[mythtv] RFC: Consolidation of scheduling options?

[Quintesse]

It has already happened a couple of times that I'm wondering what the
backend is doing at a particular moment.
This probably has to do with the fact that there currently isn't an easy
list of recorded, recording and to be recorded programs.

Are there others who think this information is missing as well?
Does anybody have any ideas how we could handle this?

I just want to get some ideas from people here before even thinking
about making any changes.

Personally I'm getting the impression that the recording/scheduling part
of MythTV is just getting too many buttons and not all of them in the
right place.

Please don't see this as criticism, I just want to know what _you_ think
about this, if we think something should and could be changed and if so,
how.

While making the pre-roll patch for example I noticed that I kept
switching from one list to another, just to see if something was about
to be recorded or already recording, then to delete a recording (there
is no way to stop a recording?) I had to go one menu level up.

So one idea I had is:

- remove the buttons for find program, guide and manual schedules
- add a new button, called... ehm "schedule" (whatever)
- make the button go to a list of scheduled recordings, sorted by
date/time (closest first)
- the items in this list includes any scheduled programs currently
recording!
- each item shows a status: active(enabled), inactive(disabled) for
programs not yet being recorded and recording,waiting(for items that
wait for the user to stop watching live tv) for current schedules.
- a selected item will show its information in the lower part of the
screen
- an item can be activated which would show a dialog with options like:
edit, delete, stop recording
- options would be available to add new scheduled programs to the list
using the existing systems (guide, manual etc)

Problems with this:
- It's still schedule oriented while for me as a user I don't see the
difference between programs I started recording manually or the ones
that I scheduled
- I still can't see what the backend might be doing this moment
(recording Live TV for example, there is a "stop" for schedules in the
example above, why not stop Live TV in the same way?)
- the moment a recording has finished it is removed from this list, so I
can delete it before it is recording, while it is recording but not
after. I have to go to the Delete page for that.

So remember this is just to get some discussion going, so no "go ahead
submit a patch" replies please, I might be the one doing the work in the
end, who knows, but not before we had time to look at this and at least
agree on the basics (or not agree on anything and just leave it as it is
;-).

Cheers,
 -Tako