gtkpod-devel — gtkpod development issues

[Gtkpod-devel] why does gtkpod read full files when adding to playlist?

[Nicola F. <nic...@va...>]

hi

why does gtkpod read full files when adding to playlist? I tried to
disable MD5 hashing (sort of), but it did not help.

I have my music on a samba share and it is quite inconvenient to see
that gtkpod actually reads the files twice (once when adding to playlist
and once when syncing with ipod).

regards
nicola

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] Re: How to use wave files with gtkpod?

[Nicola F. <nic...@va...>]

hi

On Fri, 2003-11-07 at 14:41, Jorg Schuler wrote:
> gtkpod cannot do it. There don't seem to be too many people interested
> in using wav files...

after having listened to some good mp3 files I know why - the iPod just
sounds too good! :)

> > I found out right now that flac >= 1.1.0 (at least 1.0.2 doesn't) seems
> > to support vorbis-like comments - so this should be the correct way to
> > go (without forgetting a hack for not-so-clean id3 tags :).
> 
> I'm sorry -- I'm not sure I'm getting your point here.

sorry, my line of thought was actually a bit confusing, I must admit.

so, let me try again: FLAC is a lossless audio compressor. It supports
ogg-vorbis-like tags for storing metadata. gtkpod could use this
information for the iTunes DB and transparently uncompress FLAC files to
store them on the iPod as WAVE files. 

> I have no idea about the structure of a wav-file, and whether TAGs can
> be stored in them or not.

WAVE files can contain cue-lists, which in turn can contain an embedded
file.

But as a fast research on the net did not show any relevant software
being capable of tagging wave files nor anybody seemingly to use (or
even want) embedded files to tag wave files, this idea does not need to
be followed up.

> As for gtkpod: I'm currently defining some kind of interface that
> allows adding support to new formats to gtkpod more easily. Have a
> look at the notes at the start of mp4file.c.

I will have a look at it.

> I don't think we should start designing ways to store metadata into
> wav files if a standard does not already exists. Instead I would
> prefer to improve and customize the interpretation of the filename.

I don't disagree, this will surely not hurt overall usability.

FLAC support would be great because 
a) it's a great way of archiving lossless audio (1:2 compression)
and b) it supports natively storing metadata (vorbis-style).

Workflow would be like this:

A) archive music
1. use grip (or another software) to rip cds to wave files
2. configure grip to compress file with FLAC
3. configure grip to save CDDB data to the metadata container of the
FLAC file

B) transfer music from archive to iPod
1. gtkpod reads metadata (CDDB data) from FLAC file and updates
iTunesDB.
2. at export time, gtkpod uncompresses FLAC file transparently to the
iPod as WAV file.

Please, correct me if this somehow contradicts how gtkpod currently
handles things (the "manual" is not too clear about things :)...

So, maybe I'll have a look at this interface and hack something to
support FLAC.

regards
nicola

[Gtkpod-devel] Re: How to use wave files with gtkpod?

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

Hi Nicola,

> I googled around, read the manuals of gtkpod etc. - but only ephpod
> seems to be able to import WAV to my iPod (though I did not yet try
> gnupod, maybe it will work).

gtkpod cannot do it. There don't seem to be too many people interested
in using wav files...

> Still, there is another thing: I have encoded many files with grip to
> flac lossless format, and grip has added id3 tags in front of them
> (which is sort of illegal AFAIK considering the flac header
> specification - altough xmms flac plugin doesn't complain, neither does
> command line flac decompression and the files are ok after
> decompression, no garbage).
> 
> I found out right now that flac >= 1.1.0 (at least 1.0.2 doesn't) seems
> to support vorbis-like comments - so this should be the correct way to
> go (without forgetting a hack for not-so-clean id3 tags :).

I'm sorry -- I'm not sure I'm getting your point here.

