[IDEA] Responsive UI

[Karl Wax]

Hello,

Would it be possible to have a real responsive UI ?
 Since I'm over 50, it's a bit difficult to read text on my smartphone (Pixel 3). 
At least if we could easily increase the font size from the appearence page, it will be a good start.
If i pinch to zoom, unfortunately the text is not automaticaly aligned with the screen (and you have to horizontaly scroll) 
I hope i'm enough clear, sorry for my weak english.
Thanks in advance.

[Tim Curtis]

We have a number of nice UI enhancements on the TODO list including a global font-sizing option but our TODO list is underfunded and under-resourced so no telling when items on the list will get developer time.

[inthemoode]

When I read "responsive" it reminded me of how slow the web interface can be with large collections. Using an alternative app, like M.A.L.P. you experience lightning speed. Maybe look at how they do it to get some ideas on speed enhancements?

[vinnn]

When I read "responsive" it reminded me of how slow the web interface can be with large collections.  Using an alternative app, like M.A.L.P.  you experience lightning speed.  Maybe look at how they do it to get some ideas on speed enhancements?

M.A.L.P's a native mpd application, it's not a web application. Apples and oranges my friend.

[Karl Wax]

We have a number of nice UI enhancements on the TODO list including a global font-sizing option but our TODO list is underfunded and under-resourced so no telling when items on the list will get developer time.

Noted.
Thanks for your time.

[inthemoode]

When I read "responsive" it reminded me of how slow the web interface can be with large collections.  Using an alternative app, like M.A.L.P.  you experience lightning speed.  Maybe look at how they do it to get some ideas on speed enhancements?

M.A.L.P's a native mpd application, it's not a web application. Apples and oranges my friend.

I know that, but it's dealing with and displaying the exact same data, from the same MPD "server" - and it does it MUCH faster. If the cause of the problem is that it is a web app, then that decision may need a rethink.

[vinnn]

it's dealing with and displaying the exact same data

Not entirely no, much of the overhead of using a web application with client-side rendering is that the browser caches the metadata and runs javascript to regenerate the data into html on the fly so it can be displayed by the browser. The advantage of this in this case (where the web server is running on a low-power system) is the html rendering is not constrained by the Pi's performance, rendering is offloaded to the client browser which is more flexible and will ususally be faster than the server (the Pi) in terms of hardware.

An Android application like mpdroid or M.A.L.P will cache the mpd database to the Android device's filesystem and query and render the data offline without the overhead of generating html in a web browser, also UI rendering is usually hardware accelerated.
The disadvantage of an application is that a different version of an app has to be created for every operating system and platform one might want to support whereas every platform can run a web browser, thus a web interface is a more open and accessible interface and less development work.

If it helps have a look a my recent post which might help you understand some the overhead in relation to the size of the library, you may want to try the tweak too if you're seeing major slowdowns on the tag view on slow hardware.
I'll stop replying now as these comments aren't related to the thread.

[Tim Curtis]

Typically the focus shifts from application to infrastructure when a new major version of Raspbian or a core component for example MPD is released. Audio device innovations can also trigger infrastructure work for example the Allo SIG which uses custom kernel drivers.

Currently the project is in "application mode" and so things like the UI and features get worked on. The fun stuff :-)

The coding styles used in moOde need help. The code base really needs to be refactored to make it easier to maintain but its a huge effort and there never seems to be time...

Email me with your thoughts on coding conventions for the various languages used in moOde. Maybe we can put together a guide that can be used to help refactor the code base.

-Tim

[TheOldPresbyope]

Cheer up. It only hurts for a little while.