Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] yet another new mockup (meta)

[Danny Silverman <zeno brandeis edu>]

Geez!  Where did these 50 messages come from...hope this isn't redundant.

>>Show/Hide browser is a preference too and has nothing to do in the middle
> 
> Agreed - I was thinking about it and some poeple like the browser and
> some don't but it's not something that the majority of people are going
> to want to toggle regularil

Here I must strongly disagree.  I use iTunes every day, as do several 
friends, and we all find the toggle button infinitely useful.  When you 
want to find a genre, toggle,the browser pops down, select, use.  When 
you're done, toggle it up to save a LOT of screen real estate.

> Also I've removed the meta-button. Thinking about it:
> * It's confusing without text but text is going to be extrememly
> impossible when trying to translate it.

There is this great new invention known as an "icon."  A visual, iconic 
representation of an action.  Try it, its useful.  In library mode, an 
eye, to bring down the browser (toggle).  In playlist mode, a burning 
CD.  In CD mode, an import button (something with a music note and an 
arrow, maybe.

There, we just took two buttons and made one, and made the button very 
useful.

> * Burn should work in both the library and playlist
Why?  The library is meant to store all your songs in whatever sort 
order they go in.  Playlist is meant to hold a subset in whatever order 
you drag them into.  What happens when I hit burn on my 40 hr library? 
How do I choose which songs I want, and which order?  That is why 
playlists are usefeul.  If you want to burn from library, you can still 
use a menu item or keybinding, but we don't need to encourage it, since 
97.4% of people will probably never do it.

> * No reason why you should have to be looking at the audio cd source
> to rip it.

No, you don't.  Use a keybinding or a menu item.  But it is very logical 
to click CD and click burn.

> All in all I think that using a meta-button is going to be problematical
> and inflexible.

Meta-button makes it MORE flexible by allowing extra functionality that 
is tailored to the screen at hand.

> I really don't think that anyone is going to be confused by having the
> search on the toolbar.

Agreed.

> 
> The only issue remaining is those checkboxes.

I know people are worried about gnomishness, and rightly so, but if 
gnome only allows for one big set of buttons on the top toolbar, that 
seems a bit inflexible for real-world concerns.  The Apple method of 
having toggle buttons on the bottom makes sense here as well.  16x16 
buttons with arrows going different ways to signify repear, shuffle, 
etc.  Also a plus box to add a playlist, if you want it.  As long as 
they can be shown to be toggled on and off, they work well...I don't 
feel the need to have a big label telling me I'm shuffling, once I've 
used the program for a little while I'll figure it out, specially when I 
use the menu option to shuffle and the button darkens.

-- 
Daniel Silverman
Web Jockey, Philosopher, Discordian
http://www.agblog.com