> So having id3-like tags in wav files is quite interesting, because then
> there is no guessing needed for the import in the iPod.
> 
> Still, there need to be found some way to store metadata in a wave file
> - does anybody know a tool for linux which allows editing of metadata in
> wave files?
> 
> Are there already any plans doing something like this for gtkpod? If
> not, some pointer to the source would be nice, in case I'd try to hack
> around a bit on gtkpod... :)

I have no idea about the structure of a wav-file, and whether TAGs can
be stored in them or not.

As for gtkpod: I'm currently defining some kind of interface that
allows adding support to new formats to gtkpod more easily. Have a
look at the notes at the start of mp4file.c.

I don't think we should start designing ways to store metadata into
wav files if a standard does not already exists. Instead I would
prefer to improve and customize the interpretation of the filename.

Cheers,


JCS.

[Gtkpod-devel] How to use wave files with gtkpod?

[Nicola F. <nic...@va...>]

Hello list

I googled around, read the manuals of gtkpod etc. - but only ephpod
seems to be able to import WAV to my iPod (though I did not yet try
gnupod, maybe it will work).

Still, there is another thing: I have encoded many files with grip to
flac lossless format, and grip has added id3 tags in front of them
(which is sort of illegal AFAIK considering the flac header
specification - altough xmms flac plugin doesn't complain, neither does
command line flac decompression and the files are ok after
decompression, no garbage).

I found out right now that flac >= 1.1.0 (at least 1.0.2 doesn't) seems
to support vorbis-like comments - so this should be the correct way to
go (without forgetting a hack for not-so-clean id3 tags :).

So having id3-like tags in wav files is quite interesting, because then
there is no guessing needed for the import in the iPod.

Still, there need to be found some way to store metadata in a wave file
- does anybody know a tool for linux which allows editing of metadata in
wave files?

Are there already any plans doing something like this for gtkpod? If
not, some pointer to the source would be nice, in case I'd try to hack
around a bit on gtkpod... :)

regards
nicola

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] filenames on the ipod

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 01:18:21PM +0200, Jorg Schuler wrote:
> > Is there any particular reason why gtkposXXXX.mp3 are used for
> > filenames on the ipod?
>=20
> Yes.
>=20
> > Itunes just uses "<tracknum> - <trackname>.mp3".  Should gtkpod
> > do the same?
>=20
> If you manage to make legal filenames out of the trackname no matter what
> locale is being used... In my opinion this will just cause trouble.

But any filenames written to the ipod must match those in the
itunesdb, right?  Doesn't that mean using utf16? =20

Ths reason I suggested changing this to apple's method was that
the gnome-vfs ipod module shows the actual filenames (for example
if you point nautilus at ipod://). =20
--=20
sam clegg
:: sa...@su... :: http://superduper.net/ :: PGP : D91EE369=20
$superduper: .signature,v 1.13 2003/06/17 10:29:24 sam Exp $

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] filenames on the ipod

[Jorg S. <jor...@gm...>]

> Is there any particular reason why gtkposXXXX.mp3 are used for
> filenames on the ipod?

Yes.

> Itunes just uses "<tracknum> - <trackname>.mp3".  Should gtkpod
> do the same?

If you manage to make legal filenames out of the trackname no matter what
locale is being used... In my opinion this will just cause trouble.

Cheers,


JCS.

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[Gtkpod-devel] filenames on the ipod

[Sam C. <sa...@su...>]

Is there any particular reason why gtkposXXXX.mp3 are used for
filenames on the ipod?

Itunes just uses "<tracknum> - <trackname>.mp3".  Should gtkpod
do the same?
--=20
sam clegg
:: sa...@su... :: http://superduper.net/ :: PGP : D91EE369=20
$superduper: .signature,v 1.13 2003/06/17 10:29:24 sam Exp $

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] Re: cleanups

[Sam C. <sa...@su...>]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2003 at 12:27:31AM +0900, Jorg Schuler wrote:
> What is $id$? If it's useful, yes. I'd like to keep the timestamp (set
> by emacs automatically), however.

It tells you puts the filename and CVS version into each file
so you know what version you are looking at when you open the
file.  Its a good thing... I will add it and leave you TimeStamps
as well.

