playlist generator

[Zardoz]

It might be an option on the playlist menu. So maybe a 'long select' would bring up an option to add a playlist

[GodEater]

And this "add to playlist" option would do what then ?

How do you tell it which subset of folders you want to choose from?

How do you tell it how many folders you want it to pick from ?

You need to consider these things.

[MarcGuay]

It seems to me like making a random playlist of all the files on the player, which Rockbox can already do, and then turning it off when you've had enough or setting the sleep timer to do it for you is close enough, no?

[GodEater]

That's what I think too - but clearly others feel differently. What I can't see though is an easy way to bring this into the UI to do exactly what they want...

[Llorean]

I can.

Two options: One determines whether the sleep timer causes shutdown, or just stop (or always make it just stop, and trust in the idle timeout to shutdown the player). The second allows the sleep timer to be set in "number of tracks" rather than "number of minutes" (assuming we don't already have that, I don't use it).

Then, you just queue/insert all the tracks you want it to select from, shuffle them, and set your sleep timer.

[GodEater]

I don't even think you need the "shutdown in a certain number of tracks" - most people can work out how long they want to listen to music for I would have thought.

[Llorean]

Yeah, time does make more sense, but there's actually a fairly solid argument for having it stop at a track end (the discontinuity of music being cut off mid-note can wake you if you're not entirely asleep, while letting a song end naturally can be less disruptive) so either a set number of tracks, or "when a time is set, have an option to wait until track end after that time is up" might make sense.

[Zardoz]

ahhh you crazy people. how is this explained

[GodEater]

Pardon?

[BdN3504]

I think i under stand what he wants.
Imagine you have a list like this on your player that looks like this (each entry represents one album):

Code: [Select]

94 Sekt - On Rêve
113 - 113 Degrés
113 - Dans L'urgence
113 - Les Princes de La Ville
213 - The Hard Way
A Taste of Honey - A Taste of Honey
A Tribe Called Quest - Anthology
A Tribe Called Quest - Hits Rarities and Remixes
A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm*
A. Keys - Diary
Aaliyah - Age Ain't Nothing But A Number*
Aaliyah - I Care 4 U
Aaliyah - One In A Million
Aceyalone - A Book Of Human Language
Aceyalone - Accepted Eclectic 2001
Aceyalone - All Balls Don't Bounce
Aceyalone - Lost Tapes
Aceyalone - Love and Hate
Aceyalone - Magnificent City
Adès - Chasse a L'homme*
Aebersold - Vol 009 - Woody Shaw
Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth
Aesop Rock - Fast Cars Danger Fire And Knives
Aesop Rock - Float
Aesop Rock - Labor Days
Aesop Rock - Music For Earthworms
Africa Bambaataa and Family - The Light
Afro Celt Sound System - Seed
Afro Cuban Allstars - A Toda Cuba le Gusta
Afu-Ra - Body Of The Life Force
Afu-Ra - Life Force Radio
Afu-Ra - State of the art
AG - The Dirty Version*
Aimee Mann - I'm With Stupid*
Aimee Mann - Lost in Space
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
Air - 10 000 Hz Legend*
Air - Everybody Hertz
Air - Moon Safari*
Air - Premiers Symptomes
Air - Surfing On A Rocket EP
Air - Talkie Walkie*
Air & Alessandro Baricco - City Reading
Akhenaton - Black Album
Akhenaton - Double Chill Burger
Akhenaton - Electro Cypher
Akhenaton - Métèque et Mat*
Akhenaton - Sol Invictus
Akhenaton - Soldats de Fortune
Akinyele - Aktapuss
Akinyele - Anakonda*
Akinyele - Live At The Barbecue
Akinyele - Vagina Diner*
2 Pac - 2Pacalypse Now
2 Pac - All Eyes On Me
2 Pac - Better Dayz*
2 Pac - Black Jesuz
2 Pac - Classic Collection Vol.1
2 Pac - Heart Of A Thug... A Ghetto Gospel
2 Pac - In His Own Words
2 Pac - Loyal To The Game
2 Pac - Makaveli & Mussolini - Closest Road Doggz*
2 Pac - Me Against The World
2 Pac - Mix Em Up Mixtape Vol. 1*
2 Pac - Nu-Mixx Klazzics
2 Pac - R U Still Down
2 Pac - Resurrection*
2 Pac - Still I Rise*
2for5 - Broke Minds Think Alike
3rd Bass - The Cactus Album
7L & Esoteric - Dangerous Connection*
7L & Esoteric - DC2 - Bars of Death
7L & Esoteric - Moment Of Rarities
7L & Esoteric - Soul Purpose*
7L & Esoteric - Speaking Real Words EP
7L & Esoteric - Warning Dangerous Exclusives
8Ball - Lost
8Ball & MJG - Comin' Out Hard
8Ball & MJG - In Our Lifetime*
8Ball & MJG - Living Legends
8Ball & MJG - On Top of The World*
8Ball & MJG - Space Age 4 Eva
8Ball & MJG - The Remix Album
9th Wonder - The Dream Merchant Vol. 1
9th Wonder & Buckshot - Chemistry
9th Wonder vs Chops - 9th Year Freshman Mixtape
16 Horsepower - Hoarse
16 Horsepower - Low Estate*
16 Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n' Ashes
24-Carat Black - Ghetto Misfortune's Wealth
50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
50 Cent - Guess Who's Back
50 Cent - Guess Who's Back Again*
50 Cent - Power Of The Dollar*
50 Cent - The Massacre
choose marked dirs*

