[Swfdec] [PATCH] Manage host based autoplaying from plugin menu

[Pavel Roskin]

On Tue, 2008-05-06 at 13:40 +0200, Riccardo Magliocchetti wrote:

> Users probably expect the flash file to start automatically and i think
> most of them are puzzled in front of a big grey play button. Others
> consider this a feature and not actually a bug ;) And i think this
> _default_ behaviour will be considered more a bug in the future when
> swfdec will play more stuff out of the box.

Actually, I've seen flash players with a big gray button in the middle.
Users are supposed to figure it out, or it won't play.  I don't think
our button is harder to understand.  It's language neutral.  It has some
"bi-di" issues (users writing right-to-left would expect the button to
point the other way), but again, we are not unique here, and it should
be fixable.  But as I said, I'm not an expert in user interfaces.

> Setting autoplaying on start is a step in the direction of making it
> easier for most of the users until the flash files will be played
> automatically, which i belive is a goal for a free
> implementation of the most widespread browser plugin; managing the
> autoplay from the plugin menu is a help for the people who are a bit
> more knownledged and want a bit more control now.

I think we should consider whether users expect the "play" button to be
persistent, and how persistent it should be.

My experience with web pages shows that logins may be persistent, but
interactive elements are not.  If I go the the page of my bank, it may
remember who I am, but it won't remember whether I was checking my
statement or reading general information about the bank.

Nothing in my user experience makes me expect that activating one flash
file would activate all flash content on the same site, and only on that
site, and that it will be persistent.

For instance, when I enter my car, I start the engine.  Do I expect the
engine to start automatically the next time I enter my car?  No, I
don't.  Yet I expect my CD player to remember what track it was playing.
My car remembers whether the headlights were on.  But why would I expect
that turning on headlights would make them turn on only if I'm starting
the engine at the same time plus or minus 5 minutes?  It would be
totally arbitrary for me.

> > I think everybody agrees that the current implementation is wrong.  We
> > shouldn't be trying to preserve a wrong behavior.
> 
> I think it is quite reasonable with respect to the capabilities of
> swfdec. But i don't like it too :)

OK, I guess I'm a wrong person to discuss it.  I'm too much annoyed by
things and programs wrongly guessing what I want to do.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin