Sept. 11 @ 1:21 p.m. 2008
A nice fellow emailed and asked me if I could post a monthly (possibly weekly) roundup on Exaile 0.3 so that people can follow what's going on. It sounded like a good idea to me, so here's the first one.
We've pretty much ironed out the storage details, and gotten playback/playlists figured out. What we have now is a fully functioning media player. The things that are still missing are:
We've pretty much ironed out the storage details, and gotten playback/playlists figured out. What we have now is a fully functioning media player. The things that are still missing are:
- Preferences dialog of some sort. We haven't even started on this, however, I feel that the one in 0.2 was pretty well written and could probably be used.
- Cover art manager
- Lyrics manager
- Device manager plugins (for things like Ipods, other mp3 devices)
- Visualizations
- Rating system
That sounds great, that's faster progress than I was expecting.
I was wondering on the status of the tag manager/editing? (If it's not done yet I'd suggest looking to TagTool http://pwp.netcabo.pt/paol/tagtool/ side-pane type thing as it's easy to use just my opinion).
Good job !
It's not just the device manager plugins mind you. There's a lot of common infrastructure there that needs doing, plus the entire UI for it. The plugins themselves are a relatively small part of the system.
I think its a great idea to release the first alpha and 0.2.14 at the same time. This will provide one last interim release for normal users, and adventurous ones will finally have a way to easily test and contribute to 0.3 (or even to just use it really). I could even perhaps set up a PPA which would constantly rebuild from bzr, to make it even easier for users to keep testing.
@Ezekiel000: I don't think the side-pane model makes sense in an exaile context. I would say to, at least for now, stick with our current exfalso-esque editor, or perhaps add a simpler editor and have the current one available through an 'advanced' button.
A bzr daily build just to play with would be great.
The side-pane from TagTool was not as important as just making it simpler to use like TagTool for single and multiple files (and rename would be nice but again not as important).
How's performance?
It's a wonderfull idea. I can't wait for the next release. Great work !
Will there be crossfading in 0.3 ?
Why don't you put these reports on the exaile website instead?
@Ezekiel ah I see. I would support making a simpler editor available, but I wouldn't consider it critical for 0.3 itself. Could you file a request on launchpad so we can keep track of this?
@ingo no, but the new player backend should make adding this feature much easier. 0.3 will however have experimental support for gapless playback.
If this 0.3 can speed things up with my 30,000+ files collection and it flawlessly supports replaygain then I finally can switch from Amarok to Exaile :-)
i hope that tabbed playlist & stop button will remain in the next release. those features are not available on other gnome media player (rhythmbox & banshee), which the main reason this player become my primary audio player.
in addition, i hope the interface for tag editor will be easier to use (less steps to add tag)
the missing feature in exaile that makes amarok still the one and only player for the most is file management (see itunes as example)... if the devs could implement filemanagement into exaile i bet my wife (she's a real beauty and makes wonderful food) exail will be THE player-reference ever...
just my 2 ct...
Great news.
I'm really looking forward for PPA to test the 0.3 stuff. I use 0.2 on a daily basis as my favorite music player and it rocks.
Thanks for all your efforts.
cheers!
screnshot plz
@bang Currently, Exaile 0.3 looks no different than Exaile 0.2.x
Can we implement a conversion program into Exaile, like sound converter? Also, I don't really use the playlists tab, but I have no way to get rid of it. It's just there. Perhaps checkboxes in preferences to list what sort of tabs to show/hide.
I guess a system like Firefox could be added that if you only have one playlist there are no tabs but if there is more that one the tabs are shown but this would work better if the information tab was moved to the side-pane. Just a thought I don't know what goes on behind the scene so I don't know if this is possible.
I think a conversion program is outside the scope of Exaile unless it was an option when importing into the library in that it would convert the selected files then save them in your selected directory for the media library. A bit like importing a cd into exaile.
Thank you guys for this great player. Cant wait for new release :)
can we expect 0.3 to have the "no folder.jpg" error fixed?
also: gapless playback maybe??
@azwan - stop button and tabs are staying, no worries. a simpler tag editor is not planned for 0.3.0 but is possible for .1 or later.
@haruspexed - this is something I do plan to implement during the 0.3 series, though it likely won't make it into .0
@Matt - that would be easy to do, as internally we already have a converter which is used for CD ripping and (eventually) transcode on transferring to devices. Adding a menu option and dialog for conversion could be done easily, but will probably not be in .0 and would likely end up as a plugin.
@redox rick - the cover system is completely redone, so hopefully none of those old errors will exist. there will be experimental support for gapless playback, but until playbin2 is stabilized upstream its unlikely to work perfectly.
Will it depend on python-2.5 or will it run with python 2.4 too?
currently it is 2.5-only, and unless there is significant demand for 2.4 support likely to stay that way.
I've been on and off Exaile for years now, and since the new Banshee came out, there's a few things that I think Exaile could use to really make a dent amongst the Gnome players, and Amarok (I've written about these on the forums and elsewhere). These are mainly related to podcast management.
