pCD 1.5 - CD-audio player

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Sylvander · #91 Post by **Sylvander** » Tue 23 Jun 2009, 10:51

I like the "Autoplay" feature; if I don't want a disk to autoplay I just hold the [Shift] key while the disk is being detected after closing the drawer.

ecomoney · #92 Post by **ecomoney** » Tue 23 Jun 2009, 11:13

If a person inserts an Audio CD, its a pretty fair bet they either wish to either play it or rip it to the Hard Drive, or why else insert it? As Puppy is a Distro that should be "friendly to linux newbies", then should it not also "assume no prior linux knowledge"?.

Having the ability to (easily) switch this behavior off (by use of a tick box in the dialogue that appears when an audio CD is inserted perhaps) could be a feature.

A very simple text based mockup of a possible gui dialogue....

Code: Select all


                         Puppy CD Manager
                         -----------------------

                 O      Copy CD to HD with.......[Dropdown]
               
                 *       Play CD with..................... .[Dropdown]

                 O      Make a copy of this CD
            
                            [X]      Dont show this again 

        [    Cancel      ]                       [          OK          ]

The dialogue would store the users preferences (which apps to use) and whether to show itself upon inserting a CD at all. The dropdowns could detect common ripping/playing programs (with pCD as failsafe default) perhaps by employing the bash "which" command..i.e

which mplayer
which gxine
which beepMP

..etc

My users (none of whom are computer professionals or enthusiasts) tell me that it is difficult to work oput how to play a CD using puppy. Could PCD make the necessary changes to the event manager via its options dialogue, and the dialogue above, to enable this to happen?

disciple · #93 Post by **disciple** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 08:40

If a person inserts an Audio CD, its a pretty fair bet they either wish to either play it or rip it to the Hard Drive, or why else insert it?

Actually, normally when I insert a disc I want to do something with it, but not immediately. Don't ask me why

The (windows) users I am talking about who want to be in control of their computer aren't enthusiasts or IT people... but I guess a lot of them are people like engineers, for whom the computer is a tool.

My users (none of whom are computer professionals or enthusiasts) tell me that it is difficult to work oput how to play a CD using puppy.

It might be less automated than recent versions of Windows, but I can't see how it can be difficult - Puppy's menu is actually sorted into logical categories, and CD playing only makes sense in the multimedia menu, so surely anyone who can read would find it there easily?
Also, the most recent Puppy I downloaded has desktop drive icons, which automatically launch gxine to play CDs when you click on them - has that been dropped or something?

Could PCD make the necessary changes to the event manager via its options dialogue, and the dialogue above, to enable this to happen?

The event manager could do with a bit of an overhaul to improve things like you suggest, but I think Zigbert is right and it should definitely be separate. The user should be able to choose what programs it calls. Go ahead and package us an upgrade for it

[/b]

disciple · #94 Post by **disciple** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 08:47

if I don't want a disk to autoplay I just hold the [Shift] key while the disk is being detected after closing the drawer.

Now that sounds like a feature that is "difficult to work out". It is impossible to work out - you have to be told. Or do they have a tooltip or something to tell you?

Sylvander · #95 Post by **Sylvander** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 09:58

Way back in Xmas 1996 my son gave me a present of "Windows 95 for dummies".

I made a list on paper of all such features of Win95 [they generally apply to later Windows versions also].
Still have it within arms reach of the PC.
Says page 251 has the info on this.
The book is also within arms reach, and page 251 does indeed have this info.

I imagine the Windows Help system would tell of this.

Asked at the biggest/best bookstore in Edinburgh for a book on Puppy Linux and the assistant knew nothing of any such thing.

ecomoney · #96 Post by **ecomoney** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 13:32

We have *confidence* with computers....something no doubt weve got from being linux users.

Windows users, and Windows "refugees", dont possess this inner I.T. confidence...most are scared stiff they will "break" the computers, and of course that would be their fault not Micro$ofts. How could this shiney happy Micro$oft company produce something of such low quality and unreliability? It must be them who is "not very good with computers" - hence their cycle of low computer self esteem, low expectations continues....

(strange though....If they buy a car however they are more then willing to blame Ford for the failure)

The Multimedia menu is full of strange names...Many "Linux newbs" just dont have the confidence to try new things...they want the computer to automatically "do the right thing" for them....and not "break" in the process.

Of course this would all sound amazing to the average Linux Guru who wrote BASH before breakfast every day, and would have the skills to actually implement this feature. But then theyve used linux for years....

I had better put a request in "usability" in the next puppy development section....and keep my fingers crossed....it would be much easier on Barry if the code for it was already developed and tested though.

trapster · #97 Post by **trapster** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 16:28

Do "Windows newbs" know what's in the Windows menu until they click on it??

What the hell is notepad, wordpad, Outlook express ?????
Did anyone starting Windows know what they were?

ecomoney · #98 Post by **ecomoney** » Wed 24 Jun 2009, 17:47

Yes but those names are familiar to them now...Linux is the unfamiliar one.

