[vlc-devel] Re: [RFC] Preferences system

[Derk-Jan Hartman]

On 27 sep 2004, at 19:27, Clément Stenac wrote:
> VLC rulez, but VLC preferences suxx.
>
> The main problem is that you need to be a VLC and audio/video guru to
> find what you are searching.

Man are you right here !!! :)

> I see two reasons to that
> The main idea is to organize them thematically.
>
> Here is a first preview of the proposed organization
> ----------------------------------------

This is very much along the lines of what i was thinking.

> The most important is that we mustn't be focused on how vlc works
> internally so we mustn't use the capabilities.The most important is 
> that
> we mustn't be focused on how vlc works internally so we mustn't use the
> capabilities.
>
> So to do this, we would have to add a "category" property to each
> module. This way, we don't get modules that we want only once twice
> (like wxwindows in intf+dialogs provider).
>
> For the libvlc part, preferences will be sorted by 
> category/subcategory.
>
> Example for aout :
>
> set_category( "Audio" )
> set_subcategory( "General")
> add_bool("audio")
> add_integer("volume")
> add_integer("rate")
> set_subcategory( "Audio output" )
> add_module( "aout")
> set_subcategory( "Audio filter(s)" )
> add_string( "audio-filter" ) <-- will become something like 
> add_module_list
>
> And aout modules will declare
> set_category( "Audio" )
> set_subcategory( "Audio output" )
>
> and will appear at the right place in the tree.
>
> Each category and subcategory must have a complete help string (in
> vlc_help.h).
>
> Of course, the given code snippet is a sample, it might be better to 
> use
> an Id for category/subcategory and have all of them listed in a central
> place.

Something centralized might be a good idea yes. So we can keep an 
overview as well.
What is important though is this:

How do you visually represent this? Will you throw all the "audio 
filter" options in one dialog? How will users then see what is related 
to what? for instance i'm thinking about all the video overlay plugins 
we have now with all their positioning information...

Perhaps we should add something like a separator or a title line when 
we switch from options of one plugin to visually separate and order 
stuff.

DJ

---
Universiteit Twente
Derk-Jan Hartman (d.hartman at student.utwente dot nl)
http://home.student.utwente.nl/d.hartman

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