> I'm glad enough if people (including me) write comments at all... Feel
> free to transform them into a common format. It may encourage people
> to use the same format.

Great... I think you gave me commit access to CVS didn't you?
I may commit a lot of stuff tonight.

sam
--=20
sam clegg
:: sa...@su... :: http://superduper.net/ :: PGP : D91EE369=20
$superduper: .signature,v 1.13 2003/06/17 10:29:24 sam Exp $

[Gtkpod-devel] Re: cleanups

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2003 at 03:16:55PM +0100, Sam Clegg wrote:
> Hi guys..
> 
> I just finished my MSc and so I now have more time to play
> with my iPod.

Congratulations!

> I would like to make some superficial but widespread changes to
> gtkpod to make it simpler to navigate.  I'll number them so
> we can discuss them separately.
> 
> 1: I'd like to add $id$ to every source file in the header. 

What is $id$? If it's useful, yes. I'd like to keep the timestamp (set
by emacs automatically), however.

> 2: I'd like to make the global naming cleaner and more modular.
> I've started with playlists.  My new playlists.h looks like this:
> 
> void      pl_create_mpl         ();
> Playlist* pl_add_new            (gchar *plname, gint position);
> void      pl_free               (Playlist *playlist);
> Playlist* pl_add_playlist       (Playlist *plitem, gint ylist *playlist, gint pos);
> void      pl_remove             (Playlist *playlist);
> void      pl_remove_all         ();
> 
> Note the indentation, naming conventions and shorter function
> names.  I have these changes made locally and can commit them if
> nobody objects.

I've been trying to work toward a more consistent naming convention
but didn't push it too hard. So I would welcome your effort. The
identation is a matter of taste, I guess. Why not :-)

> 3: I'd like to convert function comments to a common format.
> For example the javadoc style:
> 
> /**
>  * bar is a function
>  * @param foo is a foo arg
>  * @returns some value
>  */

I'm glad enough if people (including me) write comments at all... Feel
free to transform them into a common format. It may encourage people
to use the same format.

> 4: I'd like to start using "track" rather than "song" whereever
> possible.  I think this makes for sense.

I've been doing that every time I ran across "song" in displayed
text. So it would only be consistent to change the function names
too. Sounds good to me.

Cheers,


JCS.

[Gtkpod-devel] cleanups

[Sam C. <sa...@su...>]

Hi guys..

I just finished my MSc and so I now have more time to play
with my iPod.

I would like to make some superficial but widespread changes to
gtkpod to make it simpler to navigate.  I'll number them so
we can discuss them separately.

1: I'd like to add $id$ to every source file in the header.=20

2: I'd like to make the global naming cleaner and more modular.
I've started with playlists.  My new playlists.h looks like this:

void      pl_create_mpl         ();
Playlist* pl_add_new            (gchar *plname, gint position);
void      pl_free               (Playlist *playlist);
Playlist* pl_add_playlist       (Playlist *plitem, gint ylist *playlist, gi=
nt pos);
void      pl_remove             (Playlist *playlist);
void      pl_remove_all         ();

Note the indentation, naming conventions and shorter function
names.  I have these changes made locally and can commit them if
nobody objects.

3: I'd like to convert function comments to a common format.
For example the javadoc style:

/**
 * bar is a function
 * @param foo is a foo arg
 * @returns some value
 */

4: I'd like to start using "track" rather than "song" whereever
possible.  I think this makes for sense.

Thats all I can think of for now..=20

sam
--=20
Sam clegg
:: sa...@su... :: http://superduper.net/ :: PGP : D91EE369=20
$superduper: .signature,v 1.13 2003/06/17 10:29:24 sam Exp $

[Gtkpod-devel] normalization support [patch]

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

this patch adds the normalization support to the latest cvs snapshot.
I decided to use mp3gain to add the normalization because it's a good
application (it's hopefully very stable and accurated) and it's both
opensource and freesoftware (it's released under LGPL).

mp3gain is used as an external application so you just need the binary
executable file (I have used the 1.4.2 backend version, don't complain about any
other version).

