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

[Beat Fasel]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58044     




------- Additional Comments From beat_fasel at yahoo.com  2003-05-04 01:49 -------
> IMO, this bug ignores the fact that noatun is *not* just an audio player. And must I  
Well, this is true, you are right. Maybe there should an audio and a video interface? I mean if you 
are listening to an audio-file you will get another interface than when watching a movie. However, if 
you want just one interface that can do it all, watch movies from disk, DVDs and listeing to audio, 
then you can easly get a bloatware interface like the one of MS, see further below. 
 
> explicitly mention that imitating MS style bloatware is out of question? 
I didn't say that I like MS Mediaplayer. On the contrary. However, Noatun can be improved 
interface-vise, no? 
 
> OTOH, plugins are task oriented. I think the reporter is contradicting himself a little.  
> That's exactly why there is such a thing as plugin: each plugin adds a different function  
> to the program. 
I don't agree entirely. Plugins are used for _code_ extensibility. Of course they can add a certain 
functionality, however, so does a skin, which is no code, but just pixmaps. I'm not against plugins, 
on the contrary, however, I don't think that centralizing all plugins in the prefecens menu is intuitive 
and straight forward from the _user_ point of view. E.g. playlist plugins and visualization plugins 
really have nothing in common from the usage point of view. 
 
>>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.  
  
> As you can see this is complete non-sense.  
>  All he's saying is "I'm not used to this interface so I want my winamp interface"  
No, that's not what I meant. You can get used to almost any conditions. Look at people who grow 
up in war zones or people who live countries with dictatorships. Most get used to these extreme 
conditions and survive. Ok, I exaggerate here a bit of course :-). I mean you can get used to how 
to interact with Noatun, however, I don't think the interface feels natural or convenient when 
compared to other players. Of course there is always getting-used-to involved, but there are better 
and worse interface layouts. 
  
> If one wants better interfaces to choosing among visualizations or UIs or else that is  
> doable without breaking plugin logic. 
The aim - of course - would not be to break the underlying plugin approach, but to present it 
different to the user. 
 
> There is no fundamental mistake about  
> categorization of plugins or the way they are represented in the preferences. 
Here I don't agree with you. Don't think of how you implemented it, but ask users who have no clue 
about how to use a certain program and the learn from this. Micro$oft and Apple do interface 
studies, costs tons of money we don't have at disposition, so why not learn from them (the good 
parts, well,  I would neither like an M$ Mediaplayer clone). 
Or what about putting online a survey and let the users vote from a list what they would like to see 
in a Mediaplayer? This post could maybe be hosted directly on the main page of KDE 
(http://www.kde.org).  
 
Cheers! 
Beat