A while ago (last November I'm horrified to realise) I floated the idea of
Binary Skip Mode, partly on the basis that it might have some use for users navigating through large files where there is little feedback from the progress bar.
I tried a patch ( FS#10766 ) with a few revisions and AlexW was kind enough to act as a guinea pig for that and a few other test enhancements aimed at blind users.
There have been some
questions on the mailing list so I thought I'd update here with and answer a few of those at the same time.
The patch is aimed primarily at allowing blind users to navigate with relative ease to a specific point in a file. In the version Alex has been testing, this also involves announcing the current track position when it has changed in this way.
1) As it stands, as per the original discussion, when this option is set, navigating within 5 seconds performs a binary skip in the chosen direction; the original post or flyspray spells out the mechanics. As suggested on the mailing list, this is to allow time for the announcement to take place and still decide if you need to sklp again.
2) After 5 seconds the current binary skip times out and a new one can be started.
3) Enabling it replaces "skip track" - but this is no different from enabling the other fixed skip-length options
4) That said, in the current version, if binary skip is enabled and you skip twice within one second, a skip-track is performed. One second seems a bit slow to me, perhaps 0.5 or less makes more sense.
5) The behaviour doesn't affect the long-press fast forward and reverse behaviour.
6) It think 6 somewhat addresses the concerns about waiting for the timeout to mature to begin a new skip, if you accidentally overshoot. I think other options to solve this would overcomplicate matters.
I can't really say, ultimately, if it's useful or not; my use cases are pretty specific which was why I asked if Alex would give some feedback.
My intention would be:
1) Fix the potential bug pointed out with the patch on flyspray
2) Add a persistent setting to allow the track position to be optionally voiced.
3) Tune the double-click behaviour down to 0.5 second.