After reading the forum I can only conclude that the Middle pane is not without pain.
For me, that middle pane is exactly the reason, why I (as a mac user) decided to stick to Itunes. Although I certainly hoped that Native Amarok for Mac would come true. Amarok team, thanks for that I will keep my eyes on Amarok, and will wait until the moment comes that my problems with Amarok are solved.

The current Amarok version for Mac, is still Beta but I miss features. How do I set my playlist at repeat? Been looking and noticed that on Mac a bunch of Icons in the top bar too the right of the play button is missing, will they come there? Currently the only way to repeat my list is by using the menu option. A button would be usefull.

That middle pane, kills me. I am not looking for gadgets that I can turn of/off in the middle of the screen. What I liked about amarok, was my collection to the left, the playlist too the right. This is not: because I do not realize I need something in the middle. I simply do not need a gadget that fetches lyrics, shows the bpm etc. I am sure there are many others like me.
A simple on/off switch for the middle pane would make a lot of people happy, I think. I read on the blog posting, that the developers are aware of the fact that people have problems with that pane in the middle, lets hope, they will make it possible to remove it.

Then I will re-install Amarok.

And for the people that think Amarok starts to look like Itunes...far from it. Itunes sucks at collection management, playlist management etc. It however doesn't use 33% of the screen for things I don't need.

But Amarok Developers, thanks I use the v1.4 with pleasure.

Usability of the Context View (middle pane) will be much improved in 2.1. We have implemented a panel-like system that makes it much more pleasant to use.

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/859 ... pt.-1.html

Mark Kretschmann wrote:Usability of the Context View (middle pane) will be much improved in 2.1. We have implemented a panel-like system that makes it much more pleasant to use.

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/859 ... pt.-1.html

Thanks for the answer I believe I did not make it clear enough, but I (emphasis on myself) have no need for anything in the middle. Just a playlist/album list will do. As such, that middle pane, for me is a real pain. When 2.1 also has the option,  remove pane, that would be great. After all, not everyone is in to plasmoids and other features. For me Amarok is just a good MP3 player.

Thanks

Mark Kretschmann wrote:Usability of the Context View (middle pane) will be much improved in 2.1. We have implemented a panel-like system that makes it much more pleasant to use.

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/859 ... pt.-1.html

Ok, but will users be able to hide middle pane at all? - it's not clear for me. It is really required by users.

Valentin.Pavlyuchenko wrote:

Mark Kretschmann wrote:Usability of the Context View (middle pane) will be much improved in 2.1. We have implemented a panel-like system that makes it much more pleasant to use.

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/859 ... pt.-1.html

Ok, but will users be able to hide middle pane at all? - it's not clear for me. It is really required by users.

You can already hide this pane (by dragging it), but we developers find it one of the defining features of Amarok 2, and as such we don't see it as a good thing to do this.

I fully understand that this is a matter of taste, and I accept your views, but please also accept our opinions

Mark Kretschmann wrote:
You can already hide this pane (by dragging it), but we developers find it one of the defining features of Amarok 2, and as such we don't see it as a good thing to do this.

I fully understand that this is a matter of taste, and I accept your views, but please also accept our opinions

Thank you for your answer. I fully understand and accept your opinions.

Idiot's question: how to drag it? Just in the main window? I cannot (Amarok trunk).

See  this picture:

http://www.binaryelysium.com/images/Amarok_drag_cv.png

and this one

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/uploads/almostoldschool.png

The second image is only doable in amarok SVN, the playlist layout editing feature will appear in 2.1.

The middle pane is possibly usefull or nice while playing, but not while managing playlists or music collections, and I don't get kilometer allowance fpr my mouse. So I want it to be out of my way.

I can imagine having a minimize button, being able to move the pane to either side and to even detach each applet.

BTW and while I'm at it: The applet selection menu is limited to four entries, while the screen has enough room to offer all applets, the scroll arrows indicate the end of the list by not working, and there is no information about the applets. The applets cannot be resized or moved, therefore they have the wrong size unless they display (mostly) static content. That's not my idea of usability.

Ramblurr wrote:See  this picture:

http://www.binaryelysium.com/images/Amarok_drag_cv.png

and this one

http://amarok.kde.org/blog/uploads/almostoldschool.png

The second image is only doable in amarok SVN, the playlist layout editing feature will appear in 2.1.

Thank you! Just for information - it's hard to find this feature! It disappears only when moving (for example) right panel almost to the left corner - not the thing I have tried when wanted to hide middle pane (using Amarok 2 for few month).

Also when the middle pane is hidden and you resize the playlist you can unhide it while you don't wan't to unhide.

Maybe you just make a checkbox or menu item somewhere instead of?
Just my opinion.

(Maybe this is possible already, but if so, I didn't find it yet and I did search)

First of all, after a good month of trying amarok 2.0 is working for me. It took some getting used to and sure, it needs to grow a bit but I'm liking it so far.

But the middle panel.. I agree, it is a bit much. I see the value (the lyrics), but I want to focus on my music, so would prefer if it wasn't right in the middle. I hate dragging a song from my collection to the playlist over another screen (which changes when you select a song, a bit annoying IMO). Can you make it possible to put "the middle screen" on the left?

annvan wrote:Can you make it possible to put "the middle screen" on the left?

No, we do not intend to do this.

I do not like the concept of what I like to call "LEGO" applications, where the user shuffles around elements of the interface until the application works.

I've attached an image. Oh what a waste of space. My resolution 1400x1050.

Mark Kretschmann wrote:

annvan wrote:Can you make it possible to put "the middle screen" on the left?

No, we do not intend to do this.

I do not like the concept of what I like to call "LEGO" applications, where the user shuffles around elements of the interface until the application works.

In other words: I won't be able to make amarok 2 work for me.  I'll wait for amarok 3 then.

Use the KDE4 Bespin style and you'll get a button to toggle middle pane on/off and a better buttonbar, too.
Hover over the title to see more infos of the track playing or click on the grayscaled image on top-left to get the full-sized colored cover.
See screenshots for more infos.

Greetings
m0nk

Dieter Schroeder wrote:Use the KDE4 Bespin style and you'll get a button to toggle middle pane on/off and a better buttonbar, too.

A few words of warning: We have actually looked a bit at Bespin's source code the other day. The thing is like one _massive_ hack

This means: We will not be responsible for any crashes or weird behavior if using this style.