Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => User Interface and Voice => Topic started by: pondlife on May 20, 2008, 03:49:40 AM

Title: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 20, 2008, 03:49:40 AM
The WPS context menu contains a few options that are arbitrary and, IMHO, out of place.

The "Enable Study Mode" option is a global setting, already available in Settings.  I could understand if more it was in the quickscreen (like Shuffle, for instance), but a context menu is not a place for dumping our "favourite" global settings, and I think it's important not to let this set a precedent.

The "Graphical EQ" and "Browse EQ Presets" options offer arbitrary access to two options already available in the WPS context menu under Sound Settings.  EQ isn't something you should need to change regularly anyway - only when you change your audio output device  (car <-> headphones, say). 

As a third part of the proposed tidyup, I'd (personally) like to rearrange the top of the menu slightly so Playlist is the first option - if you have a particular opinion on this idea please mention it. <EDIT>  This is just a discussion item, not part of the poll. </EDIT>

Now two points from our legal team:
1) Rockbox is NOT a democracy.
2) Don't blame me, blame Llorean and Bagder.

Thank you for your time.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: nls on May 20, 2008, 03:52:13 AM
I would love to have Playlist on top of the menu :)
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: AlexP on May 20, 2008, 04:39:20 AM
+1 for playlist first.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: shotofadds on May 20, 2008, 04:59:28 AM
If the EQ options are already in the context menu under Sound Settings there's no reason to list them again, so I say remove them.

I can see why people might want quick access to Study Mode (it's the sort of feature you might only want to turn on for a particular track and then off again). But I wouldn't use it so I can't really say where it should be placed in the menus.

Playlist first sounds like a good idea, certainly.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 20, 2008, 06:06:25 AM
Whilst I agree that Study Mode might want to be enabled/disabled for particular tracks, so might quite a few features.  Consistency would then dictate we should put plenty more settings in.

This is a context menu, not a quickscreen...

FWIW, I would (personally) like the quickscreen to be a quick link to "Browse CFG Files".  Then I'd add Study Mode On and Study Mode Off to my list of CFG files.  But I agree with the argument that this isn't very user-friendly, despite its flexibility.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: shotofadds on May 20, 2008, 06:15:59 AM
Whilst I agree that Study Mode might want to be enabled/disabled for particular tracks, so might quite a few features.  Consistency would then dictate we should put plenty more settings in.

This is a context menu, not a quickscreen...
I quite agree. I was stating an opinion on why why some people might want to keep it, not suggesting the option stayed. I voted to remove all three...
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pixelma on May 20, 2008, 06:47:26 AM
The repetitive mention of "the context menu is not a quick screen" made me want to reply sooner...

Please don't forget that there are targets without quickscreen (but with WPS context menu) due to the lack of buttons/actions or lack of screen estate - these are the Ondios and the Archos Player. For them options which someone would change more often, especially from the WPS, are really nice to have there. E.g. changing shuffle or repeat mode is a real p...roblem on the Ondio and lead to my wish for an "insert shuffle" option on directories and even to start playback which was then implemented. So I could understand someone who uses "study mode" would like t in the WPS context menu to have a quick way to turn it on and off because it changes the controls in the WPS.

Actually I'm undecided what to vote for with regards to "study mode" - in  my eyes the whole feature could go but if it's there... I'm fine with removing the EQ settings as they are still easy to reach from the sound settings that have a context menu entry. Last but not least, I'd also like to see the playlist option move to the top as this is what I use this menu most for.

(leaving vote for later, wanted to remind people first)
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: soap on May 20, 2008, 07:05:37 AM
Devil's advocate in defense of EQ being accessible with as few button presses as possible:
I can see where people would want to change EQ settings between tracks (not just between output devices) when switching from (let us say) a music track to a talk-radio podcast.

That being said - I don't ever look at or touch my player after setting up my playlist for the day - so I'm the wrong person to ask.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: mbbda on May 20, 2008, 07:54:39 AM
Please put playlist on top.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: JdGordon on May 20, 2008, 08:04:10 AM
I voted they should all be removed, but im going to change my vote (dunno if its possible on the poll though).
imo the wps context menu should include: (order can be argued later)
sound settings,
playlist, (playlist catalog is debateable)
bookmarks
track info
pitch
a link to the playback settings menu (and move pitch and study mode into that, and move stuff stuff out of that)

imo this is something for devocon or the steering board though. (I'm hoping devcon comes out with a massive menu overhaul)
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: mikeage on May 20, 2008, 08:34:49 AM
Note that I proposed putting Playlist about Sound Settings a long time ago... (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/6082 and http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=6736.0)

The consensus seemed to be that most people liked the idea.

Is this a good time to bring back the idea of custom "shortcuts" in the context menu? It would seem like it would be very hard to find a common menu that everyone would like, and being able to customize it would be quite useful...
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: JdGordon on May 20, 2008, 08:35:54 AM
Is this a good time to bring back the idea of custom "shortcuts" in the context menu? It would seem like it would be very hard to find a common menu that everyone would like, and being able to customize it would be quite useful...

no, its never a good time to bring up that idea.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: MarcGuay on May 20, 2008, 08:57:27 AM
a link to the playback settings menu (and move pitch and study mode into that, and move stuff stuff out of that)

imo this is something for devocon or the steering board though. (I'm hoping devcon comes out with a massive menu overhaul)

I second this.  If all of the playback options can't be put in the quickscreen (and especially since, as pixelma pointed out, some targets don't even have one), and the Sound settings get a place in the WPS context menu, the playback options are equally relevent and deserving of some real-estate there. 

