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Songbird should have a splash screen
Songbird has a pretty slow start up time, and when i show people Songbird for the first time, they double click the yellow little bird, and then because there is no window popping up, they double click a few more times. My solution to this is a splash screen. That way people will know Songbird is starting up, and the start time will feel shorter (even though if it's not). As a feather developer, i also might as well add that the Splash screen should be skinnable :)
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You guys chirped, they listened it seemed.. Latest 1.4 build:
Probably time to mark this as complete...
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This is possible with Splash! Add-on who is compatible with Songbird :) :
https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox...
(You will need to bump maxVersion or use Nightly Tools)
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I'm hoping that Songbird gets fast enough that people don't have to wonder whether they actually clicked the icon or not. But I still don't like splash screens all that much because they aren't very useful; they just let you know what the program is loading up while you wait. Like with Firefox, I am used to waiting a few seconds for it to open, and I just do something quick in the meantime while I wait for it. I wish instead that Songbird could draw the window immediately and just show the contents of your library as it loads them, but I don't know if that would be possible.
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Inappropriate?I'm hoping that Songbird gets fast enough that people don't have to wonder whether they actually clicked the icon or not. But I still don't like splash screens all that much because they aren't very useful; they just let you know what the program is loading up while you wait. Like with Firefox, I am used to waiting a few seconds for it to open, and I just do something quick in the meantime while I wait for it. I wish instead that Songbird could draw the window immediately and just show the contents of your library as it loads them, but I don't know if that would be possible.
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Inappropriate?This is possible with Splash! Add-on who is compatible with Songbird :) :
https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox...
(You will need to bump maxVersion or use Nightly Tools)
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Thanks. I guess it should be an add-on. Honestly though, if people don't like it then they can always disable it. I'm yet to see an application that won't let you disable the splash.
Edit: just installed it. Works great. -
Glad it works! That's what makes Songbird (and Firefox) so great. The app does not need to be cluttered with these types of "features", If a feature is needed/wanred, an extension will more than likely be available. Keeping Songbird functional and LIGHTWEIGHT is what matters. Not integrating a splash feature that can easily be incorporated via an extension.
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i only said to have a splash screen because it's slow. If Songbird was fast, then i wouldn't have proposed it. You see what I'm getting at? Anyways, it's great that there's an extension for it, because it looks like not many people want a splash screen :P
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Inappropriate?I hate this idea. Any app that has a splash screen, I tend not to use. Yes, as said above, if Songbird would actually start quickly, a splash would not be necessary.
If such a splash screen is implemented, I would hope an option to have it on or off would be available. Better yet, some smart extension designer could design a splash extension fully compatible with Songbird..
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Inappropriate?I think that having a splash screen isn't really necessary, a slightly faster start up would be better. Although I am only experiencing a few short seconds before Songbird starts chirping.
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does this mean Songbird is going to have a splash screen?
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Unless there's an option to turn it off, I hope not.
I HATE ALL SPLASHCREENS. -
I'm real sorry about that Uncle Spellbinder. Start time is just so slow on my system. I'm confident that there will be an option to turn it off though. And just out of curiosity, do you happen to use any applications that use a splash screen? And why do splash screens irritate you so much?
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I see them as nothing more than eye candy that really serve no purpose. I have no problem waiting for a program to start. I sure don't need something popping up before the program starts telling me it's starting. I know it's starting because I started it. It also makes me feel that if they had spent as much time implementing a splash screen, that time would have been better spent making the app actually start quicker.
I use Acid PRO 7 and it has the option to turn it off. Several other apps have this option as well. I would hope that the Songbird devs would have the foresight to include the option to turn it off. -
Inappropriate?Weird, Songbird has no wait time on startup for me... maybe it goes faster if firefox is already running
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I'm VERY agree !
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Inappropriate?How about a splash before the player starts? because sometimes, depending on how fast is the machine, or which OS you have, it could take a while to load the player. Dunno, a "Loading" like adobe has in their suite.
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Splash at starup.
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Inappropriate?On slow computers songbird might take a long time to load (over 40s to open the window and some more until it starts responding on my new EeePC 1005HA netbook).
Many times, when I use the touchpad to open it I don't even know if it is loading or the touchpad didn't respond.
Add a loading screen tot he program, something to say "yes it is loading, hold on". Something nice, like the songbird hatching from an egg, spreading its wings and starting to sing. No huge animation, just 4-5 little images.
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Add a Loading screen.
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Inappropriate?You guys chirped, they listened it seemed.. Latest 1.4 build:
Probably time to mark this as complete...