BEWARE!!
The normalization support is NOT release ready mainly because:
- I haven't found many distribution that ships mp3gain
(but this is not my fault ;-)
- It doesn't understand album-gain
- It doesn't let the user decide which songs has to be normalized
- the mp3gain pathfile is coded into the source
- gtkpod is freezed by the mp3gain execution (waitpid's fault)
- the code is full of FIXME that obviously needs to be fixed
- the code is not very clean
- it doesn't complain if mp3gain doesn't exists (or it's not executable)
in a proper way
- it doesn't warn the user that normalization IS a long operation
- normalize the newly inserted file doesn't work

BUT it does work :-) (*)

I'll first post a solution to all the problems I can solve
(BTW don't expect a "album-gain" solution very soon) then
I'll follow this path to complete the normalization's implementation in gtkpod:

the user can decide if:
1° automatically normalize on esportation 
2° normalize on request

the "auto-normalize" feature will have four level:
	1° no normalization
	2° normalize only the newly inserted songs
	3° normalize only the newly inserted songs and all
the songs that have 0 gain (default)
	4° normalize all the songs in the ipod

the new esportation process will be this:
first we have the normal exportation (upload all the
mp3file, update the iTunesDB, update the iTunesDB.ext)
then we run autonormalize
after normalization we re-sync the iTunesDB. in this
way we have a working iTunesDB even if normalization
fail.

normalize on request will have two menu function:
	normalize all the songs in the ipod
	normalize the newly inserted songs

obviously the "normalization level" and the mp3gain
pathfile will be customizable. I'm thinking about let the user decide
if he/she wants the "-s s" mp3gain's option.

help is welcome, please feel free to suggest any changes to the
"normalization's todo".

Cheers
	Edward
(*) gtkpod's normalization is working on my 10Gb iPod,
I have tested it on a 300Mb loopback device and it worked very well

[Gtkpod-devel] gtkpod-crashes

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

Hi Wim,

thanks for writing and letting us know (I copy this mail to
gtkpod-devel).

I tried to reproduce your error and succeeded -- but only
once... gtk complaining that the TreeModel changed without letting
the TreeView know... I have no idea so far.

Actually we have a free space indicator at the bottom of the gtkpod
window, which should be working better in the next release. Anyway,
it's not really easy to estimate the space the tracks will occupy on
the file system. That's why I won't bother to check before copying.

If not all songs fit on the iPod, copying will stop. You can then
delete songs until everything fits. Then you export again. No idea why
it segfaults sometimes... If you have more information, please let me
know.

We are working on a function that browses the ipod file system for
orphaned tracks and puts those into a playlist. That way you can at
least salvage the contents of the iPod. Should be implemented in
V0.53.

Cheers,


JCS.

On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 12:11:25PM +0200, jo...@cs... wrote:
> hello there!
> 
> thanks, for the great gtkpod software, worked out-of-the box for me
> 
> a comment: i tried to copy some dirs to the ipod, and then it reached 100%
> usage of /dev/sda2... silly me! i thought i was in trouble, and i tried to
> delete the last added directories... segfault!
> 
> completely worried, i restarted gtkpod, and it didn't show the last added
> directories in the imported playlist, allthough they are probably there
> (the files), since the filesystem is still 100% used according to df.
> 
> after disconnecting, the ipod work perfectly, no problem there.
> 
> it could be a good idea to check whether songs will fit on th ipod, so
> nobody will ever run into this kind of problem.
> 
> i hope this 'bugreport' is useful to you. again, thanks for the great
> software, and keep up the good work!
> 
> wim
> 

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] patch misbehaviour

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 16:22:43 +0200
Tamagucci wrote:
> the "not played" feature doesn't work
> please don't complain about this :-)
it doesn't work because I shouldn't phone while programming...

	Edward
ps patch should be applied on the patched cvs

[Gtkpod-devel] patch misbehaviour

[Tamagucci <tam...@fa...>]

the "not played" feature doesn't work
please don't complain about this :-)

	Edward
ps it doesn't accept "not played" song.

