Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Few minor suggestions to improve DUI aesthetic (Read 3296 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Few minor suggestions to improve DUI aesthetic

I recently switched over from using Columns UI to the better combination of Default UI + Facets & SimPlaylist - really an eye opening improvement in almost every way. There are just a few things in the looks department preventing absolute perfection, so thought I'd mention some ideas I'd like to see, however unlikely they might be.

Firstly, a picture to illustrate. (Left: The current look with Aero. Right: A mock-up to spot the difference) -



 

Few minor suggestions to improve DUI aesthetic

Reply #1
I just registered here to approve this.

Few minor suggestions to improve DUI aesthetic

Reply #2
> O.P. - I recently switched over from using Columns UI to the better combination of Default UI + Facets & SimPlaylist - really an eye opening improvement in almost every way. . .

I've been using CUI for ever and played with countless preferences, tweaks and layouts. A few months ago I decided to play with a DUI layout.

The display of text and fonts in DUI has never matched the look I get in CUI which is razor sharp and highly readable; I always get an impression of slight blur when looking at text in DUI.

Facets (DUI component) and the CUI built-in Filters do the exact same thing as each other except that Facets also offers you a filter/search toolbar . . . personally I prefer to use a popup foobar2000 built-in "Media Library Search" window and a custom edited copy of "Query Syntax help.html"; I have added a new table in this document which is a list of my favorite search queries . . . for me, the whole point of forcing myself to constantly open this document is to get constantly better at understanding and using the query syntax; thus i find the Facets toolbar a superfluous thing which dumbs down the long-term user experience and negates deep understanding of foobar2000's built-in tools . . . . . . . An annoying thing about the Facets toolbar is you cannot completely hide it even if you remove all checkmarks from the options; it leaves behind a blank toolbar space; the Columns UI Filters don't have such an aesthetic problem. . . . . . . Another annoying feature of Facets is that in the Filters view, any text enclosed in brackets is dimmed, even if you don't want this.

SimPlayist (DUI component) is what I initially started my DUI layout with . . . . however, after more playing around I soon came to realize that EsPlaylist surpasses it in every possible sense; to be honest, I have no idea why SimPlayist needed to come into existence . . . . . One annoying feature of SimPlaylist is that it dims any text enclosed in brackets, even if you don't want this . . . . . . Another annoying thing about SimPlaylist is it gives you NO OPTION to have a horizontal scrollbar, it force-locks right alignment of the last column, and dragging column headers to change widths is a pain in the ass. . . . . . . the CUI playlist viewer ("NG Playlist") is better on all counts except for one fact; it does not allow multiple lines for grouping.

And color preferences . . . . unlimited ways to specify colors for items in CUI is just fantastic; DUI does not give you any such thing.

That's my 2 cents worth. Cheers.

Few minor suggestions to improve DUI aesthetic

Reply #3
3rd party developers can use the same edge styles as columns UI components if they want. i use a few in DUI already (ESplaylist and WSH panel mod) and there are probably more that i'm unaware of. i think it's highly unlikely the default panels will ever get this option but you never know.

whilst on the subject of trivial appearance thingies: aero for album list please. i vaguely remembering posting about that when foobar hit v1 but nothing has happened.