Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
Why does playlist insert replace the current playlist when stopped?
cc:
I agree with fml2. The confusion stems from the current side-effect of stop - a side effect that no-one would guess happened. Clearing the playlist on stop might be easier to understand, but it is also a side-effect and I think it would be pretty annoying. As a user the only difference I see between pause and stop is that the player will shut itself off when stopped, but not when paused. This is fine by me.
All the confusion could be removed by having the same menu whether you are stopped or not:
- Insert Next
- Insert Last
- Insert Shuffled
- Queue Next
- Queue Last
- Queue Shuffled
- Replace
- Replace Shuffled
As fml2 says the only slight difference in behaviour while stopped would be that Replace would not leave the current song queued. But people wouldn't have to know that to use it effectively.
After adding something, two more menu items would be shown "Insert Again" and "Queu Again" which would insert/queue after whatever had been added previously.
This is easier to understand - you can figure it out just be looking at the menu*. And the code would be shorter and cleaner.
I would do a patch for this if I thought there was any chance it would be accepted.
(* well except for knowing the special significance given to word "Queue", maybe that could be replaced with "Play Once")
Llorean:
--- Quote ---If you're in STOP, there is no current song, so the list will contain just the inserted song.
--- End quote ---
This contradicts your earlier arguments that "Stopped" playlists still exist. While the song isn't playing, pressing "Play" will resume in the middle of the song, so it's still the "Current" song, at least as much as the stopped playlist is the "Current" playlist, so this removes any logical consistency you think you're earning.
Seriously, if you've read the manual all this behaviour should be fairly clear. If it's not explained clearly in the manual, the solution is to clarify it, but "Stop" removes the playlist from memory, and this IS IMPORTANT, both functionally (other things can use the memory, such as plugins) and conceptually (Insert creates a new playlist).
It is "Stop", the playback engine is shut down. This is the difference between it and "Pause." It's like quitting Winamp, the music code is no longer running. While "Pause" is like clicking the Pause key in winamp. The program's still running, and still maintains control of memory, you just don't hear audio.
I'm not sure why this is so conceptually confusing...
If you don't want the playlist cleared, why don't you just Pause? I mean, I don't see why both "Pause" and "Stop" should be 100% functionally identical except whether they leave the WPS: If this is true, why even HAVE two different buttons?
fml2:
--- Quote from: Llorean on October 02, 2007, 04:54:50 AM ---
--- Quote ---If you're in STOP, there is no current song, so the list will contain just the inserted song.
--- End quote ---
This contradicts your earlier arguments that "Stopped" playlists still exist.
--- End quote ---
I meant 'current song' as in 'song being played back', not the stored position (which indeed exists even if we're in STOP.) So there's no contradiction IMHO.
Llorean:
Well, by your standard if we "Stop" the playlist is still there, but the song that was being played isn't... I don't understand this, it's even more contradictory than "Neither still exists in memory, but can be reloaded"
fml2:
--- Quote from: Llorean on October 02, 2007, 05:06:04 AM ---Well, by your standard if we "Stop" the playlist is still there, but the song that was being played isn't... I don't understand this, it's even more contradictory than "Neither still exists in memory, but can be reloaded"
--- End quote ---
I mean that if we Stop, no song is being played back. The song is of course still in the playlist, and the playlist still exists. If we Pause, this counts as the song still being played back, just paused (I mean mentally; technically in the depth of RB it might count as not being played). Where is the contradiction?
And even if we stop, the last playback position is stored somewhere so that after pressing Play the playback will resume from the last position.
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