[Gtkpod-devel] gtkpod feature

[Tamagucci <tam...@fa...>]

miscellaneous playlist (most often played, best rated, last time played)
should be updated while adding and removing songs.

while generating a new misc playlist, the function should be able to remove 
the old playlist even if we changed songs nr.

	Edward

[Gtkpod-devel] user preferences for misc PL

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

this patch must be applied on the latest cvs, it let the user
decide how many songs can enter the miscellaneous pl and if
the "not played songs" can enter a Highest rated pl.

	Edward

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] gtkpod feature

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 19:17:49 +0900
Jorg wrote:

> I've got this request. Sounds crazy at first but seems to make more
> and more sense the longer I think about it... What do you think?
> 
> 
> JCS.
[snipped]

let's add it to the TODO after normalization :-)

	Edward

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] miscellaneous special playlists patch

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

what does no reply mean?
is everything ok? Are you searching for my home address to
let me know how much you loved your dear iPod before my patch
destroyed it?

	Edward
ps nextpatch adds user defined misc playlist's lenght
and an options to let the user decide if the non played song
must enter the "highest ranked" pl.

[Gtkpod-devel] pir@pir.net: gtkpod feature

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

I've got this request. Sounds crazy at first but seems to make more
and more sense the longer I think about it... What do you think?


JCS.
----- Forwarded message from Peter Radcliffe <pi...@pi...> -----
I've been using gtkpod with my new iPod and am generally happier with
it than anything else I've found to manipulate the contents of my iPod
- thanks for all the good work.

The only thing I am missing so far compared to the windows software it
shipped with is good display and manipulation of files that are not on
the iPod.

I realise you may feel that this falls outside of the realm of an
application designed to work on the iPod, but I find it easier
sometimes to select the files I want to add to the iPod in the same
way you select files to add to playlists - drag artists or albums
around - and the interface for this is already there. Musicmatch has
much poorer display of files that are currently on the iPod for
deletion or manipulation but it gives you a good structured display of
all your music on PC disk so you can easily choose what to add to the
iPod.

What I would suggest as a solution to my preference would be two sets
of playlists in the far left window; one that displays playlists (and
the special playlist 'Master-PL') for files that are on the iPod and a
second (with it's own special playlist) for files that are on PC
disk. You could then copy files, directories, playlists, etc, between
the two sections, do directory syncs, etc, all within the same
interface.

If there is already a way to achive this or similar, I'd be interested
in hearing about it but currently anything I add eventually ends up on
the list of things to export to the iPod which isn't always what I want.

Thanks,
Peter.

-- 
pir                pi...@pi...                 pi...@ne...


----- End forwarded message -----

[Gtkpod-devel] miscellaneous special playlists patch

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

here is a patch to implement most listened, most rated and
last listed top N playlist, please apply and test it.

Any comment and/or correction is welcome.

TODO:
Add a way to let the user decide how many songs
there must be in the playlist (it's better three different
options or one common?)

	Edward
ps next to come is iTunesDB rebuilding

[Gtkpod-devel] TODO

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

I thought I'll post a TODO list:

- playlist creation for orphaned tracks (Sam?)

- reconstruction of iPod contents after file system corruption
  (Edward?)

- replacement of libid3 with libid3tag

- volume normalization support

- miscellaneous special playlists (most recently listend, most
  listened, highest rank...) -> Edward

- upload text notes to iPod

- for genre (etc.) playlists: have confirmation dialogue before
  removing old playlists (Chris Cutler?)

- currently iTunesDB.ext uses iPodIDs to match data between
  iTunesDB.ext and iTunesDB. If another program (like ephpod) writes
  the iTunesDB the iPodIDs change and data cannot be matched any
  more -> allow to match data using the MD5 checksums to partially
  recover the extended information

- add more progress dialogues

Please feel free to submit further features.


BUGLIST:

- when updating songs the free space indicator gets smaller and
  smaller even no new songs are added

- when updating songs (add a large directory with sub dirs
  recursively) at end a requester pops up saying that it updated far
  more songs than are actually in the directories

- during a long operation (menues are blocked) the user can still edit
  the song data. This could potentially crash gtkpod -> need a way to
  block editing as well without blocking navigating.

