I too agree that the pseudonym "Various Artists" isn't terribly useful as it is. Its really just an somewhat arbitrary collection of artists one level removed from a sorting by artists. It seems to me the utility of such is the ability to reduce the clutter, but at the same time allow presentation if desired.
My comments below are primarily for the web app, not SB2 itself. I've been using an application for webpage bookmarks for a long time, that solved for me what was a real problem. The program doesn't try to organize the bookmarks into pre-defined categories or folders, in that such categorization and taxonomy, like with music tags, into a folder like hierarchy is not really possible due to the enormous variation, multiple locations, etc.. Rather, it does not not present any hierarchy per se. It solves the search and presentation problem using user-defined keywords entered and auto-extracted at bookmark creation time, and lightning fast incremental (partial or full) search, immediately reducing the possible items based upon what you've entered into the search box. Many database applications reflect essentially the way data is stored - enormous lists, grouped and/or sorted by one or more key fields. Hierarchy. I think this is fine for an inventory printout, but for day to day operations, at any given time you are searching for something, and the ability to instantly reduce your choices is to me nirvana. Reduction and presentation is no longer a matter of click here, click there, go up a folder, scroll-scroll-scroll, sort this way, etc. That's too much hunting and work. I think it would be peachy to see one or more checkboxes on the artists page that dynamically show/hide, in sorted order, such things as composer, track artists, etc. With a dynamic, incremental search at the top of each page, a check or two, and an few chars typed in the incremental search box would yield very rapid access for those HATs (who likely memorize their entire collection and know what they are looking for, and want it quickly). It would also be very useful for those just looking for an artist or two. I realize this is not the end all solution, and also requires a competely differnt way of looking/coding the web app. However I do feel that 95% of what what we do with the web app is search and browse, the ability to immediately reduce and expand choices (and this means without pressing a DoIt or Go button) goes a long way towards helping to find items rather than spending time worrying about how and where to place those items. Just my 2 cents. -- MrC _______________________________________________ beta mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/beta