A few things Amarok has that are VERY useful, are missing in other Gnome players, and I would love to see in Exaile:
In the podcasts list, the ability to categorize/group podcasts by adding folders. In Amarok, I can create folders under the Podcast directory in Playlists. This means I can group my News podcasts under a News folder, my Politics podcasts under a Podcasts, folder, my Tech podcasts under etc. etc. Furthermore, I can update a category by right-clicking the folder and refreshing just that folder -- very, very handy. It looks like this would be possible in Exaile, but right now there's no option from the tools, and if you right-click Podcasts, you only get Add Feed, Refresh Feed, and Delete Feed.
Keep the ability to chose what directory podcasts are saved to, but add the ability to associate a track from a feed with a downloaded file. Amarok doesn't handle all enclosures quite right; if you try to download any feeds from NBC/MSNBC, you run into problems (every file has the same name). Sometimes a refresh will bring down multiple instances of the same file, sometimes it won't show a feed in the right order. These arent' issues with Rhythmbox or Banshee, and I can't tell with the current Exaile because it says I've downloaded something, but the track is never actually there, and some feeds never actually add, they're just perpetually fetching. (I don't know what's up with that.) Because Amarok handles my device better than anything yet mis-handles certain feeds, this means I have to download a podcast via Banshee, associate it with Amarok, and then use Amarok to transfer to my device. Doable, but annoying. However, the fact that I can make Amarok use the same directory as Banshee and associate a track in a podcast feed with a downloaded file makes this all possible. It's some of the flexibility that keeps me on Amarok, but I would love to see/have in a Gnome app. For instance, I just added a feed that I have in Amarok to Exaile; I already downloaded some files, and rather than re-download them in Exaile, I'd rather just associate them with the local file -- or, better yet, have Exaile just recognize that the file is there and automatically associate it. THAT would be cool.
Break podcasts out from the Radio tab into its own tab, or re-organize the two into something like Online Content.
Please let me choose if I want to open information, etc. in another tab. It doesn't take long before I have 8 tabs open, and I'm just going through a couple tracks. Tabs could be useful with the above-mentioned categorized folders -- i.e. click on a folder for, say, "Tech" and a tab opens with all the tech feeds.
That's all for now. I still have no clue why I can download a podcast in Exaile, but it never actually arrives. Seems like that should just work.
@J - it sounds like you have some great ideas for revamping the podcasts system, could you please file a launchpad bug for those features? It would also be great if you could include the feed links for several of these corner cases in your report, so we can ensure they work right.
still, the only reason that keeps me from using exaile (as well as any other gtk-player) instead of amarok, is this anoying various artists-issue, because of which my library extends to an amount i cannot possibly overview.
which kinda sucks, because even though amarok is a really great player (despite the fact that you are doing great work as well maybe still the best there is) and i have no major issues with it, i'd still like to keep my gnome-system kde-lib free..
so, have you implemented such an 'show under various artists'-option to v. 0.2.14 yet? and when will it by any chance be released?
@bunghole - we are implementing basic support for the albumartist tag in 0.3, it's too invasive a change for 0.2.14.
Sweet!!!
Any early timeframe for this?
I only ask because my exaile has broken on my system (won't play internet radio :( )
I think it is because I have bumped a lib (sqlite on gentoo) and its api is different - plan to look
Will Exaile3 be aimed at python3?
@Naib - there will be an alpha in early October, and release either late this year or early next year. It is designed to run on python2.5, there are currently no plans to move to python3.
As for the radio issue, take a look at this thread: http://www.exaile.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=333
@Aren
damn, i'm so looking forward to v0.3 :D
oh, and i just found out that the blacklist-option basically does the trick for me. not as elegant though, but blacklisting the various artists within the collection and using the integrated file manager to access them works fine.
so, keep the good work coming! :)
Aren, please let me know what you mean by feedlinks for corner cases, and I'll file the bug on launchpad.
Aren, please let me know what you mean by feedlinks for corner cases, and I'll file the bug on launchpad.
@J - you mentioned in your post that certain feeds caused more problems than others, those are what I was referring to.
About to add the bug report -- a number of those feeds that don't work quite right are a problem for Amarok, not Banshee or Rhythmbox. I honestly can't say for Exaile, because frankly, if I add a feed I usually don't see any episodes, and if I do, they never download.
I've added the bug report, along with some enhancements for radio streams. The bug report is located at https://bugs.launchpad.net/exaile/+bug/276025.
I'm terribly new to exaile and I just wanted to add that I've fallen in love.
If I have a child before my fickle tastes divert my attention, I shall name it Stanley Exailius K, Jr.
-s
I really like Exaile looking fwd to the next release. Just wondering if the equalizer will be fixed in 0.2.14? As I understand it, there was an API change in GStreamer that causes it not to work.
Thanks for the great app.