[vorbis] Total Tracks Tag?

[Tom Felker]

On Friday 10 October 2003 3:43 pm, Segher Boessenkool wrote:
> Tom Felker wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
> So put metadata in the actual stream.  I already said (several times in
> this thread) that I'm all for that.  But do not put them in the tags.

OK, I think I understand you better now.  As long as the information is inside 
the file, I couldn't care less about the format.  Provided, of course, that 
it's easy for players use.

> _You_ want to cripple tags, not me.  And I'm not advocating a metadata
> system; I just want the Ogg community to finally start creating one.

By all means, yes, let's get started.  What would be your ideal system in Ogg?  
Basically, I'm asking how it would be implemented, and how it would be used 
by players.  (This question is not loaded, I honestly want to know.)

In the meantime, however, tags are filling the metadata vacuum, they're not 
doing a good job, and Vorbis programs aren't interacting well.

> > 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.
>
> Try MacOS or BeOS.  And it's not handled at the OS level, but by some
> toolkit. Much saner.

Well, this proposal would really work at any level - a voluntary toolkit, an 
LD_PRELOAD hack, or with in-kernel hooks.  (Note that the updater would be 
completely userspace.)  I think a toolkit would be less useful unless every 
single program used it, which is practically impossible.  LD_PRELOAD is 
simply ugly.  The in-kernel hooks approach isn't great, but it's less ugly 
and more universal than the others.

I have been meaning to try BeOS, and I have some opportunity to use MacOS at 
school.  In the end, I'd like to see a useful, well-designed metadata system 
in Linux.  Of course, it's moot until I or someone writes the code.


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

ruby -r complex -e 
'c,m,w,h=Complex(-0.75,0.136),50,150,100;puts"P6\n#{w}\n#{h}\
n255";(0...h).each{|j|(0...w).each{|i|n,z=0,Complex(.9*i/w,.9*j/h);while 
n<=m&&(
z-c).abs<=2;z=z*z+c;n+=1 end;print [10+n*15,0,rand*99].pack("C*")}}'|display
#by Michael Neumann AFAICT

--- >8 ----
List archives:  http://www.xiph.org/archives/
Ogg project homepage: http://www.xiph.org/ogg/
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to 'vorbis-request at xiph.org'
containing only the word 'unsubscribe' in the body.  No subject is needed.
Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be ignored/filtered.