[iPod 5G] Read iPod native playlists in Rb database

[Llorean]

End users are of course always nice, but the people who make development possible are "anyone who contributes." An example of contributing would perhaps include "deciding you want a feature, and then implementing that feature".

[mamboman]

Well said bro. I would love that feature, but I am not going to complain because it's not there. If I cannot build it, i will just wait for it to be there. in the meantime I dual boot the 2 firmwares

[AlexP]

That being said, it would be nice if some of the staff

There are no staff, only volunteers.

[bluebrother]

If Rockbox isn't intended as a replacement for the default Apple firmware, then what is it intended as? Rockbox is a competitor of iPod Linux and Apple's firmware, regardless of what anyone says about who the target audience is.

No, it's not. Rockbox is "just" a project of people who like doing so. The intention of Rockbox is completely different to IPL, so it's definitely not a competitor. And speaking of AppleOS: it's not a competitor in terms we want people to use Rockbox. Everyone who likes it is free to do (as it is open source), but no-one is required to do so. The main advantage of Rockbox is doing things in a standardized way, which includes using m3u as playlist format instead of some strange, unknown ItunesDB.

That being said, it would be nice if some of the staff  would try to be a little more open to suggestions, and a little less defensive.

Only volunteers are working on Rockbox, and they do that in their spare time. Having that said those people have the right (and will use that right) to work on the stuff they consider important and leave unimportant features out. Also, they are free to use the appropach they consider the "right" one and ignore all others. Just compare the different views between Windows and Linux users ... Like it or not, but people not involved in developing Rockbox might only make suggestions. And the majority of the devs has the same opinions about some general approaches.

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes people not want to support a developer. It's not very nice, and it doesn't do anything to answer the question or address the suggestion of the end-user (the person who ultimately makes the software's continued development/success possible).

Do you consider it nice to use some free software and only ask for rarely used feature, i.e. asking people to do additional work in their free time which result those developers are neither interested in nor have any benefit from it? Quite some users do so. (I don't want to count you to this group, but it is a fact that some users behave exactly that way. Rockbox is no product, and as you haven't paid anything for it you neither have any warranties nor the right for support or someone implementing what you want)
Anyone who wants a feature added is free to step up and implement it, and there are a lot of helpful developers that will actually help. They just won't do the actual work.

And speaking for myself: I don't think Rockbox needs users at all. It's fun enough working on it. I don't need more. There is this tiny difference between "need" and "nice to have"

Just my 2 ct.

[runawaywind]

Well said bro. I would love that feature, but I am not going to complain because it's not there. If I cannot build it, i will just wait for it to be there. in the meantime I dual boot the 2 firmwares

That's where I sit too.

[vcardenas]

Hi...

I have a little application that i made in .net using the library SharePodLib that i've been using for exactly the same purpose you want: generating playlist for rockbox from the SmartPlaylists in iTunesDB... so i want to share it.

It reads all the Smart Playlists stored in the Ipod generated with iTunes, and creates a playlist for each one with the same name in *.m3u8 format, so it can be read from rockbox. The playlists created are stored in the "Playlists" folder in the iPod.

You must have iTunes closed and it needs .NET framework 2.0 to run (can be downloaded from here).

The app is here.

Update: Deceber 21, 2007
A new version with support for both Smart and Normal Playlist is available.
Go to iPod to RockBox Playlist Converter

Hope it can help you.

[gratt]

Before sound was supported on the Sansa I created a playlist converter
Rockbox Plugin (FS #6884) to convert playlists between RB and the OF.
If some one uploads an IPod playlist I will look at adding support for convertion
to .m3u8 playlists for RB.
I do not have an IPod but desperately needed such a feature for my Sansa.
I have my doubts this will ever get included in SVN though.
I will also need to know the location of the playlist files in the IPod file structure,
and where you would like the converted .m3u8 file.

Only trying to be helpful.
GRaTT

[saratoga]

I do not have an IPod but desperately needed such a feature for my Sansa.
I have my doubts this will ever get included in SVN though.
I will also need to know the location of the playlist files in the IPod file structure,
and where you would like the converted .m3u8 file.

I don't see any reason we couldn't commit that once you're done working on it.  It would probably be helpful to many users.

[GodEater]

I don't see any reason we couldn't commit that once you're done working on it.  It would probably be helpful to many users.

Indeed not - we never said we wouldn't put the feature in if someone wrote it. I think we said the exact opposite - we said go write it someone!

[bluebrother]

Indeed not - we never said we wouldn't put the feature in if someone wrote it. I think we said the exact opposite - we said go write it someone!

And just to emphasize this: Rockbox already has a plugin called "iriverify" which converts Rockbox playlists to a format the Iriver firmware (h100 and h300 series, don't know about h10) can read (which is also m3u, but with different path delimiters).

Also, a plugin doesn't affect the core, so it's much more likely to get such a feature added as plugin.

[gratt]

There did not seem to be any interest in the Sana playlist converter for SVN,
that is the only reason I did not think it would be added. If additional IPod support
will get my app into SVN I will do my best to add the support.

GRaTT

[bluebrother]

If additional IPod support will get my app into SVN I will do my best to add the support.

Well, I (and I guess most devs) would prefer separate plugins. The reason your patch didn't got much attention is most likely that most (all?) devs don't use the original firmware any more ...
A good way to get your patch accepted is to look around on IRC and discuss it -- that way you'll also get fast feedback if there are any changes to do before it gets accepted.

[gratt]

Well, I (and I guess most devs) would prefer separate plugins.

Do I understand then that you would prefer a seperate Ipod playlist converter and not just added support for Ipods in my Sansa playlist converter?
I would have thought a single app with multiple playlist formats support would be better, but whatever will be accepted, or is wanted.

If there is any interest in me doing this I will need a Ipod playlist before I can get started.

GRaTT

[saratoga]

Well, I (and I guess most devs) would prefer separate plugins.

Do I understand then that you would prefer a seperate Ipod playlist converter and not just added support for Ipods in my Sansa playlist converter?

We'd probably just want to enable your plugin for the Sansa, and enable a second plugin on the Ipod.  If, however, the two plugins would only be trivially different, then maybe its not worth separating them.

I think that as long as you can justify the way you do things, and its not plainly counterproductive, no one is going to make a big deal about it.

[gratt]

We'd probably just want to enable your plugin for the Sansa, and enable a second plugin on the Ipod.  If, however, the two plugins would only be trivially different, then maybe its not worth separating them.

I think that as long as you can justify the way you do things, and its not plainly counterproductive, no one is going to make a big deal about it.

I guess there is no point in having sansa playlist support for Ipod or vise versa.
Two individual plugins would be easier and faster to do.
There has not been any feedback from the people who wanted this feature only from the Devs. Does anybody want me to do an IPod playlist to RB playlist converter?

GRaTT