[Pan-users] Re: Feature request ala Unison for OS X

[Duncan]

Dominik posted <address@hidden>, excerpted below,  on Sat, 12
Mar 2005 12:23:39 -0500:

> One of the features that I have always wanted in a newsreader is mp3
> streaming.  I hate downloading an mp3 off of newsgroups and realizing its
> not what I wanted.  Previewing them while they download is a great idea
> and I was surprised nothing out there had this feature.. Until I got my
> Mac and found Unison (http://www.panic.com/unison/).
> 
> How difficult would this be to implement into Pan?  I know a little code,
> but no C/C++ -- However, I'd like to help if some developers would point
> me in the right direction(s) :).

Well, given that unlike jpegs, PAN doesn't handle MP3s (or indeed other
than still pix at all) directly, only saves them to be loaded by your MP3
player of choice, I think you are putting the cart before the horse, as
they say.  Directly playing MP3s and other formats (whole or not) might be
nice, but I'm guessing it'd be considered more like bloat.  In any case,
it's a feature that wouldn't be added for some time, as there are a whole
host of other, more "newsy" features, waiting to be added before that. 
I'm not sure this one would even be added if someone supplied the patch to
do it, because of the complexity it would add to PAN, increasing the
maintenance burden before it's even feature complete in the news area.  If
it's to be added, I'd guess it would be post 1.0, which would seem quite a
way off.

OTOH, it /is/ possible with many formats, MP3s included if I'm not
mistaken, to play just a fragment of them, altho it usually has to include
the first fragment, at a minimum.  Thus, you should be able to download
the first part only, do a manual save, and play that file, to "preview". 
The tradition of using that method for previewing probably goes back
farther than binaries on USENET does.  Imagine downloading a third or a
half of a GIF at a few hundred bits per second from a bbs, and previewing
it to decide whether you want to spend another half hour or
more downloading that one or whether it'd be better to skip to the next
one.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html