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Topic: What does "Playback follows cursor" do? (Read 9255 times) previous topic - next topic
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What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

I've looked quite a bit on the wiki and forum and cannot find a description of this option.  I did find a description for "Cursor follows playback" here: foobar2000 FAQ->Other Questions and its pretty much what I expected.  When I click the help icon in the "Preferences: Playback" dialog, I'm sent to Foobar2000:Preferences:Playback where there is no description of either option.

I'm guessing that this has something to do with allowing the user to perform other tasks without interrupting playback but I'm very curious as to the exact implications of this option.  I'm also wondering if there are any implications of using it in conjunction with "Cursor follows playback" or if these are completely independent options.

I'm assuming that the term "cursor" in this context is referring to one or more FB-specific UI elements and not the system mouse cursor.  Can someone please clarify this term?

Thanks!

P.S. I'm using the "DarkOne v4 by tedgo" skin.  I imagine that these options might have different effects based upon the specific components in use.

What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

Reply #1 –
It makes the cursor...follow playback.

Suppose you have a giant playlist with thousands of tracks and you listen to it in random order. When the playback continues on a random position, you generally have no idea where the currently playing song is and would need to scroll through at least half the playlist every time to find out. With cursor follows playback enabled, the window will automatically scroll that part of the playlist into view and highlight the currently playing song for you, which can be pretty handy.

I personally don't like the behavior of my previous highlight getting overwritten (I leave it somewhere for a reason most of the time) so I prefer to use double clicking on the status bar (on Default UI this should be default as I remember) or set up a shortcut for 'show now playing', which will similarly snap to and highlight the currently playing song when needed.

What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Daeron on
It makes the cursor...follow playback.

Yeah, I suffer from a touch of dyslexia/ADHD-PI myself.   

If you check back to my post/title, you'll see that I was asking about "Playback follows cursor" and already understood what "Cursor follows playback" does since it's documented (and has a fairly intuitive name).  Unfortunately, the same can't be said about "Playback follows cursor" (at least from my current perspective).

I do sincerely appreciate the quick response and your willingness to help.  If you have any additional information about the "Cursor follows playback" setting and/or the following part of my original post it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Quote from: GDW13 on
I'm guessing that this has something to do with allowing the user to perform other tasks without interrupting playback but I'm very curious as to the exact implications of this option. I'm also wondering if there are any implications of using it in conjunction with "Cursor follows playback" or if these are completely independent options.

I'm assuming that the term "cursor" in this context is referring to one or more FB-specific UI elements and not the system mouse cursor. Can someone please clarify this term?

What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

Reply #3 –
Quote from: GDW13 on
I'm assuming that the term "cursor" in this context is referring to one or more FB-specific UI elements and not the system mouse cursor.  Can someone please clarify this term?

Cursor is a highlight of a track in a playlist.

Quote from: GDW13 on
I've looked quite a bit on the wiki and forum and cannot find a description of this option.

The next playing track is a highlighted one. That is, when the current track ends, foobar2000 will jump to the highlighted track.

Quote from: GDW13 on
I'm also wondering if there are any implications of using it in conjunction with "Cursor follows playback" or if these are completely independent options.

independent afaik

What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

Reply #4 –
Oh, I was skimming through your post which starts out with the words 'Cursor follows playback' and settled on that. No dyslexia/ADHD, just the question comes up relatively often and I was writing the usual answer in autopilot-mode.

lvqcl pretty much explained already. Highlight a song in your playlist, with 'playback follows cursor' enabled that track will start playing next once the currently playing song is done.

What does "Playback follows cursor" do?

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Daeron on
Oh, I was skimming through your post which starts out with the words 'Cursor follows playback' and settled on that. No dyslexia/ADHD, just the question comes up relatively often and I was writing the usual answer in autopilot-mode.

Yeah, I didn't really think that you had either; it was just a friendly little jab. (sometimes my humor is too dry for my own good)

Quote from: Daeron on
lvqcl pretty much explained already. Highlight a song in your playlist, with 'playback follows cursor' enabled that track will start playing next once the currently playing song is done.

Thanks again.