The GodFather - Audio File Manager with Scripting

[mouser]

superboyac , have you tried mp3tag yet? i'm curious to hear your view of that.

[AbteriX]

Iam can't get familar with The GodFather
 (The http://users.otenet.gr/~jtcliper/tgf/ didn't work for me,
this side works http://www.cyberpunk.gr/tgf/ )

But based on this thread i will take an second look 

With mp3Tag i must create "Actions" first bevor i can do what i want to do.
Media Tagger have clean interface with "bevor and after"-preview and works good.


BTW: iam used to use MP3 Book Helper from http://mp3bookhelper.sourceforge.net/
'cus it has a clean GUI with "bevor and after"-preview
and i could managed my regex replacements with this tool very well.
MP3 Book Helper Online Help with     Feature list

[superboyac]

superboyac , have you tried mp3tag yet? i'm curious to hear your view of that.

-mouser (December 28, 2005, 02:34 PM)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that!  I did try out mp3tag a few times, although i will admit that I didn't spend as much time with it as I did for TGF.  Here are my initial impressions:

Again, it is definitely a powerful program and does everything I want it to do.  The question is how it accomplishes this.  For example, it has the feature to preview the changes before you make them, but all it does generate a text file that notepad opens and you see the existing/changed files listed one after another.  Now, Tag&Rename's preview is much more polished.  It opens up it's OWN window, with all the existing names listed on the left side, and the new filenames (or changed tags) listed on the right, in a very nice interface (nice gridlines, etc, things that don't really matter but are nice).  Furthermore, both mp3tag and TGF have less convenient methods of selecting and deselecting the files you want to work with than Tag&Rename.  Like I mentioned before, T&R has those 4 buttons for this purpose which I use constantly, especially in huge directories that just have a bunch of albums dumped into them.  Also, in mp3tag, you change and save your favorite file-naming routines in the preferences, which seemed odd to me.  In T&R, you do it on the actual window that you are working in.  It seems weird to have that in the same place where you also decide whether or not you want the program "minimizing to tray", etc.

Again, none of these things are a big deal and it's just a matter of preference, but these programs are basically just specialized file-renamers.  Actual "power" in these types of programs are less of an issue than in, say, other types of programs like file-manages like Directory Opus, where power is very significant.  So, since all of these programs basically can do the same thing, excluding a few very intricate features, then the primary importance to me is the user interface and efficiency and speed.  This is why I keep going back to Tag&Rename.  I don't have a problem learning how to use a software if I have to, but I don't feel the need to do that for this kind of software.

So...that's my story.  Sometimes, I wish I new how to program myself, but all I do is ask for features...I'm a feature leech!

[AbteriX]

Edit:
iam found here infos about TGF 0.71 Beta2 with download: ==> http://mahopa.de/tgf/beta.htm

Where can i download the beta 3  as Hirudin mention at
http://com1.runboard...cementsnewsother.t23
Edit:
Uh Uh, me dummy mistook version .70 with .71 !
There was a v0.70 beta 3
and there is a v0.71 beta 2 right now.

Sorry for the confusion

[mouser]

i appreciate superboyac comments in this thread -
more and more as we go into the future it is the user interface that represents the bulk of a program.
no matter how "powerful" a program is, if it's hard to do the common stuff, many of us don't want to spend a week learning how to script something.  it does go to show you that you can't simply grab the program people call the best or most powerful, especially if you want something that is designed for smooth ease of use.

[superboyac]

Thanks mouser, I wasn't trying to be overly critical, sometimes I can do that.

While we are on the topic of user interface, I want to mention Screenshot Captor again as a very good example of a well-written program.  The program has a very simple use...take screenshots...and dozens of other programs do the same thing.  What's good about it is that it is probably the most "powerful" of al screenshot utilities (although, I use caution when using the word power with trivial applications, but the concept still applies as far as customizability and flexibility), but it still is usable right out of the box.  Furthermore, the program is extremely lightweight, and clicking on things and performing actions are instantaneous.

My pet peeve in programs these days is the desire to make things overly "bubbly" to match the Mac look.  Why does software have to look aerodynamic?  Most of the time, these big bubbly buttons take up way too much space and the whole interface is much bulkier than it needs to be.  I like the minimal buttons and the nice, simple rectangular look.  Anyway, enough ranting...I love this site!  By the way, I don't mean to imply TGF in this critique, I'm just responding to the above comment.

[mouser]

i think in the future of software we should expect to see greater separation of core functionality from user interface, and the move to standardized frontends.

that is, i expect eventually all programs will come with a "core" and a "frontend" or two, the way some commandline programs already have.  and that all programs will be "scriptable" using one interface, or usable via a gui (or have multiple guis).

in fact this is of course how some crossplatform tools are already made (like a commandline mp3 encoder that can be driven with various gui frontend tools).  what i think will happen though is a move to a more standardized solution to these components.

anyway, we def. got off subject

thanks for the comments about screenshot captor and the site, glad to have you here.  no doubt that the godfather is an amazing program - especially if you need to do advanced scripting.doesn't mean it's the best tool for every user.  no shame in wanting something cleaner and simpler for most tasks.  i know i can get overwhelmed if there are too many options, and for some tasks you really don't want the most powerful tool, you want the easiest tool to use.

[superboyac]

OK, and I mean this to be taken contructively:

One aspect I found hard to enjoy about TGF is that as you switch to the different modes of tagging/renaming files, the whole view of the program switches.  I found this rather difficult to work with.  For example, if I go from the Tag view to the Rename view, the window contents change and it seems like it switches to a new interface or something.  The problem is, I'm still working with the same files!  So why does the whole thing have to change?  In Tag&Rename, as you go from renaming tags to renaming files to manually editing files, the pane which shows the files always stays constant, and your selection is unchanged.  Doesn't that make more sense?

[Hirudin]

One aspect I found hard to enjoy about TGF is that as you switch to the different modes of tagging/renaming files, the whole view of the program switches.

-superboyac (January 06, 2006, 09:24 AM)

Yeah, I don't like that either. It's also kind of ambigious which panel does what you want. For instance you can do pretty much everything in the "Tag" panel as you can do in the "Manual Edit" panel. I think jtclipper should condence the program into 1 or 2 panels if possilbe.

Also another problem the different panels create is that the scripts only work with one panel, and each one has it's own procedures (if that's the right word). Some features overlap, but some scripting procedures are only available in certain panels.
I don't know the specifics, but it's like this: if you want to make a script that creates folders you need to write it for the "Organize" panel, renaming has to be done in the "Rename" panel, etc. This makes it difficult/impossible to create an "all in one" script that does everything.

I'll let ol' jtclipper (the author of The GodFather) know about this forum. He might enjoy talking with fellow programmers...

[Tuxman]

To my absolute surprise, The GodFather is still being developed by the same guy (but under a new URL). I consider giving it a run against Mp3tag some time this week - Mp3tag bores me. It seems that The GodFather does not support Opus files yet though, which is sad because Opus has replaced Vorbis for me.