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BTN_NEXTALPHA / BTN_PREVALPHA

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wwwombat:
More a question for Chris as to how the BTN_NEXTALPHA and BTN_PREVALPHA buttons work.

Empirically it seems that if I use these buttons then I do land towards the start of the next / previous letter but invariably there's a few artists that also start with that letter on the previous page (which I happen to know so go looking for them).

It seems that a predetermined number of pages for the skin are assigned at startup and the first page that has the first strip starting with that letter is what is selected as the starting page for that letter.

As an example to illustrate what I'm seeing... Let's say my miniscule playlist consist of 26 songs with artists starting with "A" and 24 songs with artists starting with B. I then try to display these 50 songs 10 at a time and the first page of 10 fills with "A" artists... if I then press BTN_NEXTALPHA then instead of going to page 3 (song 27 being the first "B" artist even though the first song strip (21) starts with an "A") I appear instead to go to page 4 (which is the first page that has a strip that STARTS with a "B" artist).

Is this how it works and is there a possibility of reworking it (or at least providing a flag to do so if preferred) to really land on the page that contains an artist starting with that letter?

I do understand that if I don't have enough artist songs to fill a page (i.e. "X" has only 5 songs and so the remainder of the page are filled with "Y" artists) that the program would recognise this and a BTN_NEXTALPHA would therefore take you to "Z" (since I view it as you being on both a X and a Y page initially)

Other than that I'm ecstatic with what I'm seeing so far (I just want to tweak a few points)... I'm gradually compiling my song list and the cabinet to match is coming along well.

dibb1er:
wow, you have 5 "X" songs?   :o

i've only got 2! ;D

anyway... I, like everyone else, get the same "first page with [letter] as first strip" thing, and personally, I dont mind.

but, if it were to be implemented, i dont think i would be complaining 

Chris:

--- Quote from: wwwombat on November 03, 2007, 02:37:14 am ---More a question for Chris as to how the BTN_NEXTALPHA and BTN_PREVALPHA buttons work.

Empirically it seems that if I use these buttons then I do land towards the start of the next / previous letter but invariably there's a few artists that also start with that letter on the previous page (which I happen to know so go looking for them).

It seems that a predetermined number of pages for the skin are assigned at startup and the first page that has the first strip starting with that letter is what is selected as the starting page for that letter.

--- End quote ---
Yes, this is a known shortcoming of NEXTALPHA/PREVALPHA.  Unfortunately, i have not found a good solution.  The jukebox is meant to simulate a mechanical jukebox so I am reluctant to "slide" the new artists onto the page (and as you noted it would take a complete reworking of the way pages are allocated), and if it goes to the first page with any artists of that letter it looks like it went to the wrong page.  I almost didn't release the feature for that reason.  However, paging through large collections was difficult without it.

I guess the best solution is to implement all three behaviors and allow the user to select the lesser of three evils in jukebox.ini.

--Chris

wwwombat:
Aahh... don't get rid of it!! You're right, it's a godsend for navigating through large collections.

Personally I can live with "if it goes to the first page with any artists of that letter it looks like it went to the wrong page" since that's preferable in my eyes (so I'd be esctatic if a future switch could govern that or be made the default behaviour) but, in the meantime, I'm glad it's confirmed the behaviour is a result of a concious decision and not a bug.

Whilst "nice" I wouldn't worry about "sliding" the new artists into a page...apart from the recoding, it goes against the grain of the "old look" skins which you would of course assume to be mechanically locked in place.  :)

wwwombat:
And, to draw an analogy, if someone were to give me an Encylopaedia or Dictionary as a Christmas present (sucks I know but at least it's better than socks 'n' jocks) then if said tome were tagged (remember how Bibles, dictionaries and such used to have indents on the spine of the pages?) so I could immediately go to all words starting with WI then I would expect to go to the first page containing a word beginning with wi (wick?)... I would not expect to be taken to the first page with the first word that starts with wi (widgeon in the dictionary in front of me).

The fact that the first word on the page starts with WH (wholesome) would not throw me... I know the alphabet and can scan forward through the page to find the WI's. Landing on the "Widgeon" page and having to turn back a page is counter-intuitive though (not much more manual effort I grant you...)

A telephone directory would be structured on the same principle.

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