Open Playlists in Windows (More Grid Stuff!)

[DeusExMachina]

So, you wanna plug almost all the interface differences/learning curves/holes in the grid with one UI addition?
If you could context click (then menu select) and/or click and drag (or drag UI controls) a playlist outside the main window (or whatever UI you dream up) and have it be permanent, no matter what you select in the main window, it would let anyone rig their set up to mimic most other programs' layouts/user paradigms.
Most apps. BTW and FYI, have persistent panes for singers, tracks, and singer selections. It might reduce the cognitive issues with many users that might want to switch.
(And given how both kJams and server are set up, I should think it would be relatively straightforward.)

[dave]

i love your enthusiasm, but unfortunately what might seem like "relatively straightforward" from a non-engineer turns in to a "complete rewrite taking a couple years" when an engineer looks at it.

the classic one is "can't you just take the photoshop tool palette and copy it into After Effects" ? it doesn't actually work that way.

i'd love to have a dynamic-layout UI, however. i'm not knocking the idea

[DeusExMachina]

Well, not sure it is as complicated as the Photoshop example!
And I could theoretically already do a similar thing now, just by using server to open a window with a singer's lists. kJams would chug along just fine, and take any changes I made in that separate window in stride, since it really doesn;t seem to be maintaining anything until it gets an alert that something changed via a communication from the server, and an ID to tell it what changed.
Postulating that a singer's history playlist is not fundamentally different than, say, the list of a venue's singers, I then concluded there was a good chance that that playlist could be similarly served.
So in this concept, the main view menu always stays as is, and continues to work as is, but if a user wants a permanent view of a given playlist, they can just drag it out.

I made a mockup, but it will not load.

[dave]

yes i like the idea. just that it takes way more engineering (time) than you might think