Having a nice front end for xmmsctrl could turn out to be the best way to go that's easy enough to finish in creating an awesome release.
'xmmsctrl' is a simple tool designed to be used at the shell level,
typically in a small shell script associated to a keyboard shortcut. There
are 4 different command types:
- simple commands, e.g. "xmmsctrl play", which perform a simple task,
- commands with a flag argument, e.g. "xmmsctrl main 1", which set
a particular state,
- condition testing, e.g. "xmmsctrl playing", which can be used in
if statements in shells. Something to notice: this was designed to be
used simply, which is, directly in if statements: if <command>; then
<command>; else <command>; fi. There you put directly "xmmsctrl playing"
to test if xmms is playing. Notice how the if statement works: if the
command succeeds, it returns a 0, which means OK, otherwise it returns
an error code,
- more specific commands with particular arguments.
The simple commands are:
launch : launch a xmms instance if none is running
not : negate the next condition test
clear : clear the play list.
cur : print the current mp3 song file.
eject : open xmms "Load file(s)" dialog window.
getlength : print the length of the play list.
getpos : print the current mp3 song position in the play list.
gettime : print the current song's playback time in seconds.
getvol : print the master volume value.
help : print this help message.
next : xmms next song command, go to the next song.
pause : xmms pause command, pause the playing song.
play : xmms play command, play the current song.
playlist : print the play list songs.
playfiles : print the play list files.
pref : open xmms preference window (as Ctrl-P).
prev : xmms previous song command, go to the previous song.
previous : go to the previous song and wrap round to last if position is first.
remove : xmms removes mp3 currently playing from playlist.
repeat : toggle xmms repeat flag.
shuffle : toggle xmms shuffle flag.
stop : xmms stop command, stop playing.
title : print the current mp3 song title.
uniq : remove duplicate files from the playlist.
quit : terminate xmms.
--help : print this help message.
The flag setting commands are used with 0 or 1:
equalizer : hide/show xmms equalizer window.
main : hide/show xmms main window.
play_list : hide/show xmms playing list window.
The condition testing commands are:
paused : returns OK if xmms is paused.
playing : returns OK if xmms is playing a song.
is_equalizer : returns OK if xmms has its equalizer window open.
is_main : returns OK if xmms has its main window open.
is_play_list : returns OK if xmms has its playing list window open.
is_stream : returns OK if xmms is playing a stream (http://somewhere).
running : returns OK if xmms is running.
The other specific commands are:
session number : use the session number 'number', xmmsctrl looks
automatically for the first working session.
dir <name> : clear the play list and load the directory/file
<name> as the play list. This works with devices
like /dev/cdrom to handle music CDs.
time [+|-|/]seconds :
seconds : set the playback time to seconds,
+seconds : advance the playback by seconds,
-seconds : rewind the playback by seconds,
/seconds : set the playback time to seconds from the end
of the song.
Examples : xmmsctrl time 30, xmmsctrl time +10.
track <n> : set the n'th track in the play list as the current track.
track last : set the last track in the play list as the current track.
vol [+|-]percent, with the following effects
percent : set the volume to percent,
+percent : increase the volume with percent,
-percent : decrease the volume with percent.
Examples : xmmsctrl vol 40, xmmsctrl vol +5, xmmsctrl vol -5.
print <string> : general formatted print, similar to printf. The codes are:
%n : new line,
%t : tab,
%F : current filename,
%T : current title,
%P : current position,
%s : playback time in sec,
%m : playback time in min:sec,
%S : song length in sec,
%M : song length in min:sec,
%v : master volume,
%l : playlist length,
%p : playback time in percent,
%(x): where x is a decimal number, evalutation string x depending if the current
printed song == (eq) or != (neq) the currently played song (see playlist2html.sh).
In addition, if the code is preceded by a number (say i), then the song i is
taken instead of the current one. If * is used then print evaluates on all the
songs. Examples: "%*P: %*T (%*M)%n" prints the whole playlist,
"%T (%m:%M)%n" prints only the current song, and "%3F%n" prints the 3rd file.
eq : add evaluation string for the case treated song == current played song.
neq : add evaluation string for the case treated song != current played song.
+file <file> : add the file/directory to the playlist without clearing the playlist.
You can use 'xmmsctrl +file something uniq' or 'xmmsctrl +file BEGIN dir1 dir2 END uniq' for
a cleaner result.
-file <file> : remove the file/directory from the playlist. You can use
'xmmsctrl uniq -file something' for a cleaner result.
Except for 'session', these command now support a
batch mode. You can give a list of arguments beginning
with BEGIN and ending with END, e.g.,
xmmsctrl +file BEGIN dir1 dir2 song1 song2 END
Examples of shell scripts to define simple functions:
Play/Stop :
sh -c "if xmmsctrl playing;\
then xmmsctrl stop;\
else xmmsctrl play; fi"
Play/Pause :
sh -c "if xmmsctrl playing;\
then xmmsctrl pause;\
else xmmsctrl play; fi"
(with xmmsctrl in your path). See more examples in the bindings
for twm in the distribution.
I was just thinking of a full screen GUI, and when clicking on a certain area, this would send a specific xmms-ctrl command.
That is how the wrapper would work if we could get xmms to run without a window, not just minimized. Although you would need to launch xmms to set it up and do any advanced stuff. It would still work if we can't remove the window, there would just be that ugly blank window in telescope.
Would be better to use gstreamer or mplayer to remove the dependancy on xmms and then everything could be handled inside the app without going over to xmms for settings.
BTW, the next release of ASUI will have launch actions so the xmms profile can have something like "launch xmmsctrl launch;xmmsctrl play;xmmsctrl play_list" and when you enter audio lock mode it will execute the launch command. And that command would launch xmms if it wasn't already running, start playing and open the playlist window.
@ addison
You could've just posted a link to the man page (which I've already seen) instead of pasting the entire thing here.
Thanks folks!
I forgot to change playlists icon on one screenshot, so I updated my post.
I think that Title gonna be a button too. Tap it and you will see details: Album, year, genre, .mp3/flack/wav/ogg, mHz, stereo/mono, delete from hard disk button, delete from playlist button.
In setings menu will go shuffle, repeat, fullscreen (if somebody don't like alltime fullscreen mode), font size, hardware keys.
Guys, I can make this drafts all day long as many as you want, but this is only interface. We need a programmer to make the application.
And we have to decide what engine to use (mplayer or what?). I would like to use dsp cuz as far as I know it use much less energy than mplayer...