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Whats up with the brushed metal texture? And is this final build material?
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Whats wrong with it.. I think it looks nice
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Lenny - it's to match the new website that'll be launching w/ Songbird 1.4.1
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@Andrew, I never said it didn't look nice, I just found it odd to suddenly see this element since it hasn't been present anytime before.
@stevel, Sounds nice, any resemblance to the present staging add-on page? -
Inappropriate?This is only for Windows builds actually !2 Comments Add a comment
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grrr.
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Yeah - we pulled the upstream Mozilla code for adding splash screens which is windows only. Tricky bit is because you want the splash screen to appear as early as possible, it happens before all the goodness of XPCOM (which is what gives us cross platform-ness) initialises, so it's basically platform specific (i.e. Windows) code.
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Inappropriate?Telling the user that a program is loading after you have clicked it is the operating systems / windowing systems job not the applications.
Mac OS does this extremely well by keeping the icon bouncing in the dock.
Linux - depending on what desktop you are using and how you set things up - can do it just as well.
Windows is worst, but it got a lot better in Windows 7 with the new "Dock".
I hate apps like OpenOffice that clutter my screen with nonsense while starting up. Don't start it with Songbird, please!
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Inappropriate?G'day,
1) Why is it the operating systems job? If the OS makes it obvious, nice, but most don't well. Windows doesn't and Linux doesn't well. That being said, the splash screen is only active on Windows anyway and hopefully eventually linux too. OSX doesn't have one.
2) I also don't recall in the official design docs for OSX that splash screens shouldn't be used. In fact, at no point of time when I did computer science and study GUI design did anyone say "the operating system should handle it", and I have never seen a recommendation to not use them (except for pure HTML, where they DO slow down the workflow).
3) The OS doesn't really know when the applications are started. Think of programs such as Adobe photoshop, the icon only bounces whilst the hardcoded libraries are loaded, however, once it starts checking addons and such, it stops. This is due to the way the OS is designed (anything that's loaded dynamically later isn't going to get noticed by the OS probably.
Can you imagine if Adobe photoshop didn't have a loading screen? Users would be wondering if its loading or not, and after 15 secs, they will reclick it. Thats the purpose of feedback, so users KNOW its working.
4)On a fast computer the splash screen wont show for long and wont get in the way long. On a slow computer, it will, but its better than thinking that its not loading.
Thats just my opinion.. There is an addon anyway to disable the splash screens, but I think splash is an important part of usability. Besides, you can avoid splash screens by leaving Songbird open in the background so it doesn't interfere and doesn't need to be reloaded (that's the most productive way).
Just my opinion (I'm community too, so this is just my opinions, never touched a line of code for Songbird and not part of the development team). Maybe it would be nice to have an option to disable it, but I think it should be on by default. I think saying it clutters your screen is a bit of an exaggeration, particularly as its only shown for 5 seconds or so....2 Comments Add a comment
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Wow... you just said all I had in mind. You're just right in everithing! Thanks for clearing that up!
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You're making the point yourself though. Yes Photoshop is an app that loads so slowly, it needs a loading screen. But it offers something more important, it tells you what it is loading at the moment so you have a chance to find slow plugins and remove them when they make your Photoshop crawl.
My opinion is that apps like Songbird, that load in 5 seconds time (as you said) don't need a splash screen and giving them one has the opposite effect on people. They get fixated on the fact that it doesn't start in 1 sec.
The point I was making about it being the OSes job is still valid. The general example given here was the one of a user clicking the icon, and then after waiting a very short amount of time and not seeing anything clicking it again. That is the timeframe that the OS should cover.
The splash can be turned off, I know - but still, being a program with a splash screen is like telling the world you're bloated - it's just not sexy; exactly the opposite of what Songbird should aspire to be. -
Inappropriate?Now all we need is a way to disable it. I'm familiar enough with it to know that it's launching and will take a moment, and I don't really want/need superfluous images flying around my screen.
Unfortunately, renaming the "splash" image file only works once. It restores itself the next time you launch.
I’m confused at the implementation of something that uses resources and looks gash for no real reason
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Splash screens most certainly do serve a purpose. They provide feedback, letting the user know that the application is starting, which is particularly useful if you're using an OS that doesn't give particularly good feedback. Besides, there's an add-on for disabling it.
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Inappropriate?Yeah, cheers, just found it. It's called "Splish Splosh Splash" for anyone else that's irritated by this; hadn't seen it named anywhere so far.
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