On Sat, 2005-11-05 at 19:32 -0800, JJZolx wrote:
> pfarrell Wrote: 
> > But this is an opportunity. The database can do what ID3 and
> > ogg tags can never hope to do. Its really not
> > that hard now that there is a SQL database hidden
> > behind the SlimServer

> I follow what you're saying, in that the database could be made more
> useful, but...  If the data associated with a given track (or album)
> isn't to be found in the tags (or perhaps in a CUE sheet, but let's
> ignore that for now), then where does it come from?  It either needs to
> be contained in some other form, such as separate text files, or else it
> needs to be entered manually in SlimServer.

It does need to magically come from somewhere and get entered into the
database. There are more options than just the two you mention.

Clearly a suitable GUI could let people type it in.
Or cut and paste the data from a good source, something 
like allmusic.com 

One of the problems that I have is that the current automated
sources, such as cddb or freedb, have terrible data problems.
It isn't too terrible for pop, but it is terrible for
more serious music.

A related problem is how do you tell if the tracks were ripped properly.
The idea behind http://www.accuraterip.com/ is good,
but they are uninterested in non-windows platforms or
any of the concepts of open source. So one solution could
address both issues, invent an open source equivalent to
accurate-rip that also focuses on accurate meta data.
It could provide the magic data feed and validate that
the rip was correct. I've sketched out some of the code
needed to do this.

> This is where you'd need to begin turning SlimServer into a bonafide
> music library management system. 

It is my music libary management system. Its not great at it,
but it has been the library management system for my 700+
CDs since I got my first SB1 years ago.


>  It would require a user interface,
> the ability to edit the metadata of multiple files, etc., etc. 

It has a user interface now. Maybe not suitable or optimized for
generalized management, but that is another SMOP.


> for eventually making SlimServer a music manager - in fact I think it's
> inevitable, but it's a long way off.

I don't see it as a long way off. maybe I'm a hopeless optimist.
Or maybe I've been building web front ends to RDBMS systems
since the early days of the web. A lot of this is not
rocket science.

>   Given the apparent difficulty
> right now of performing even simple tasks upon the existing data, I'd
> guess that's a very _long_ way off.

Then again, I have no problem doing fairly complex stuff with 6.2.1
I could have missed it, but I've not noticed a lot of data management
problems on the forums. Lots of installation problems, connection 
provisioning, etc. The lost genre problems appear to be fixed fairly
quickly as they are reported. The general regression testing
and reliability issues are best left in one of the existing
threads, or taken over to the dev-list.

-- 
Pat
http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html


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