coverflow for amarok 2

[Michael Pujos]

Ian Monroe wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 3:13 PM, Michael Pujos <pujos.michael at laposte.net> wrote:
>   
>> Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen wrote:
>>  >   While we are aware of CoverFlow, we are also aware of the inherent
>>  > uselessness of the concept... We do, however, recognise the potential
>>  > usefulness of eyecandy, and so we set out to figure out a way of making
>>  > CoverFlow itself useful. What we came up with was the CD Stack idea. Please
>>  > check out the KDE Summer of Code page[2] for more information on this :)
>>  >
>>  > [2] http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Summer_of_Code/2008/Ideas#Amarok
>>  >
>>  >
>>
>>  Wow this CD stack idea looks even less useful than a traditional coverflow.
>>     
>
> CD stack is basically just a variation of the collection browser in
> 3-D eyecandyness. I use the collection browser all the time, it's
> useful.
>
> I don't know what coverflow is for though. Maybe its good for
> illiterate people or something.
>   

I've written a coverflow component for foobar2000 
(foo_bubble_cover_flow) so I'll share my experiences with it

I wrote it not because I found that terribly useful but because users 
wanted it and it seemed like cool project.
Users like that kind of stuff because it exposes their album art, and 
some of them knows their
covers very well. And I don't even talk about vinyl junkies :).

Bound to the collection or a subset of the collection (or a playlist if 
you support several playlist which is not the case of Amarok), you can 
use the coverflow in some useful ways:

- shift+click on a cover -> add to playlist
- double-click on a cover -> play/pause
- contextual menu on a cover can bring the context menu of related album 
tracks to some operation on them
- In fullscreen it can be the basis of a simplified interface (jukebox, etc)
- you can configure it with just 1 cover, in that case you have a simple 
album art panel for free
- you can do a pure 2D mode very easily

Everything taken into account, I agree it is not an essential component 
but users more or less expect it.