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How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

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Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#61

Post by DanFeldman »

colordrops wrote: post #55
seanp2k2 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify and SoundCloud are testaments to how users will endure whatever awful UX you give them as long as they're getting enough value from your thing.

The soundcloud mobile app is not that bad, at least on Android. It has the best audio scrubbing of any app I've used. The UI is super simple and made to work at a distance, e.g. while mounted in a card holder.

I absolutely hate the soundcloud app compared to the spotify app. Constant crashing, locks my phone up, random pauses during playback. Android, Samsung Galaxy S4. The UI is fine I just wish it didn't break every other song.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#62

Post by __float »

daheza wrote: post #25
madsushi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The recent removal of the system tray icon is anti-user. It provided users with easy access to Play/Pause from the system tray, but that meant users spent less time in the app, so the system tray icon was removed completely.

As someone who switches often between the mac and windows version this kills me. The mac version will continue after closing but the pc version just cuts the music completely.

This is simply a fundamental difference between OS X and Windows. Typically in OS X an application remains open after closing its last window, whereas in Windows this is typically the signal to quit the application entirely. Try minimizing in Windows, that's the appropriate equivalent.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#63

Post by frik »

GeorgeHahn wrote: post #40
mwcampbell wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative desktop client using libspotify and a non-web GUI toolkit would be much more interesting.

Very true. There are a few options in that space: Clementine ( https://www.clementine-player.org/ ), Tomahawk ( https://www.tomahawk-player.org/ ), Mopidy ( https://www.mopidy.com/ ), Fidelify ( http://fidelify.net/ , not OSS), Soundbounce ( http://soundbounce.org/ ). (Raise a glass to SOVND, my personal project that I killed when I got fed up with libspotify.)

A plugin for WinAmp or Foobar would be great.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#65

Post by thrownaway122 »

Dewie3 wrote: post #35
conradfr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infuriating. It's 2015 and my Winamp is still more usable than a "new" music player. Why do they care if I spend more or less time in the app if I'm a premium user, surely that can't be the reason for this regression.

It's 2015 and I can't "alt-tab" into spotify in order to pause/play by pressing space; I have to click somewhere in the upper half of the interface in order to "refocus", or the spacebar just scrolls down. Which is useful for something, I guess. Though this is on Ubuntu, and Spotify is still a beta app on that platform last I checked. I don't think I've had this problem on Windows.

Check out the Arch Linux wiki on this. Spotify apparently plays nicely with the rest of your desktop and you should be able to set up media key short cuts.

Or maybe just use the Clementine add on?

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#66

Post by task_queue »

LMAlVvQjSGj wrote: post #4

The Spotify desktop client has seen a massive regression since 2008 or 2009. It's incredible how they managed to make it so unresponsive. Scrolling in a playlist is like playing a game at 10 fps. It's uncomfortable and not worth it. Ads are worse as well. I've seen countless malware ads in the bottom banner.

When the industry props you up as the only avenue for access to a large collection of streaming music, you don't have to compete on terms of stability, usability or features anymore.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#67

Post by not_kurt_godel »

> I would bet that the Spotify desktop client is among the top 25 most intricate uses of JavaScript in the world.

If this is really true, "intricate" probably means "needlessly complex" because the interface, while by no means bad, is nowhere near as sophisticated as many JS apps I have seen and worked on. Off the top of my head, I would be willing to bet GMail, Google Spreadsheets, and Facebook are all vastly more "intricate" than the Spotify client based purely on number of features.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#68

Post by Nemcue »

LMAlVvQjSGj wrote: post #4

The Spotify desktop client has seen a massive regression since 2008 or 2009. It's incredible how they managed to make it so unresponsive. Scrolling in a playlist is like playing a game at 10 fps. It's uncomfortable and not worth it. Ads are worse as well. I've seen countless malware ads in the bottom banner.

Paying for Spotify has been like being in a relationship with a partner that is slowly letting themselves go.

"Oh, you've.. you've redesigned? Yeah no — it's.. it's kind of dark don't you think? ... no-no, I like it honey."

"Playlist-search isn't there anymore? Oh, ok.. :|"

"Hey, some of my songs aren't playing anymore, do you know anything about that? No.. ?"

"My offline-playlist is showing me a spinner instead of playing.. sigh, no it's fine, I'll just dig up my old mp3's in the garage."

At this point I'm seriously considering a divorce.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#69

Post by hdougie »

__float wrote: post #62
daheza wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who switches often between the mac and windows version this kills me. The mac version will continue after closing but the pc version just cuts the music completely.

This is simply a fundamental difference between OS X and Windows. Typically in OS X an application remains open after closing its last window, whereas in Windows this is typically the signal to quit the application entirely. Try minimizing in Windows, that's the appropriate equivalent.

In Windows you used to be able to set the close action to minimize to tray (so effectively it did the same as OSX). This isn't a non-standard thing in Windows either, plenty of applications offer that behaviour. But a recent update of Spotify removed this and it is insanely annoying. I keep closing it just out of muscle memory and it's infuriating.

Re: How is Javascript used within the Spotify desktop application?

#70

Post by miken123 »

Nice technical read, but to be honest, the moment I find another app that does what I need I will gladly leave Spotify behind. Apart from the general slugginess of the app, the number of features that have been removed over the last couple of months is staggering. Just some examples, in case someone from Spotify in a position to fix this is reading this:

* Searching in playlists was removed

* Searching in local files was removed (and the local file support has always been crap anyway, please work together with Last.fm to properly match files)

* Creating a new playlist in a folder was removed (you now have to create and move the playlist)

* Sorting playlist folders was removed.

* The option to turn off your 'volume normalisation' was removed. Because your algorithm is really broken and severely compresses the music, removing any dynamic range, this is the biggest showstopper for me. Check your forums, tens if not hundreds of people already left because of this.

* Apps were removed (tbh, I can live with this)

Oh, another one, please give us an option to turn off 'Spotify Connect'. It prevents my Android phone from entering deep sleep, and thus it is a battery drain. You don't need to fix the battery drainage, just give me an option to turn the feature off.

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