Of Cartwalls And Stacks …

It occurred to me a day or so ago why ‘cart stack’ is not the correct name for the ‘playlist’ of items one can load into a Cartwall Player. For those of us old enough to remember NAB cartridge player hardware, ‘stack’ was always the word used to describe a multi-player unit, where the players—usually two or three—were literally ‘stacked’ on top of each other, often with a single common capstan, as a signle unit, in a single case.

So for that reason, I think ‘stack’ is not the correct term for the equivalent of a multi-item cart (which WERE used in the old days!). I would suggest ‘set’ if that were not already used for a saved cartwall. :smiley: I thought of ‘list’ or ‘cart items’ but I think ‘cart playlist’ would be best. Including the word ‘cart’ sets it apart (conceptually!) from a standard mAirList Playlist IMHO.

… and I then thought: ‘A real stack of cart players can be set for linked play, like the Link column in a mAirList Playlist, so wouldn’t it be a good idea if a cart playlist(/cart stack) also had a Link column?’ That way, you could set two or three or more items to play out in sequence, using only one cartwall player!’ I am also presuming that Linked play in a cartwall player would use cue points, the same as Automation mode in a Playlist.

Finally, if the playlist contains (say) six items, setting Link on item #6 (only), then Starting item #6, would play item #6 followed by item #1 (and then Stop, with item #2 cued up in the cartwall player).

Good idea?

It would even be compatible with the Action(s) On Stop property of each item in the ‘cart playlist.’ :wink:

BFN
CAD

Sounds good, Cad. “Cart Stack” is very good.

If the elements on the cartwall are called “carts,” which is appropriate, what should the elements of the playlist be called? Perhaps “tracks?”

I’ve been calling every element that airs a “cart” regardless of whether it exists in the cartwall or in the playlist. However, you’re correct that these labels don’t conceptually separate the two.

Regards, Alec M…

Funnily enough, Alex, I was just thinking about this again (elsewhere) and came to precisely the same conclusion! Cart Tracks it is!

Technically speaking, an even more accurate name would be bands, but no-one under the age of about 50 would have any idea why that is, and would be horribly confused by that name. :smiley:

So, I think the cartwall player context menu item should read Edit Cart Tracks…, and the dialog displayed when you click it should have a title bar caption of Cart 1 Tracks (instead of Cart Stack 1: note the changed placement of the number, for grammatical reasons ;)).

I also more and more want a Link column in that dialog!!!

I don’t think the term ‘stack’ appears anywhere else in the mAirList GUI, but I don’t have an up-to-date set of text strings handy to check that.

BFN
CAD

Cheers Cad… If the cartwall carts are called cart tracks, the elements with the regular playlist would need a name also, yes?

Reading your first post, I was originally thinking that “Cart Stack” would describe the elements of the cartwall and “Tracks” would describe elements on the generated playlist (not cartwall)… But now I’m confusing myself!

Regards, Alec M…

Playlist ‘elements,’ as you call them, already do! They are officially known as items, because a Playlist can contain all sorts of things (like a streamed source, or a BREAK or COMMAND item), not just audio files.

The Cartwall contains a number of cartwall players (or just cart players). Each of those cart players can contain a number of audio (and ONLY audio) items, a bit like a CD player set to play single tracks, or a NAB cartridge containing several ‘cuts.’ Currently known as a ‘cart stack,’ and hopefully (in future) to be known as a cart track list. Each item in a cart track list would then logically be known as a cart track, meaning ‘one of the audio items loaded into a cart player.’

BFN
CAD

Sounds good to me!

Regards, Alec

Thanks, Alec.

Any thoughts on these ideas, Torben? ;D
(Rename ‘stack’ to ‘track list,’ and add a Link column to the track list/stack).

BFN
CAD