Is there a method to be able to highlight current playing track in media library?

[Nightryde]

Is there a method to be able to highlight current playing track in media library?

I am using Winamp 5.61; with a classic or modern style skin, I am not seeing highlighting for the current playing track in the media library. It would be nice to see this, as I don't really use the playlist.

Is there a setting to do this? a plugin? or any other method?

[DrO]

there's no way to do it - has been requested a few times but nothing has ever come off it (not sure even if adding it in would be a good idea as it'd probably lead to some people believing the ml is more like iTunes / WMP than it actually is).

-daz

[Nightryde]

Thanks for the quick response!

I personally have been using Winamp media library sort of like iTunes / WMP shortly after media library came out. Though it makes me cringe comparing Winamp to these media players :)

>> "lead to some people believing the ml is more like iTunes / WMP than it actually is"

This can be interpreted as such: software is being developed not from user requests and usability desires, but more from a perspective of telling the users what they should be doing and how they should be using the software.

Winamp has a lot of settings, why not add a setting and see if people like it? We already know a few people have requested it. Do plugins have access to the API to be able to make this change?

BTW, the primary reason I do love Winamp so much is because it has let me be able to customize it so much. I use a unique way to store my music library and play it back in Winamp. A lot of the features have been turned off, yet features like media library is highly dependent.

[DrO]

what i meant by that is that the Winamp ML is no more than an additional plug-in unlike iTunes / WMP where it's generally ML-centric and adding in a current song highlight to the ML plug-in could be viewed as it being what it isn't and i can see people complaining the ML removed their playlist more so than already happens.

as for adding an extra option, personally i think there's too many options in the prefs / it's not as well laid out as it could and should be and adding options isn't a good solution for most things.

there is no api to do such a thing short of manually going in and hacking things at the lower levels and would it just have to be the ml_local derived views to follow it or anything in the ML which might show the currently playing song - that would be the hardest of things to get any of the 3rd party plug-ins updated to follow it (let alone it being done in the official plug-ins).

i think the ML should just be left as is and let it manage media rather than being hacked into doing something just because other players have blurred the level of distinction. but, i'm not the person who needs to be convinced to add such a feature so my view doesn't matter anyway ;)

i'm not trying to knock the idea but since it's been mentioned ever since the ML was added to 2.9x it's been asked and no one over any of the differing stages of dev team have thought it appropriate it seems.

-daz

[Nightryde]

as for adding an extra option, personally i think there's too many options in the prefs / it's not as well laid out as it could and should be and adding options isn't a good solution for most things.

I kind of agree with this. I mean I dont care for myself, thought I do find myself scrambling around to find an option sometimes. But from the average end user stand point of view, there are too many options and too confusing. It wouldn't be a bad idea to consider something like what VLC media player does. Which has an advanced and simple view for the config. Also something like what Mozilla Firefox (when you type about:config in the address bar) does, or same as uTorrent (and many other software)--to move some of the advanced features into this "UI."

but since it's been mentioned ever since the ML was added to 2.9x it's been asked and no one over any of the differing stages of dev team have thought it appropriate it seems.


But doesn't this lead back to what I said about driving the software from an end user perspective rather than telling the users how they should use the software?

In regards about keeping the media library as separate plugin / having too many settings. There is a section for the media library where it would be a perfect fit: Media Library \ Appearance. and if the advanced ui thing is implemented, it could be placed there.

[Voirin]

I have been waiting for this feature for a long time! I always have ML set to 'local media' and just play from that entire list. For me there is no point in using the PE for this reason, aside from the progress bar. But i like ML's visible search facility. So always split between ML and PE. Yeah i know about PE's 'J' search key - but still...

[Nightryde]

Does ClassicPro (http://www.winamp.com/plugin/classicpro-v1-1/221722) do this?