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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?

#81

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

miken123 wrote: post #70

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…

Yes its a shit-show. They even had a (hidden) working equalizer in the OSX version, but decided that this too was a feature that should be removed.

I still have no idea how to find a specific album in an artist's page, but of course that is a minor concern, compared to their ability to "to work with whatever frameworks they need, without the need to coordinate tooling and dependencies with other squads".

The one thing Apple got right is to always optimize for user experience, never for engineering convenience. Native code, no garbage collection - still pays off today.

What would be a good cross-platform tech stack that satisfies those needs, and isn't C++? Anything with a QT binding I suppose?

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

#82

Post by clemsen »

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.

Alt-tabbing into Spotify and then pressing space does not pause the playback on my Windows 7 system either...

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

#83

Post by Already__Taken »

morb wrote: post #78
Already__Taken wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ui is stuck in 2001 though and it still doesn't have the ability to play/pause/skip from the aero tile.

For me, the no-BS standard looking UI was the reason to choose Foobar, as compared to Win Media Player or Winamp and other weird looking ones. (Remember Sonique? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonique_%28media_player%29 ) As for aero tiles... That's a Win8 thing? I guess it's a valid complaint. I think you can set global keyboard shortcuts for those actions, if that helps.

Aero is a vista+ thing. Hover over a playing vlc in the taskbar and you see skip/pause/play.

Foobar is classic to the cost of UX. We've figured out for a long time now bigger buttons are important, there's no need for separate pause/play especially if stop is right there.

It doesn't need a slew of crappy gradients and fancy shit, Just drag the interface forward a decade that's all. Usable with a touch screen should be a minimum now.

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

#84

Post by jasey »

miken123 wrote: post #70

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…

> * Searching in playlists was removed

This is driving me crazy. I managed to stumble across this feature via cmd+f one day and as quickly as I find it, they remove it. Seriously?

The only way this feature could be used was via a keyboard shortcut, it wasn't a something cluttering the UI or adding additional cognitive load in a menu for a user - and it was damn handy.

The day where the update removed this feature I wanted to find the product manager at Spotify and yell WTF at their face.

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

#85

Post by mirsadm »

miken123 wrote: post #70

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…

Spotify connect is the most frustrating problem for me. I use it at work on my laptop and it drains the battery on my phone, tablet and my partners phone (as we share an account).

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

#86

Post by clemsen »

Anybody who spent some time on https://community.spotify.com will agree that Spotify does not give a damn about the opinions of their most passionate users (the ones that actually want to improve the experience by participating in the forum!). Especially since Spotify significantly increased font size and line spacing for no obvious reason [1] and no option to change it back even when this was a (from my perspective) widley demanded feature, I have lost confidence in the community process.

[1] https://community.spotify.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/i...

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

#87

Post by Dewie3 »

thrownaway122 wrote: post #65
Dewie3 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I made a script that plays/pauses Spotify through dbus, which I usually execute by opening dmenu. :)

My keyboard has media keys, but I thought I would prefer short textual commands to having to move my hand to the upper right of my keyboard (and probably miss the key if I wasn't looking?).

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

#89

Post by Joona »

miken123 wrote: post #70

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…

And they don't even support FLAC!

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

#90

Post by sorenjan »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #81
miken123 wrote: post #70

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…

Yes its a shit-show. They even had a (hidden) working equalizer in the OSX version, but decided that this too was a feature that should be removed. I still have no idea how to find a specific album in an artist's page, but of course that is a minor concern, compared to their ability to "to work with whatever frameworks they need, without the need to coordinate tooling and dependencies with other squads". The one thin…

Python with Qt on top of C++ would probably be my choice, if pure C++ isn't an option.
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