unity-design team mailing list archive

[Chow Loong Jin <hyperair@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 03,May,2010 07:03 PM, Martín Soto wrote:
> Hello Sense:
> 
> As far as I can see, in your mail you only mention using PulseAudio's
> functionality as the main justification for your design, which is a
> purely technical reason. We should rather start by thinking about use
> cases: what are people supposed to do with this functionality?
> 
> My problem with your design is that, as far as I can tell, the large
> majority of people won't want to play more than one sound source at the
> same time. You are watching a video, or playing some background musing,
> or chatting with someone, but doing two or more of these at the same
> time is very rare, because they clearly interfere with each other.\

I think listening to music while chatting is not rare at all. I do it, and many
other people I know do the same. And considering how much noise was made over
the one-application-rules-the-sound-card bug that existed prior to ALSA's dmix
coming into the picture, I think it's not rare at all to have more than one
application playing sounds at the same time.

I'd be exceptionally bothered if my sound was automatically paused in order to
play notification sounds which appear every time someone sends me an instant
message (think rapid succession from someone who types fast, which is not at all
uncommon these days).

As for playing videos, keep in mind that not all videos have sound. When I watch
a video that has no sound, I keep my music playing. When I watch a video that
has no useful sound (stupid background music that annoys me), I mute my browser
and keep my music playing. Such videos are pretty common on Youtube.

> So, for example, if you're playing background music and want to watch
> that video you just got from your pal over IM, you'll probably pause the
> music. And if someone calls you over Skype when you're watching the
> video, you'll pause it before taking the call. Given that this is the
> case, a single volume slider should suffice. The only "normal" situation
> I can think about where it makes sense to have sound mixed or
> superimposed is when notification sounds ("you have new mail") play on
> top of other sources. For this case, the volume of notifications should
> be made so that they're audible over the sound that is currently
> playing, which is something that probably can be achieved automatically
> anyway.

I have a habit of playing music (softly) while talking to friends on Skype due
to my multitasking habits, and due to the fact that I can't really function
properly without music playing.

Now, I don't mind the idea of having notification sounds playing over my music,
but I definitely do not like the idea of making my music softer just to hear
notification sounds.

> This said, there are some people who will want to mix sound from several
> sources, such as DJs and other performance artists or people working on
> sound production. I doubt, however, that they will want to use an
> indicator menu as their UI, and will have to be provided with a
> specialized solution anyway.
> 
> Do people see other use cases I'm missing?

-- 
Kind regards,
Chow Loong Jin

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