[mythtv] MythMusic GUI changes

[Joseph A. Caputo]

On Tuesday 03 January 2006 13:38, Isaac Richards wrote:
> On Tuesday 03 January 2006 13:17, Simon Kenyon wrote:
> > On Tuesday 03 January 2006 01:08, Paul Volkaerts wrote:
> > > Hi;
> > >
> > > I have been working on some GUI improvements in MythMusic -- its 
> > > coming 
> > > along ok & hopefully will finish before my holidays do, so wanted 
> > > to 
> > > check firstly that the owner of this code does not object and 
> > > secondly 
> > > that I'm not repeating what someone else is doing.
> > >
> > > The look and feel has not changed much; but as a taster -- here is 
> > > what I 
> > > have so far.
> >
> > it would be nice if the gui got rid of the buttons at the bottom.
> > IMHO they are a waste of screen real-estate.
> >
> > i also think it would be good if all of myth was usable with a 
> > remote with 
> > a limited number of keys.
> 
> Right, and without those buttons at the bottom of the screen, you've 
> just  
> added a requirement that a remote will have all those buttons on it.

Actually, the buttons at the bottom are useless from a UI point of view, 
except as visual feedback (okay, I *think* maybe they work if you 
cursor to them and hit Enter, but you'd need the Tab key bound to your 
remote for that to get out of the playlist...).  The presence of the 
play/pause/stop/ff/rew/skip icons at the bottom are purely for visual 
feedback; the remote/key bindings are independent of those buttons.  
The TV playback interface doesn't need a UI for them, why should 
MythMusic?

As for the Shuffle/Repeat/Edit Playlist buttons, they are useful from a 
feedback point of view to show the user the currently selected mode, 
but again, they're independent of the keybinding (OK, so the keybinding 
is hardcoded and printed on the button label, but that's easily 
changed).  There's no reason why a less obtrusive information UI 
couldn't replace the obnoxious buttons.

It wouldn't be adding a requirement for any buttons that aren't already 
required... presumably it's already a requirement to have some remote 
buttons bound to play/stop/rew/ff/pause/skip for TV playback; just use 
those same keys for MythMusic.  The Shuffle/Repeat/Edit Playlist 
buttons are already bound to 1-2-3; the only thing that would change is 
the visual representation of the UI elements, though it would be nice 
to make those keybindings editable as well.

Just my $.02.

-JAC