[Bug 58044] New: Noatun should be more task and not plugin-oriented

[Beat Fasel]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58044     
           Summary: Noatun should be more task and not plugin-oriented
           Product: noatun
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Debian testing
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kde-multimedia at kde.org
        ReportedBy: beat_fasel at yahoo.com


Version:           2.2.1 (using KDE KDE 3.1.1)
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages
OS:          Linux

Plugins are a very nice way from the programming point of few to allow at the same time for modularization and extensibility. I think it is a very good thing, that Noatun uses plugins extensively. 
However, pure users are mostly not interrested in how the underlying project is interconnected or implemented. They often prefer an integrated solution, respectively, a task and problem oriented interface. I think that Noatun exposes too much of the underlying implementation. This can be seen of how all plugins are nicely grouped in the preferences - nice from the engineering point of view. However, this leads to a plugin-, instead of a task-oriented interface. 
Interface plugins, playlist plugins visualization plugins and other plugins are all grouped together in the preferences. However, all these plugins are not very much related with each other and can lead to confusion for a user which is not _used_ to the program. 

Therefore I propose a more task-oriented presentation of the underlying plugins architecture. Maybe a solution would be not to group all possible plugins together but allow for independent Interface, Playlist, Visualization etc categories. Also, I would not separate K-Joffel /Winamp Skins into an own category, as they is also part of the Interface. So why not put them there as well even though K-Jofol /Win skins are not plugins themelves. However, a user probably doesn't really grasp the difference between plugin and skin sections. So the Skins are more closely related to the different interface plugins and should be put into the same category. Also, the skin sections are dynamic and appear only if they their corresponding plugin is activated. This is also confusing.

Futhermore, visualization plugins are special, because they are not really part of the main interface and may be changed or disabled more frequently, so why place them into the preferences, instead of putting them for direct access in the menu or the context menu of the main interface?

Proposed Preferences menu:

General
Interfaces
Playlist
Other Plugins

Both K-Jofol skins and Winskins sub-menu in the Interfaces category of the preferences.
Layout of main menu or context menu:

Open
Quit
Help
--------
Equalizer
Audio Effects
Visualizations
Actions

Thanks!
Beat