[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] "frame stepping"

[Ville Saari]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 02:16:37AM +0200, Reimar Döffinger wrote:

> this patch allows to play a video frame by frame. As it's now almost a 
> one-liner, I will commit this in a few days.
> Please shout if the 's' key is already in use by something else - I 
> couldn't find anything, but still...

May I propose an alternative user interface:

I have used my own frame-stepping patch for a long time and in it
the frame-stepping is an operation available in paused state only.
I pause mplayer with space and then I use the right arrow key to step
the paused frames.

I admit that I have a selfish reason to propose my own key bindings:
if the interface will be different, then I have to unlearn this one :-(

However I believe that my interface has some merits on its own too:

- The right arrow is a much more intuitive key for frame-stepping forward.
  A new user could easily find it by just guessing.

- No key bindings need to be allocated in the normal running state of
  mplayer and in the paused state pretty much any key is still free to
  grab. Only the space is off-limits as it is the most logical unpause key.

- The left arrow would then be a natural key for frame-stepping backwards,
  if someone happens to implement such a feature. The analogy to seeking key
  bindings could even be extended further by stepping in larger chunks with
  up, down, page-up and page-down keys.

Having a frame stepping key available in the running state is quite
illogical: how to frame-step running video? For example the frame
stepping keys on the remote control of a VCR usually do nothing unless
the video is already paused.

-- 
 Ville