[vorbis] Total Tracks Tag?

[Tom Felker]

On Thursday 09 October 2003 9:29 am, Segher Boessenkool wrote:

> > Same thing for the track number and track count tags. If you have
> > limited screen real estate (and who doesn't) then you may choose to
> > display only the track number, not the track count. That doesn't mean
> > that you don't want to store the track count, just that it's a different
> > piece of data.
>
> It's metadata about an album, not quick scribblings about one track.
>
> It doesn't belong in the tags.

Reading tags is slow, so a database is a good idea.  Unfortunately, it's too 
easy for files to get separated from a database.  People constantly create, 
organize, and trade files, and there's no standard way to keep a database in 
sync throughout those processes.  It's impractical to have each ripper and 
each downloader check info into each database every time they write a file.

By putting tags in each file that fully describe the track and the album, it's 
easy to keep the database in sync: First, your ripper writes files and adds 
tags, or you (legally) download files that have tags.  Then, you organize the 
files, and the database populates itself from the contents of the tags.  

A good metadata system is needed, but tags are an integral part of that 
system.  Crippling tags to advocate a metadata system is counterproductive.  
Besides, if you don't use any tags but COMMENT, why do you care?

<p>PS:

Here's an idea for a universal metadata system:  the OS would run a userspace 
program whenever something interesting happens to a file.  For example, when 
a file open for reading is closed, the app would extract metadata from the 
file and check it into a database.  The data would be updated when the file 
is moved, and removed when it's deleted.  You'd then have a nifty, always in 
sync, searchable database of everything.  With a nice search GUI, this could 
compete with Microsoft's mysterious new WinFS.

Note that such a system depends on useful, standardized in-file tags.


-- 
Tom Felker, <tcfelker at mtco.com>
<http://vlevel.sourceforge.net> - Stop fiddling with the volume knob.

Torvalds, explaining SCO's actions: "They are smoking crack."

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