Hello,

I am just checking out Amarok 2.0 via the Neon builds. It looks great, and I can see there are many improvements. But while I like the idea of having applets, I find it very strange that the applet pane is squeezing in between the collection and the playlist. The previous version of Amarok did it very logical: first you select a song and in the second pane you see your selection. And I would like to use the third pane to see info about the song that is playing. That seems to me the most logical order:
1. pane/view: complete collection
2. pane/view: current playlist
3. pane/view: current song of video (and the applets that show the information)

I have tried to change the order of the panes, but I didn't figure out how to do this. Did I overlook the option or isn't it build in yet? Or maybe it isnt going to happen? If so, why not? Why the illogical order of the panes? What is the idea behind this order?

Thanks!

No, this isn't going to happen. Right from the beginning of Amarok 2 design we've planned that the context information should go in the middle, as we think the information there belongs in the center of the view. Additionally this layout looks neat.

Also, you won't be able to reorder the panes. However, you can hide the context view by dragging it to the left.

This is a big disappointment   Amarok rocks a little less now. Why aren't you allowing the users to tweak the program to their likings? Because it looks neat? To me it looks very illogical. Please reconsider!

Marko wrote:Why aren't you allowing the users to tweak the program to their likings? Because it looks neat? To me it looks very illogical. Please reconsider!

Thats the way Amarok goes.... it seems it was taken over by GNOME 

I really hope reordering will be possible, I've tried nightly and I'm too used and too fond of amarok 1s layout.

Actually this seems to be the way KDE4 goes (with Dolphin being a nice exception). It's disappointing because the reason I chose KDE over GNOME was the GNOME attitude that the designers always seemed to know exactly what was best for the user. But I have not given up hope yet. I think either the developers will make *their* design so stunningly usable that nobody will want it differently or we will see the comeback of UI configuration options eventually.

I guess I'd be more happy if KDE4 as a whole had concentrated on all the background stuff and new features first before introducing a new (and less functional) UI. But then again I'm not a developer and shouldn't complain. For now there is still KDE 3.5 and I hope someday KDE4 will really rock!

Tobias

I would like to go a bit furter

I want floating windows panes and the to choose wich to be floated.

you cant tell from screenshots but the gui is actually more efficient this way even know the collection and playlist are on opposite sides of the app

when you start to drag a collection item it overlays several thing to drag it on to in the context pane such as add to playlist and one that clears the playlist and then adds it.

I'm sure Amarok 2 will eventually rock, but I'm not ready to give up on 1.x yet.

Personally I too think the current (1.x) layout is much better. The context pane is not that important at least for me as to take most of the interface space. Glad to know it can be hidden, although 1.x's way of having it on a tab works best for me.

I think as Amarok more as a background application, i.e. I dont spend that much time looking at it while music plays. I want an easy way to find what I want to listen to, add it and click play. 1.x does that best. I already know what I'm listening to as to not require my music playing app to give me more info that often. 2.x seems to move that way, adding extra meta-data which I think are good to have (although since I listen to many local artists there is not that much of meta data for them), but not that important as to base the whole application around it.

Mostly when I bring amarok up is because I want to check the playlist and advance a couple of songs or something.

Anyway, I surely wish Amarok 2 will let users decide how they want it to work, but I guess that's up to the devs...

I agree with Mr. Zammler, without Tabbing instead of three column design, with the possibility to move the buttons where they belong (i. e. beyond the playlist) and to turn off all this annoying visual feedback i'll stick with 1.4. If there will be real lyrics support for Exaile the days of amarok on my computer are counted anyways.

I would second this.

My Bugreport (though it might be the 10th) was rejected with wontfix. http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172653

The context view is a fine thing. And yes, it might be true that it looks great in the middle. Though it looks better, it just lacks usability.

Unfortunately, on the bugreport I didn't get a reply on whether you amarok guys think this way (with context in the middle) is a more comfortable and usable way on creating playlists. (As this app is still about)

Nikolaj Hald Nielsen stated that I could use the drop-targets. But those targets do not have the full ability of the playlist. Or in other words, if they would have, we don't need a playlist anymore. To expand the my thought on those drop-targets: As I don't know the position of those targets before dragging from the collection, I have to aim at the targets as soon as they become visible. So dragging directly to the playlist (and knowing the target before starting to drag) or trying to aim at the targets is equally the same work. So the drop-targets don't have a real enhancement expect that they are "cool" or look "neat".

So, having it the way "collection -> playlist -> playback information" is much more comfortable and useable. Especially with trackpads on notebooks, as you don't have move the selected tracks from the collection right over the context-view to finally place it in the playlist. And now please don't mention the drop-targets again...

Please, guys, don't take it personally: Having the context-view by any means in the middle, is just a failed approach on beeing cool and revulutionary.

So please reconsider your thoughts about that in regard to usability and provide an option to rearrange the columns.

Greetings,
Karsten