Please add bugs as you find them.


JCS.

[Gtkpod-devel] Re: ipodlib...

[Jorg S. <Jor...@gm...>]

> > It's my feeling that trying to build a library out of itunesdb.c will
> > cause a lot of overhead. It seems more efficient if the program at
> > hand takes care of the representation itself. itunesdb.c itself can be
> > used in different programs quite easily. That's the reason why it's
> > under LGPL.
> 
> There may be several arguments for not using a library but
> efficiency really isn't one of them.  The overhead of using
> shared objects is really really really almost unmeasurable.  If
> this wasn't the case people would statically like stuff for speed 
> right?

I wasn't thinking about shared object overhead. More about the
additional layer we needed to introduce to make it neat.

> Regarding slow down, this depends entirely on the implementation.
> If you simply compile itunesdb.c as an so without modification
> you won't see *any* slowdown.  We interface can be at whatever
> level we want right?
> 
> If I ever have a bunch of time I might look into this again...
> but I don't right now so its all hot air.  Maybe it should go
> on the TODO?

Yes, there might be a way to make a lib without adding an additional
layer. Basically we would have to include song.c, playlist.c and
itunesdb.c. And we would have to define the data structure being used
to hold the data and allow the application programs to mess with the
data on their own. Otherwise a lot of recoding would have to be done
all around the gtkpod source. Wouldn't be that much of a problem,
though.

> I'd say one of the biggest slowdowns with gtkpod right now is the
> use of libid3.  This is a notorious library that is written in
> C++ (so it forces you to link with the c++ libs) and is well
> known for producing ugly slow code.  A much nicer library is libid3tag
> from the MAD project.  Another one for the TODO list maybe?

Thanks for pointing that out. There is no particular reason I use
libid3 (other than that I looked at easytag to learn how to handle
tags). Changing is easy: just replace

gboolean Id3tag_Read_File_Tag  (gchar *filename, File_Tag *FileTag);
gboolean Id3tag_Write_File_Tag (gchar *filename, File_Tag *FileTag);

with functions using libid3tag. They are only called in file.c (three
times).

Cheers,


JCS.

[Gtkpod-devel] gtkpod feature request

[<hkn...@t-...>]

hi,

once in while gtkpod crashes without writing the updated
database files to the ipod leaving unreferenced mp3 files
on the device. it would be nice to have a 'scan ipod for
unreferenced files' feature to rebuild the db after a
crash - at the moment i habe to reboot windows and
run ephpod to do this.
otherwise the tool is really nice.
best regards
hermann

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] first patch

[Sam C. <sa...@su...>]

On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 10:59:15PM +0200, Edward Matteucci wrote:
> your function recover from an incongruent iTunesDB's state but
> the iTunesDB must be valid, the function I'm writing wipe the old iTunesD=
B=20
> and rebuild it from scratch.

Your method sounds simpler.  If you can rebuild the database from
the mp3 filesystem then that should probably be the way to go.

--=20
sam clegg
:: sa...@su... :: http://superduper.net/ :: PGP : D91EE369=20
$superduper: .signature,v 1.13 2003/06/17 10:29:24 sam Exp $

Re: [Gtkpod-devel] first patch

[Edward M. <edw...@us...>]

On Sat, 9 Aug 2003 17:54:24 +0100
Sam wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 06:20:12PM +0200, Edward Matteucci wrote:
> > Next to come is the iTunesDB rebuild feature (I'm working on it),
> 
> I have done something that might be similar to this, but I
> don't know exectly what you want to do.
 
What should we do if the iTunesDB get corrupted? (gtkpod/iTunes/other apps
error, oops in the firewire subsystem, blackout for example)

this function rebuild the DB from scratch, it doesn't care about 
the previous iTunesDB.

your function recover from an incongruent iTunesDB's state but
the iTunesDB must be valid, the function I'm writing wipe the old iTunesDB 
and rebuild it from scratch.

	Edward