Random track selection

[philden]

I periodically ponder the random play options in Rockbox. When I use an iPod in original firmware, I do like the option to easily shuffle all songs.

There are options in Rockbox to select 'Random' from the Database 'Artist', 'Album' menus, and others, but not from 'Track'. As far as I can see, the current random play options involve making a non-random playlist, and then shuffling it. That is why to 'shuffle all songs', you first need to make a playlist of all the songs, and then shuffle it. This becomes unwieldy with a large library, and is limited by the maximum playlist size.

I would be happy with the ability to make a random selection of <1,000 songs from the library. I doubt that I would ever get close to playing that number of songs before I next alter the library and would make a new list.

So, I'm wondering if it would be possible to add a random playlist generator of some sort?

Thanks!

[philden]

Adding some more information, as I've been devising a workaround to make the random playlist externally, using a Mac.

I currently organize my music for Rockbox in a dedicated iTunes library, then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the music to the iPod (after removing embedded art and replacing with suitably sized cover.bmp files). So I found a way of making a random playlist in iTunes.

1. Make a SmartPlaylist to select a suitable number of songs, less than the Rockbox limit. This is a random selection, but listed in a sorted order. I could put this is Rockbox and then shuffle, but instead:

2. Make a second SmartPlaylist by random selection from the first, with the same number of songs.

3. Export as m3u

4. Put in a text editor and globally replace the file paths to match those on the iPod.

5. Copy to iPod and load into Rockbox.