Re: Shuffling and unshuffling (was Re: ID3 tag question)

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Dave Sherohman wrote:

> Grab a copy of XMMS (or WinAmp, if that's the way you swing).  Create
> a playlist with 5 songs, ordered A, B, C, D, E.  Turn the "random"
> switch on.  Hit 'next' a few times.  Doing this just now, I got the
> play order E A C B D E B D A C B A.  Always random.

I did. Winamp doesn't come with source, and doesn't run on my OS. But my
version of Xmms does the same thing we do: it creates a mutated playlist
and follows this list trough.

It also does what I suggested: make a new shuffle-order when you repeat
is on and it has reached the end of the playlist.

The only thing it does different is that it *displays* your original
sorted list while *playing* according ot a different shuffled list.

pseudocode:

unshuffled:
	for i in 1 to len(playlist):
	play(playlist[i])

shuffled:
	arr = new int[len(playlist)]
	for i in 1 to len(playlist):
		arr[i] = i
	permutate(arr)
	for i in 1 to len(playlist)
		play(playlist[arr[i]])

imho this is stupid. The only "advantage" this has over our system is
that it makes it impossible for the user to see what comes next (or what
was last).

They do however shuffle again when hitting the end of the playlist. I
personally think this is preferable, particularily on a short playlist.
B A C D B A C D B A C D B A C D is not what most people expect when they
tell their player to play "randomly" or "shuffled".


Sincerely,
	Eivind Kjørstad

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