[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] mythtv commit: r13275 by stuartm

[Bruce Markey]

Dan Wilga wrote:
> At 12:21 PM -0700 4/18/07, Bruce Markey wrote:
>> mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org wrote:
>>>       Author: stuartm
>>>         Date: 2007-04-18 16:02:05 +0000 (Wed, 18 Apr 2007)
>>> New Revision: 13275
>>>    Changeset: http://cvs.mythtv.org/trac/changeset/13275
>>>
>>> Modified:
>>>
>>>    trunk/mythtv/libs/libmythtv/proglist.cpp
>>>
>>> Log:
>>>
>>> Closes #3122
>>>
>>> Apply patch to remember proglist sorting preferences.
>> I don't think this is a good idea. While it is easy and possible,
>> that doesn't mean that it follows that it is a Good Thing. Consider
>> the number of concerned users that post saying that they don't
>> see all their recordings on the Watch Recordings page (after
>> they selected a group other than "All Programs"). The confusion
>> would be worse for users who hit 1 or 2 on any proglist page (maybe
>> by accident) and always get funky episode lists forever after.
> 
> Personally, I use the Movies and New Titles lists most often. In both 
> of these cases, it's invariably better to default to sorting by 
> title, because there are simply too many duplicate showings to make 
> the lists useful otherwise.

Then press "2".

You mention New Titles but that is absolutely one entry per
title. I've never heard of most of the titles (which is the
point, of course) so there is no reason to think that I would
want to sort alphabetically to look up a title I've never
heard of or didn't expect =). What's most important is to see
what is coming up today that I may want to record before it's
too late. I've never sorted the what's new list by title other
than playing around and looking at the title sort for the heck
of it. I do often hit "1" again to get a reverse sort by time
to see what new titles were added in the last mfdb run.

Movies make the most sense for sorting by title. However, the
same applies that the first thing to know is what movies are
about to start that may be worth recording. If the page started
from a title sort, the "1" key would have to be pressed to see
what's coming up soon. If there was an interesting title, the
obvious thing to do is press "O" to see the showing times.

> So, what about storing the settings separately for each search type?

John Poet had sent the original patch that lead to this and
he had different pages sorted differently and the emphasis was
that there would be one "unique" entry for each title and less
emphasis on sorting alphabetically. It struck me that any list,
regardless of it's origin, could/should be viewed by the user
either way. Having one consistent behavior for the proglist page
would be less confusing and more useful than a set of quirky
exceptions.

So, yesterday isn't the first time I'd thought about this =).
 
> Yes, it's a little more work, but I do agree that it would be more 
> intuitive. I'd be willing to write this patch if it will be accepted.

I don't know what you mean by "more work". It would take less
time to change the code to sort Search Lists->Movies by Title
by default than it took to write this reply. However, as I said
yesterday, just because it is easy to change something doesn't
mean that it will be a change for the better.

It would be "more work" for the user to remember which kind of
sort to expect for which page. While it may sound interesting
that the Movies or People page could default to Title, there
is no new functionality and the only practical 'labor saving'
is that the "2" button wouldn't need to be pressed (assuming
the user actually does want to see the title sort first which
may not be the case). The user would still need to press "1"
or "O" to find the showing times. On the other hand, having
inconsistent sort order would lead to confusion, the impression
of (or reality of) more quirkiness. Even if I wanted to sort
my People list by Title, I believe I would eventually confuse
myself and I wouldn't want to impose that confusion on everyone
else. I believe the downside outweighs the benefit by magnitudes.

--  bjm