[asarhan]

first off, i'm new here, but i've managed to compile xbmc and i'm considering making a few changes to the way the music playlist works. i wanted to get everyone's feedback before proceeding and if everyone is happy, i would submit the changes as a patch.

- i'm considering making id3 tags load in a lazy fashion. right now when a playlist loads, it loads the id3 tags for every file before it displays the music playlist. for big playlists, this is very slow. i was thinking that id3 tags should be loaded before they are displayed. perhaps they should be loaded one or two pages at a time.

- the next two ideas are related. it appears that when a playlist is loaded, the files order is somewhat random. i don't think this is ideal. i think the order should be they way they are specified in the playlist file. i also propose making "shuffle" a toggle that shuffles the playlist when selected, and puts it back in the original order when not selected.

does anyone see any problems with making these changes?

[jmarshall]

hi there.

you are welcome to make any changes you wish - this is open source

as for your suggestions:

1. feel free to implement this. note that it should probably be done more globally to the music system. you'll find that onretrieve musicinfo() is where the tag reading is done. this is overridden in the various windows differently. playlists and songs are the areas you need to look at - all the others get their info from the database.

2. make sure your "sort by" method is setup correctly - not sure how playlists work as i don't use them, but i would think that the "sort by" options probably aren't necessary for playlists. instead, it should do as you say: display them in the order that they are in the playlist file, unless shuffled. note that the "shuttle on load" feature is already present.

let me know what progress you make.

cheers,
jonathan

[Hullebulle]

2.  make sure your "sort by" method is setup correctly - not sure how playlists work as i don't use them, but i would think that the "sort by" options probably aren't necessary for playlists.  instead, it should do as you say:  display them in the order that they are in the playlist file, unless shuffled.  note that the "shuttle on load" feature is already present.

even tho i don't use playlist either a sort by would make snse for me. could be the same as for fileview (by artist, by artist, by m3u order, random). just my 2 cents.