[mythtv] ticket 2935: Change MythMusic transport buttons to reflect current state

[Peter Stokes]

Justin Hornsby wrote:
> Making the change in 6 themes is one thing (mine, and soon to be
> another addition to the family, FYI folks)...
> 
> But having to maintain separate versions of files is going to be a pain.
> 
> All the other theme changes I've had to incorporate in the past have
> just added new elements.  This is something altogether different.
> 
> Would there be any way of just making a new element so the two could
> co-exist side by side for the time being?
> 

Please don't take this the wrong way (I really can't think of a better way of 
putting it, so I apologise in advance), but having to support two different 
theme options in the code is also a pain. (I will look into it if I get a 
chance).

> Or instead of using a check box, use a different method to draw the
> buttons & update them accordingly.  Not being a coder myself, or
> experienced in the mythtv ui code I don't know what the best way to go
> about it would be.
> 
> When I first started looking at theming mythmusic I was surprised that
> the button state didn't 'latch' like your patch implements.. all I see
> is a brief flash of the 'active' button which made me wonder what the
> point of having 3 images for every button really is...

I found it a little odd that the buttons didn't latch (hence the patch) but 
realistically I don't think that there's an easy way to implement the 
latching behaviour without changing the buttons to be check boxes. which in 
turn has an impact on the XML theme file.

> So I'll reiterate that I like the idea of this, just not looking
> forward to having to maintain lots.
> 
> One argument could be that I include a patch with all the themes &
> tell users if they're running SVN past a certain rev, to use it - but
> as I know from bitter experience readme files tend to go unread - end
> result.. unhappy users.

My thinking was that if you use SVN (as I do) then you should expect a certain 
amount of "pain" from time to time (but also appreciate that the "pain" is 
likely to involve people emailing you with questions as to where the 
transport buttons have "gone" in MythMusic).

BTW. In developing the patch I discovered the "Use Keyboard/Remote Accelerated 
Buttons" feature. If this feature is disabled (under Music Settings, General 
Settings) then the user has to navigate the MythMusic transport controls 
using the cursor keys using enter to activate the desired control. This 
feature requires the three images used for a push button to be different 
(the "on" image requires some indication of a current button highlight, 
the "off" image has no highlight). This feature isn't supported by your 
blootube theme. As I said, I discovered this feature through playing around 
with this code and as far as I'm concerned if someone is wedded to this 
feature they should use a different theme, but that is the reason why the 
transport buttons require so many images.

Peter