@Geoff_Coupe stated my feelings pretty well. I can certainly live with it, but, it would be cleaner if it was Roon doing it all.
I’ll add, that it can make for a potential uneven user experience. Different machines can have different pdf viewers, or none at all. For example, on one of my endpoints, the only PDF viewer I have is the full Adobe Acrobat Suite. I certainly don’t want to open it every time I might want to look at a PDF. Additionally, if it was embedded in Roon, I wouldn’t have to worry or be reminded that MS seems to reset the default PDF viewer after every update back to the Edge Browser.
Not necessarily, they could be running multiple Agile sprints that bundle up to larger releases. My point their release frequency does not indicate their software dev approach (Agile vs. Waterfall).
I suspect they branch their code to work on longer major features and have a smaller team doing incremental changes or bug fixes.
I’d prefer that too, if you and I and others like us were the only users. But one of the continuing issues with Roon is familiarity. I’m still learning things about the software even after a few years of use. Incremental UI changes would be very frustrating for many users, require more frequent updating of the Knowledge Base and retiring or marking Forum posts as obsolescent. Making changes all at once can be preferable.
Agree on the waterfall / agile point. Only thing I would add is I’m not sure roon has “teams” working on features. It seems a pretty small team in its entirety.
@andybob - the fact that after a few years use you’re still learning things in the product is telling. Roon seems to be favouring working on things like audio quality and adding products to broaden appeal at the moment instead of usability. I’ve no issue with that - it’s a divergence from their original vision for the product which seemed to be about usability and discoverability - but it has value.
Smaller, more regular releases would allow for testing in the wild - but based on the forums I’m not sure what value would be in that. Basically the assessment of every feature would be “folks love it or hate it. Or won’t use it”. Maybe Roon would consider a stable and development branch which you register your device for (like Nvidia Shield). Opt in and you do so at your peril . I contribute to a couple of Linux distributions on that basis.
Not sure I would agree that it is a ‘diversion from their original vision for the product’. The original vision (whatever that was) had to include financial sustainability. Working on audio quality and broadening the appeal will give them that, and allow all the other stuff to be financed. This isn’t the first audio UI to be developed by the team and there is only so much you can do before you start over tweaking everything and end up in a mess (like some other products I will not mention the name of). If it ain’t broke…
James_I
(The truth is out there but not necessarily here)
111
I don’t think that’s fair. Sure, it ain’t broke, but a lot of the functions and features in the UI would be 10x more useful if developed and fleshed out more fully. “If it ain’t broke…” as an ethos can stifle innovation as much as avoid errors.
For example, as per other threads, the Focus feature as it applies to Tags includes only a limited amount of Boolean logic capability. Can’t leverage the tags nearly as much as one would like. Creates questions around whether the effort to apply Tags at all is worth it.
Tony, there’s load that could be done in development in super-exciting areas which are not about tweaking stuff. All of this can of course be optional in settings. Here are just a few ideas…
Sharing of comments and anecdotes from the membership within albums and track data
Editing of reviews and/or allowing personal notes to be integrated not only in albums but in tracks and artists even
Better boolean logic and/or functions for tag combinations as James has been discussing for a while
Most of this stuff would be very valuable to Roon to invest in because it in turn makes people want to invest more of ourselves in Roon and far less likely to jump ship.
As James says, its not about tweaking but more like completing things which are just not really all “there” yet, and getting closer to the vision which we all had in mind when we signed up.
Yes, fair comment and my ‘if it ain’t broke’ remark was aimed more at the title issue of the thread, the playback screen. This could easily be tweaked into a cluttered mess. This wouldn’t be a problem if we were given choice in Settings on what to see and what not to but Roon as-is seem to resist user customisations when it comes to what you see. Given the multiple Remotes targeted, this is understandable.
They’re only referring to the option of this. I’d like to have this stuff included as a toggle. I don’t use Roon for it’s minimalist appeal, but for the powerhouse of metadata/studio stuff etc
Closing this thread. It refers to a design and release of 3 years ago which has since been completely changed. Comments about the current design should be placed in the 1.8 threads.
. I contribute to a couple of Linux distributions on that basis.