From: Martin Borus <mborus_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 21:50:52 +0100

On 12/11/05, Ray Lambert <listlizard_at_interthingy.net> wrote:
>
> Martin, I read the thread you referenced and I understand a little better
> now what you're trying to accomplish.


...

At the moment, the only method I can think of to do what you're asking for
> is some variation on the loop that you described earlier. The problem with
> this method is that it would be fairly difficult to do with limited
> resources on the rockbox. Implementing that on a PC would be much easier,
> as you would have much more memory to work with (and virtual memory to
> boot). You could simply cache the contents of each referenced playlist in
> memory and track what the next song to be selected is. It would not be
> possible to implement it this way on the rockbox though.


I can understand that. Of course, it's much easier to get this done on a PC
(this is what I got as comments when I suggested
that in 2002). But in many situations, a PC is just not available.


> I have come up with a method however, that might work and might be fairly
> easy enough to implement. The concept involves the creation of 'groups',
> which are essentially temporary sub-playlists with contents selected from
> one or more sources. These would be stored in temporary files and the next
> song to be selected is tracked using a file offset. Doing this with disk
> files is, of course, a bit slower, but I suspect that's a price that you
> wouldn't mind paying to get this functionality.


Everything I asked for in my original request from 2002 should be possible.

Comments:

- groups that are shuffled should re-shuffle, once every track has been
played.(This is probably only important for the top hits folder or
a folder filled with promotional messages/jingles)

- I did not understand why you dropped the "shuffle" from the "select"
command. It would allow to grab a random tune without using the groups
structure. Useful in case someone doesn't care about keeping track of played
tracks or grabs from a very large playlist where repeats are unlikely. Or
for those who think the group concept is a bit too much :)

- if you can do "auto-cleanup", also try "auto-restart" so that in case the
playlist is played in full a new list can be created on the fly for non-stop
music.

...

 So, what do you think about that?
>

I'm really happy with this and look forward to testing it once it becomes
available.

Martin
Received on 2005-12-11