I've got my own list of enhancements for browsing/searching classical music (enhancement requests #2696-2701) but I think SlimDevices has to solve some overall problems:
1. Someone at SlimDevices needs to take full responsibility for making Slimserver a stable, robust, fully tested and fully documented software application. There is a bias toward adding features well outside the core function of playing music. There doesn't seem to be a commitment to adequate testing before release. That needs to be done ASAP rather than in some future release that involves adding functionality. SlimDevices needs to hire someone or make a current employee responsible. I don't mean a low-level QA person; what's needed is a project leader. 2. Slim Devices needs to hire someone to do serious work on Slimserver's UI design, functionality and external UIs. The current user base is heavily weighted toward techies who don't see the need for good UI design. They aren't likely to provide the insight or the implementation to make SB/SS useful to a wider audience. 3. Slim Devices needs to hire someone to provide thorough user level documentation. Slimserver server isn't carefully designed to be as transparent as a modern application like iTunes. Software like that needs more documentation than a relatively transparent application but the current documentation does not explain the concepts or provide step-by-step instructions for doing common tasks. Imporoving the documentation should be coordinated with the design work. 4. Slim Devices has to commit to providing stable, clearly documented external intewrfaces. And they need to document the SS source code. You won't get quality, fully implemented and fully tested extensions unless Slim Devices does its part. 5. SlimDevices needs to hire someone who can implement fast, reliable, flexible database components for Slimserver. The database of tag information is important for external UI software like Moose and TelCanto. The database is also the basis for improvements to the SS web UI. The current database looks like a dump of internal Perl objects and is not very flexible. And there seem to be problems about its permanence and the efficiency and reliability of the scanning process. Bill -- Listener ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Listener's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2508 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20205 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
