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List:       amarok
Subject:    Re: Absolutely awesome plasmoid idea: the playlist itself
From:       "Jud Craft" <craftjml () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-12-22 1:26:39
Message-ID: 20d6441a0812211726v12a5477erb71882a25fb94bc2 () mail ! gmail ! com
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Well, it's worth noting that not all customizability is complex; or
perhaps, complexity can possibly be made more intuitive.

For example, if I give you an interface that has several rectangles on
it, and say "You can choose a color for any rectangle", that's not too
complicated.  Compare to this:  you have several different regions of
the window, and you can choose a task for each one.

So here's an idea to bring some cohesion to the plasmoid organization:
 perhaps in addition to the four customizable plasmoid pages, there
would be plasmoid pages would be devoted to a certain task; the
collection page, the playlist page, etc.  You can set any pane/view to
any page, at any time.  And there are special "Task" pages:
Collection, Playlist, Service, etc.

This gets around the "breaking the system" problem of missing
essential plasmoids:  a "task" page has a required plasmoid, while the
Customizable ones do not.  For example, a Playlist page must always
have a playlist plasmoid.

It must be trivially easy to switch page types, and quick:  better
than the "left/right" switch to go between the customizable pages.
For example, a button (similar to the Add Plasmoid button) could popup
a list of tasks (Collection, Playlist, Service, Custom), similar to
how the Add Plasmoid pops up a list of plasmoids to choose from.

(For something even more noticeable, take how when you drag a song to
the Plasmoid area, giant icons with common tasks ("Add to Playlist",
"Load", "Get Related Songs") appear.  Perhaps each pane can have a
Task button that will pop up a similar menu with the different types:
"Playlist", "Collection", service types, etc.)

In addition to setting a task, you could then add additional plasmoids
to a page (which would require good resizing).  For example, I could
turn my panel on the right into a Playlist Page, and a Playlist
plasmoid would be automatically added.  Then I could add a Song Info
plasmoid to it.  The benefits of this approach are that you could have
a dynamic two-pane setup:  I could have a Collection Page on the left
page containing a collection plasmoid, and a Playlist page on the
right pane containing a playlist and the Song Info plasmoid.

But at any moment, with the flick of the Task button, I could turn
switch the right pane into a Collection Page as well, and then manage
my collection with a true split-pane layout.  At any time, I could
flip that back to my Playlist page.


For this, each pane becomes a view onto a particular Plasmoid page.
This is comparable to how Aaron Seigo eventually wants
Plasma-workspace to function:  the ability to have several different
views that each support a certain activity.

The difference is, with Workspace, you can only have one view at a
time open.  Perhaps with Amarok's view panes, you could have two (or
three!) different views at once, each supporting a different Task.
(There could even be a CD burning Task.  In fact, an extension could,
in addition to creating a custom Plasmoid, also create a Task page to
go with that Plasmoid).

Mismanaged, this whole plasmoid ruckus could become hugely
complicated, no doubt.  Just thought I'd push out some more
brainstorming.
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