Re: [bongo-devel] Re: Bongo marking and selecting random tracks

[Daniel Brockman]

Hi Anthony,

> Thanks for your answer! Before I get to the 'meat' of the mail, did
> you catch the discussion about random-playback-mode picking the track
> being played? I'd raised that point because I thought it was connected
> with marked tracks and I'm not sure if you picked up that bit.
> Daniel's second message in this thread has the info, and this problem
> is basically unrelated to the handling of random marked tracks.

Thank you for the reminder.  I replied to this.

>> If marks are to be used to select the tracks that will be played,
>> they lose their normal function, which is to select tracks for
>> performing commands on.
>
> As a pretty much regular user, I found this use of marks to be quite
> intuitive (actually a lot more straightforward than in most other
> players I know of).

Did you find intuitive the way marks currently work in Bongo?
I am very interested in this kind of usability information.

> In my naive view, I also expected tracks to affect
> whether a given track is played.

Not an unreasonable expectation, but --- I believe --- a
more unnatural expectation than its opposite.  Marks are
semantically much like non-rectangular active regions.

> This particular behaviour of tracks might be worth handling through a
> variable, if I am indeed not the only user who would like to use marks
> that way. Of course, it will add some complexity, and I'm not
> the one who has to struggle with the code afterwards. ;)

I appreciate the demand for this functionality, but I don't
want to install the mark solution in Bongo.

Please use Daniel Jensen's advice (posted in this thread) if
you want the behavior in question.

>> Maybe we could have several different kinds of marks ---
>> process marks, play marks, don't play marks, and so on.
>
> I agree. In particular, I think play/don't play marks should be
> handled through a generic 'reverse marks' function (I don't expect
> that one to come up too often, though).
>
>> But to side-step this complexity, I'm inclined to suggest
>> instead creating a new playlist containing only the tracks
>> you want to play.
>> 
>> Creating playlist and library buffers should be easier.
>> Bongo is a buffer-oriented media player, after all. :-)
>> 
>> So we should add a command that takes the marked tracks and
>> makes a new playlist out of them.  I have been planning to
>> put such a command on `o' (for `open').
>
> I know I prefer using as few buffers as possible (I don't use library
> buffers) myself. Still, I like your idea, so long as the added buffers
> don't become too intrusive; one buffer per track just wouldn't be fun.

You would only need one buffer for each set of tracks you
want to play randomly as one mix collection.

> With extra playlists around, "slices" of tracks might be interesting
> to create permanent selections of specific tracks (say, the whole of
> an album, or the "I've had a bad day" special"). This could be done
> more cleanly than with a lot of marking/unmarking.

Right!  Note that you can already do this.  Just create a
new empty buffer and run `M-x bongo-playlist-mode' or find a
file called something ending in `.bongo-playlist'.

>> Please grab the patch I just recorded and try this code.
>
> Unless I've forgotten to load some part of the code, your patch
> appends the marked tracks in the same buffer, leaving me with a new,
> but empty playlist. In the code I'm having for enqueuing, there
> doesn't seem to be a variable for the target buffer. I don't have
> enough time to really give it a thorough look, though.

By `the patch I just recorded', I meant a patch added to the
repository at <http://www.brockman.se/software/bongo/>:

2007-03-26  Daniel Brockman  <address@hidden>

        Always use the designated playlist buffer
        (`bongo-playlist-buffer') in `bongo-enqueue-text'.

diff -rN -u old-bongo/bongo.el new-bongo/bongo.el
--- old-bongo/bongo.el  2007-03-26 15:53:43.000000000 +0200
+++ new-bongo/bongo.el  2007-03-26 15:53:43.000000000 +0200
@@ -7559,7 +7559,7 @@
 If MODE is `insert', insert TEXT just below the current track.
 If MODE is `append', append TEXT to the end of the playlist."
   (let ((insertion-point
-         (with-bongo-playlist-buffer
+         (with-current-buffer (bongo-playlist-buffer)
            (save-excursion
              (ecase mode
                (insert (if (bongo-point-at-current-track-line)

Did you grab that one?  (Use `darcs pull'.)

>> Given that we are planning to add intra-playlist queues, it would
>> make sense to have intra-playlist play masks --- if it is desirable,
>> we can think about how it should work.
>
>> Perhaps during random playback, we should play only the tracks that
>> appear in the intra-playlist queue. (We could omit the queue index
>> numerals in random playback mode.)
>
> I'm not sure I understand how these features will work. I
> assume intra-playlist queues are 'Play foo, then bar, then
> baz, then foo some more',

Yes.  Actually not the last part.  You won't be able to
enqueue a single track multiple times in this queue.

> but I don't see what 'play masks' are ('never, ever, play
> that track?').

I just meant what you are talking about.  Some way to say
which tracks are to be played during automatic playback.

-- 
Daniel Brockman <address@hidden>