The issue is that with the older players everything you see on the
screen comes from the server. All the player settings etc are stored in
the server, thus uts easy for the server to control things. 

With the new players its different. The players themselves keep their
own settings and have their own local user interface for making
changes. Most of these settings also control things that are in the
local player and don't interact with the server at all. 

Having the server control these is not trivial. For one thing you have
to write TWO sets of GUIs, one for the server and one for the local
player (its a lot of work just writing one, doing two for everything is
a LOT more work). Then there is is the issue of keeping the two in sync.
The server will have to query the player, make a change, display it
locally and send it back to the player. If the player is currently
displaying a page where that parameter is either being displayed or
used, it needs to update ITs GUI and behavior. 

What happens if someone is changing the parameter on the player and
someone else is changing it via the server? You may think "that will
never happen", but you'd be surprised, people will figure out how to do
it and get all upset that it just doesn't work right. 

Right now now there is no standardized method for dealing with these
issues. Several aspects DO have to work with both the player and the
server such as transport controls (play, stop, volume control etc). The
code for dealing with these is a huge mess with messages going back and
forth between the server and the player. It would be nice to have a
framework in place for dealing with these issues, but it doesn't exist
yet. Until there is some well defined easy to use method for dealing
with both server and local control you are going to see very few items
available for control via the server. 

John S.


-- 
JohnSwenson
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=81919

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