Bespin, was: Bespin on k-c-d

[Dan Meltzer]

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Thomas Lübking <thomas.luebking at web.de> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I'd like to take this over here then, as it's merely unrelated to k-c-d.
>
>
> Ok, as the window layout is already configurable, the remaining item (regarding
> bespins runtime patches) are the genreal UI desktop integration and especially
> the MainToolbar.
>
> ---
>
> 1st off as a technical detail, i want to point out that there is a way to use
> the style for custom widgets / elements and KStyle has convenience functions
> for this.
> So it is possible to rely on the widget style to paint things and use a custom
> fallback in case the style doesn't support this element.
>
> ---
>
> 2nd:
> what bothered me (and apparently others) most was the alien look (the amarok
> svn skin)
> This might be the default way on windows and a do understand the branding
> aspect in this, but it makes things unconsistent.
> If one wants to go with skinning, that's ok, but it should be complete, i.e.
> cover the entire application and dedicated customizable, as this is the main
> point about skinning.
>
> 3rd: i attached a screenshot of what amarok currently lools on my desktop, as
> i will likely refer to this now and in the future, so you maybe should have
> seen it.
> I modified the svg skin, paint a gradient on the background of the main
> toolbar, forced native slider painting and replaced the volume slider with a
> dial.
> The dash on the right side toggles the minimode (i.e. hides the data section,
> shrinks the window horizontally and verticall and tunrs into a "+")

It sounds to me like you need to write yourself an audio player, this
is one hell of a bastardization that is going to confuse the hell out
of anyone that ends up with it (and anyone that tries to support
it)...
>
> ---
>
> Some thoughts, explanations:
>
> I admit a strong preference for inverted elements, but on the toolbar it
> seemed even more reasonable as it introduces a visual split between the data
> section (local music, filebrowser, playlist) and the interaction section (user
> I/O)
>
> The info label was added above the position slider mostly because of the gap.
> imho one can very well make use of the titlebar for this info, but due to the
> gap it's pretty disconnected from the rest of the UI and therefore not
> realized as part of it.
> On the other hand i took the opportunity to make use of the 4th dimension to
> show information in a comprehensive way (the label fades between artist, title
> & runtime) - this can be done on the titlebar as well (well, minus the fading)
>
> I dropped (ie.e QWidget::hide() the right side time label as i saw few reason
> for this, as
> a) the remaining time can be estimated from the current time and the runtime
> b) the label  toggles timing direction on click anyway.
>
> In fact, i would preferably use a dynamic and more integrated info section
> anyway.
> In particular separate the input from the output, that is:
> Display time/progress & some track info (+analyzer output, but i don't know
> about the stage of this in phonon) unless the user enters the section with the
> pointer, then fade out the information and fade in the input elements
> (prefv/playpaase/stop/next, a slider rather than a progress indicator, the
> volume slider, elements to rate and bookmark on the current track)
>
> Regards,
> Thomas
>
>
>
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