UsefulTool: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/MenuLayoutDiscussion

Oh, and I also agree that Playlist would make a better first-entry in the menu.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: bascule on May 20, 2008, 10:57:58 AM
+ another 1 for Playlist and Playlist Catalogue to top.

I also like the idea that the While Playing Screen should have quick access to the Playback settings.

The quickscreen is more tricky... you could argue that it should go, but in my mind it is a meta-context menu (its context being all of Rockbox) and is something I use a lot. However, if it could be replaced with similar functionality in the other context menus, that would be fine.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: dunno on May 20, 2008, 11:06:15 AM

+1 to remove both.

FWIW, I would (personally) like the quickscreen to be a quick link to "Browse CFG Files". .

pondlife
+1, quick access to config files would be great
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 20, 2008, 12:51:34 PM
Early days yet, but the idea seems to be generally liked.  To clarify further, a summary of my proposed context menu layout:

Playlist (incorporating Playlist Catalog, or should it remain separate?)
Sound Settings
Playback Settings (Study Mode is in here)
Set Song Rating
Bookmarks
Show Track Info
Delete
Pitch

How does that look?  I don't think this is too controversial (i.e. not necessarily enough to involve the steering board), but let me know if you disagree.  Of course, I'll pop a patch up for people to try before I commit anything.

<EDIT> I was thinking of a Quick Screen option, but hopefully Playback Settings will cover Shuffle and Repeat anyway, so probably not needed.  pixelma, you decide! </EDIT>

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: dunno on May 20, 2008, 01:05:27 PM
Playlist (incorporating Playlist Catalog, or should it remain separate?)
+1 for incorporating Playlist Catalog.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: mikeage on May 20, 2008, 01:37:08 PM
Why is pitch not considered part of sound settings?
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 20, 2008, 02:00:18 PM
Pitch is not a setting; it's not persisted.  Also, the pitch screen is more than just a +/- amendment, the DJ-style slight shifts are subtle, but useful.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: bascule on May 20, 2008, 02:39:12 PM
I presume you've listed the menu in descending order of *average* usefulness/frequency of use?

That being the case, I would suggest (as I believe the case is for other menus within Rockbox) to split it so that that the useful/high frequency selections are top and bottom to enable wrapping to the bottom selection quickly:

Playlist (incorporating Playlist Catalog, or should it remain separate?)
Sound Settings
Playback Settings (Study Mode is in here)
Pitch
Delete
Show Track Info
Bookmarks
Set Song Rating

...and I 've changed my mind about the catalogue, it should be incorporated into Playlist, rather than a separate line item...
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: Llorean on May 20, 2008, 02:40:32 PM
Does "rating" really qualify as "high use"? Isn't the maximum you can use it, EVER, is once per song unless your tastes change regularly?
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: bascule on May 20, 2008, 03:31:24 PM
True,  but it is something you can only do from the  WPS context menu, so should be easily accessible.

Personally, I've never used the pitch screen except to see what it does and I'd happily see it removed completely, but that's my personal preference and we'll never get on if everyone pitches in with those.

I was really making the point more about the principle of having most-used at top and bottom than exactly which ones should go where.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: Llorean on May 20, 2008, 03:40:28 PM
Oh, I assumed because you bothered to list them that your list was a recommendation for positioning.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 21, 2008, 03:43:02 AM
I presume you've listed the menu in descending order of *average* usefulness/frequency of use?

No, I am not aiming to change the order particularly, just to stem the flow of inappropriate/duplicate options.  I kept to the existing order, and decided that Playback Settings should go alongside Sound Settings - seemed sensible to me.

IMHO the "ideal" ordering will vary too much from user-to-user to worry about it much.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 21, 2008, 05:21:13 AM
OK, there's a patch up at http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/9019.  Please test.

I've not yet integrated Playlist and Playlist Catalog.  That's a bit of a can of worms itself as there are several playlist menus (3, I think) which all ought to be consistent.  I doubt I'll get time to do that in a hurry.

Hopefully this patch is a baby step in the right direction which can be committed anyway.  Let me know!

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: KindOfBlues71 on May 22, 2008, 10:22:36 AM
Rockbox is definitely not a democracy, but this menu change is probably my fault.  I posted a feature request a few days ago to move Study Mode above the EQ selections in the WPS context menu and Llorean stated that the EQ settings shouldn't be in the menu in the first place...

I vote to either have Sound Settings first or last (if Playlist is first) in the menu order, so it can be accessed quickly.  I personally access the sound menu a lot and would prefer to be able to do so quickly.

This is very very cool of you all to post a poll asking for suggestions, so thank you!  I wish us "users" were given this opportunity more often.

-KindOfBlues71
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 22, 2008, 11:43:16 AM
I've now committed the tidy-up change.  Sound Settings is currently third in the list, but will be promoted to second once I get a handle on the playlist menu and integrate Playlist Catalog in there.  Hope that's ok.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: KindOfBlues71 on May 22, 2008, 12:25:27 PM
@pondlife- any chance you would consider moving Sound Settings to last in the list?  Please??  Since Rockbox is "jukebox" firmware, the user should be able to access sound settings quickly.
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: pondlife on May 22, 2008, 12:27:41 PM
If it's second in the list, then it's the same distance as last, no?  i.e. one step away from the start.

pondlife
Title: Re: Tidying up the WPS context menu
Post by: KindOfBlues71 on May 22, 2008, 01:07:09 PM
For some reason I'm able to get to the last selection more accurately than the second item from the top when scrolling up from the first selection. I have no idea why that is, so it must be something I'm doing.

Good point - I hadn't thought of the position being second either way, I was only visualizing the list order. Since you're moving Sound Settings to the 2nd position that's better than third and I'm happy with that!

Thanks again for posting this poll!
-KindOfBlues71