the database as God intended.
Its a computer program. Programmers can make it do anything we want.
--
Pat Farrell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.bioinformatx.com
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