dean;360972 Wrote: > I convinced Ben to add the dynamic playlist mode (not the party mode, > that was his awesome idea) based on the long standing frustration that > folks have when they accidentally hit the PLAY button when creating a > playlist and lose all their hard work. > > The concept was simple: modify the behavior of the PLAY button when > Squeezebox thinks you are creating a playlist. > > Here's what I proposed: > > 1. The ADD button continues to do exactly what it's done all along > plus... > > 2. The first time you press the ADD button, the behavior of the PLAY > button is modified to... > > 3. do an add-next (i.e. add the selected item to the playlist so as it > will be played immediately after the currently playing song), and not > clear the playlist and... > > 4. stay in this new mode until the user turns off the device, clears > the playlist, saves the playlist or explicitly turns off the mode (from > the settings or with the press-hold of the ADD button as a shortcut) >
At step 2, the user has shown that he understands the difference between Play and Add. So why do you then change the behavior of Play? You want to help folks whose use of Play is not doing what they want, but your proposal only helps those who kinda grok the mysterious + key. I'd rather see the normal behavior remain as is (no more button overloading!) and add a "Play Confirmation" setting. If (Play Confirmation were set to On) and (the player is playing) and (you pressed play on a playable item**), then you'd be presented with an INPUT.List with choices like - Play now (replace playlist) - Play next (insert in playlist) - Play next (clear playlist) [only if 1+ items in playlist after current] - Play last (add to playlist) [only if 1+ items in playlist after current] - Cancel This is much like what Rockbox does*** when you select a playable item. For power users, such prompts are a nuisance -- power users should be able to disable these dialogs, and memorize button shortcuts. But I use my Rockbox far less than my Squeezeboxes, and appreciate that confirmation -- I have more important things to keep track of than modal key sequences for my music players. You guys may spend 40+ hours a week hacking at this stuff, but I just want the darn technology to do what I ask it to. Overloaded buttons mean that I have to learn and remember all kinds of details in order to really control the device. You're probably thinking "Confirmation screens are annoying", and they usually are on WIMP desktop OS interfaces. But 1) again, users should have the option of disabling the prompt and using the old button shortcuts if they want to learn them 2) comparison to WIMP dialogs isn't quite fair -- in the Squeezebox UIs (IR/VFD and Jive), interaction is much quicker than it is when using a mouse to move an onscreen pointer. If the list of choices is ordered well and the left/back arrows cancel the Play operation, then my suggested dialog would be much less annoying than, say, an MS Windows popup dialog. -Peter ** vs. pressing play in a custom plugin mode where play might mean something else *** actually the Rockbox build I use has different behavior for select.single and select.hold. select.single asks if I want to replace the playlist, or do nothing. I have to press select.hold to get a selectable "Playlist" item which then offers the full list of choices. This is clunkier than it should be, but the basic idea that it prompts me before something destructive is something I appreciate when I use my Rockbox. -- peterw http://www.tux.org/~peterw/ free plugins: http://www.tux.org/~peterw/#slim AllQuiet BlankSaver ContextMenu FuzzyTime KitchenTimer PlayLog PowerCenter/BottleRocket SaverSwitcher SettingsManager SleepFade StatusFirst SyncOptions VolumeLock ------------------------------------------------------------------------ peterw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2107 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=55135 _______________________________________________ beta mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/beta