Now the implementation should look something like this:
you have a new entry somewhere in the main menu which has the name 'create a semi random playlist' or something alike. if you choose that option you will be asked to enter a number from 1-1000. the plugin first checks, how many albums there are on the player and then makes suggestions. In our case, we have around 100 albums so the suggestion would be between 1 and 50. after having specified this number, the plugin only looks into 50 folders on the player.

then it generates a random number which determines which folders to leave out (haven't figured that part out).

then you specify the number of songs you want to have in your playlist.

the plugin now looks into the list of 50 directories it has picked out and adds all the tracks up.

if the number of the tracks you want to have in your playlist is greater than the number of the added up tracks, you receive an error and have to input a smaller value.

then you define a number of max files you want to have from one directory.

and then you're done. But i think this is rather complicated, is that sleeptimer after a set number of tracks already available, or was that just a proposal?

[Zardoz]

And this "add to playlist" option would do what then ?

How do you tell it which subset of folders you want to choose from?

How do you tell it how many folders you want it to pick from ?

You need to consider these things.

I put the suggestion on a feature request on flyspray once.

Ok I'm imagining a separate option in the context menu. (under New Playlist perhaps) Say it's 'create playlist'. options might be 'number of tracks' from 'folders A to Z'

[GodEater]

you have a new entry somewhere in the main menu which has the name 'create a semi random playlist' or something alike. if you choose that option you will be asked to enter a number from 1-1000. the plugin first checks, how many albums there are on the player and then makes suggestions. In our case, we have around 100 albums so the suggestion would be between 1 and 50. after having specified this number, the plugin only looks into 50 folders on the player.

Why 1000, is this some completely arbitrary number you've come up with, or was there a reason for it ?
How does the player know how many albums there are on the player? Are you getting this information from the database? Because just because you and I organise our folder structure in terms of Albums, doesn't mean everyone else does.

In your example, where does the "between 1 and 50" come into it? I don't understand that either. Why not "between 1 and 75" or "1 and 5" ?

if the number of the tracks you want to have in your playlist is greater than the number of the added up tracks, you receive an error and have to input a smaller value.

This is just dreadful UI design.

then you define a number of max files you want to have from one directory.

As is this.

and then you're done. But i think this is rather complicated, is that sleeptimer after a set number of tracks already available, or was that just a proposal?

I don't know - I've never used the sleeptimer - but I suspect it's not implemented yet.

Options might be 'number of tracks' from 'folders A to Z'

I think you need to consider more strongly not what the options "might be" to "what they definitely should be".

"Folders A-Z"? So you mean "all folders on the player" then? In which case, how is this different from just creating a random playlist in the manner Llorean and I originally described, which is a feature that's been in Rockbox for aeons?

[BdN3504]

[...]1000[...]completely arbitrary number[...] How does the player know how many albums there are on the player? Are you getting this information from the database?

->is that impossible?

In your example, where does the "between 1 and 50" come into it? I don't understand that either. Why not "between 1 and 75" or "1 and 5" ?

i thought you divide the number of albums by half... but you can go for any number. it should just be smaller than the number of albums there actually are on the player. this goes along with some

dreadful UI design.

again

I don't know - I've never used the sleeptimer - but I suspect it's not implemented yet.

I think that's a good feature. Implement that in the current build! New option menu looks like this: System-> Sleep Timer

• Set time (in minutes)
• Set number of tracks

[GodEater]

->is that impossible?

No, but then this feature *depends* on using the database, which not all users do. For example - I don't.

i thought you divide the number of albums by half...

Why just half? Why not some other fraction?

[Zardoz]

I don't use the database either. This suggestion has nothing to do with the database. I was imagining an option to create a playlist from the playlist menu. suboptions might be 'number of tracks'  'include all' or 'specify'