Notepad and Wordpad are fairly self explainitory names. They represent real world concepts that are already familiar to the non-computer literate user.

disciple · #99 Post by **disciple** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 06:53

"Microsoft Office Excel 2003" isn't self explanatory... neither are most Windows programs. But the bad part is that you have to look for them in submenus without meaningful names... although in this case I guess "Microsoft Office" isn't too bad. My brothers complain because they can't find things in the menu... because they don't look. If they want to scan something they can just look in the logical category in the menu. In Windows on our machines they needed to know which programs were best to scan from, run one, and know how to get to the scanning dialogue in them

Yes but those names are familiar to them now...

So far being different from Windows is about the only real complaint I've had about Puppy

01micko · #100 Post by **01micko** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 11:23

"pCD"

Um, what would it mean? What could it mean?

Rob, I'm sure your puppy newbies are not idiots.

Do you poke a person in a Ford (new or old ) and the thing starts? No. You have to find the correct key, find the hole to poke it in, turn it in the right direction, adding the correct amount of gas, ensuring that the clutch is disengaged, or the transmission is in neutral, or, if it is automatic, the thing is in "P" (for park) or "N" (for neutral). It aint rocket science.

And, some more modern Fords, or whatever you like, are more complex. Some the handbrake must be engaged. Some you must apply the foot brake. Some you must enter a PIN. Some you must disarm the alarm. Some you must have your seatbelt on. All are different.

Education of any sort is gained, not given.

If, per chance, someone breaks puppy by trying to play a CD, then, it is easily reinstalled, as you know.

Does Puppy really need the overhead of automatic CD detection? I think our efforts would be better spent on other issues. A simple addition to the help files should help any newby play a CD. That's providing pCD is included in the next puppy by default (which I'm sure it will

)

Cheers.

Mick

Sylvander · #101 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 13:37

I'm a Puppy newbie.

Ecomoney is presenting a GIFT of some good ideas [POSITIVITY].
And all he gets is...
RESISTANCE to change.
RESISTANCE to ideas.

I think pCD is really nice.
But the whole system is not yet perfected.

e.g. With BoxPup running...
When I put an audio CD in the drawer of my player, and close the drawer....
The CD AUTO-PLAYS.
But unfortunately it's Xfmedia player that runs, not pCD.
To leave this as-is is not good enough.

As a newbie user I would like to see something like Ecomoney has proposed be brought about, and instead he gets...
NEGATIVITY AS A RESPONSE.

If this kind of reaction was universal throughout the world, there would be no progress.

trapster · #102 Post by **trapster** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 13:52

Sylvander wrote:

If this kind of reaction was universal throughout the world, there would be no progress.

That might not be a bad thing.

seeker · #103 Post by **seeker** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 14:26

01micko wrote: Does Puppy really need the overhead of automatic CD detection? I think our efforts would be better spent on other issues. A simple addition to the help files should help any newby play a CD.

This may be a little off topic but hasn't CD/DVD auto detection auto play already been addressed? Menu->Desktop->Desktop drive icons manager, click the Icon Handler tab, 'Tick box for auto launch handler when media plugged in' ? This is in 4.1.2. A quick search through the help file doesn't say anything about it though.

Sylvander · #104 Post by **Sylvander** » Thu 25 Jun 2009, 14:55

Anyone know how to make pCD autoplay rather than Xfmedia player?

disciple · #105 Post by **disciple** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 08:06

Ecomoney is presenting a GIFT of some good ideas [POSITIVITY].
And all he gets is...
RESISTANCE to change.
RESISTANCE to ideas.

No. Ecomoney hasn't got a volunteer to tidy up the event manager thing, but neither has he got resistance to change. He has got:
1. A suggestion that this should be a feature of the event manager, not pCD.
2. A discussion about whether or not the feature is a good idea.
3. A discussion about the logic behind his feature request.
None of these things are resistance. Personally I will welcome his patches to the event manager, even though I would disable this functionality myself. I do think if we're going to have an event manager we might as well have a proper one

Does Puppy really need the overhead of automatic CD detection?

No, but he already has it, as has already been pointed out

Anyone know how to make pCD autoplay rather than Xfmedia player?

Does boxpup use the standard puppy event management system?

Sylvander · #106 Post by **Sylvander** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 13:18

1. "Does boxpup use the standard puppy event management system?"
As a newbie, this is all unknown to me, but I did manage to find "Menu->System->Puppy event manager".
Don't see any way in there to make configuration changes so that pCD would autoplay rather than Xfmedia player.

aragon · #107 Post by **aragon** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 13:47

please look at the picture below. that's the event-manager (version in 4.10).

activate both items might do the trick.

aragon

Sylvander · #108 Post by **Sylvander** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 16:11

Both of those boxes are already ticked.

seeker · #109 Post by **seeker** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 17:45

my guess would be to edit /usr/local/bin/defaultmediaplayer like this

Code: Select all

 #!/bin/sh
#exec gxineshell "$@"
exec pCD "$@"

Don't really know till you try.

aragon · #110 Post by **aragon** » Fri 26 Jun 2009, 19:32

yes but 4.2 has also defaultmusicplayer (maybe defaultaudioplayer) which is set to pmusic i think.

aragon

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pCD 1.5 - CD-audio player