[mpris] Playlist extension

[Bertrand Lorentz]

Hi,

Some background first : I'm a Banshee developer (http://banshee.fm),
and I implemented the MPRIS v2 support in Banshee.

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Alex Merry <kde at randomguy3.me.uk> wrote:
> On 29/10/10 02:40, Conor Curran wrote:
>>
>> So by dynamic playlist what do we mean exactly ?
>>
>
> In Amarok's case, this is a playlist of limited length (typically 10-15
> tracks) where the current track is usually the 5th.  As playback progresses,
> the first item in the playlist is discarded, and a new track is added to the
> end (randomly chosen according to some criteria).
>
> I suppose the important attribute is that it changes automatically,
> generally when the track changes, in such a way that it will keep playing
> forever.

In Banshee we have two different things that could qualify as "dynamic
playlists" :
- Smart playlists, which are defined by a set of search criteria. For
example : "not played during the past week"
- The play queue, which can be filled manually by the user, or
automatically according to some criteria. In the second case, tracks
are added automatically, so it will keep playing forever.

In our case, I think the definition of a dynamic playlist can be quite
tricky : a smart playlist will not keep playing forever, but its
content might change from use to another. The play queue might be
static or dynamic, depending on its current setting.

For Connor's use case, I think displaying the playlist's name and
potentially an icon should be enough information for the user to
choose a playlist.

So I'd be in favor of keeping things simple, as they are in the
current proposal :
- a playlist is a set of tracks, without any assumption as to how the
set is determined
- you can list the available playlists
- you can start playing a playlist.

-- 
Bertrand Lorentz