[pyddr-discuss] Query setup

[Pavel N. Krivitsky]

Hi, Frank,

First of all, it just occurred to me that we already have a sort of a
filtering mechanism in the Endless mode. We might want to see if we can
reuse some of that. Even if not, it would make a lot of sense to have
functionality to play through all the songs in a query in the "Endless"
mode. But, anyway, here are some thoughts...

With queries, sorting becomes orthogonal to the querying: it makes
perfect sense, for instance, to get a list of songs at 120-150 bpm,
sorted by difficulty. However, while it makes sense to have complex
queries, it doesn't make sense having complex sorting modes. So, maybe
we should leave sorting to be selected with "s", and have queries be
controlled by the DDR pad.

I've read through the document you attached. I am not sure whether I
agree with the interface. I envision the user first constructing a
query, and then deciding whether to save it or not. As I imagine it,
most useful queries would be imposing a series of nested constraints
over the different aspects of the song. For example,

(BPM(x)<=150) AND ((LEVEL(x)-5)<=1)

to get songs slower than 150 BPM and with difficulty level of 4, 5, or
6. So, I think we should borrow our approach from the "drill-down" menu
that, say, an online store like NewEgg.com uses. For example, here is
how someone might enter the above query:

1) In the song selector screen, showing the query so far and the number
of songs and dances selected on the left side, and the list of options
on the right side, the user sees the following options:
- SHOW
- BPM
- ARTIST
- MIX
- TITLE
- LEVEL
- DIFFICULTY
2) User selects "BPM", and is given the following options:
- EQUALS TO
- GREATER THAN
- LESS THAN
- WITHIN 10 OF
- WITHIN 20 OF
- WITHIN 30 OF
3) User selects "LESS THAN", and is given some BPM values (e.g.
multiples of 30).
4) User selects "150", and gets the following options:
- SHOW
- ARTIST
- MIX
- TITLE
- LEVEL
- DIFFICULTY
5) User selects "LEVEL", and gets the following options:
- EQUALS TO
- GREATER THAN
- LESS THAN
- WITHIN 1 OF
- WITHIN 2 OF
- WITHIN 3 OF
6) User selects "EQUALS TO", and is given some difficulty values (0
through 12).
7) User selects "5", and is, again, brought to the top-level menu:
- SHOW
- ARTIST
- MIX
- TITLE
- DIFFICULTY
8) User selects "SHOW" and is shown the list of dances that match the
criteria.

If the user wants to save that query, then maybe the user can go into
the query menu.
                                 What do you think?
                                 Pavel
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