New /play switches - 28/07/22 09:41 PM
I haven't been a big user of /play, so these are suggestions which would enhance the experience for those who do. These seem useful as changes to default behavior, but I know that would cause backwards compatibility problems.
Use case is a script that I'm helping with that has a 15000ms delay between lines so the lines come slow enough to be read slowly.
(1) Suggesting a switch or parm for /play so that the 1st line plays after either a 0ms or 1ms wait instead of after <delay> millisecs.
While people using short delays don't notice and/or mind if there's a 1000ms or shorter wait prior to showing the 1st line, they often wouldn't want to wait the full <delay> of 15 secs prior to seeing line#1.
The script uses saved variables to know where to resume-play where it had been stopped, and a workaround would get complicated by trying to resume at line N by using $read to show just the 1st line then followed by resuming at play -fN+1 because of trying to calculate whether N+1 exists, or either line N or N+1 is a blank line, where the next 2 non-blank lines exist beginning at line N, etc
(2) Switch for 0ms or 1ms delay after a blank line. In the above example of 15 secs between lines, I created a sample 3-lines file with line 2 being blank, and it had a 30 sec wait between the displays of line#1 and line#3, instead of waiting extra intervals each time there's a blank line.
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From using the combination of the above switches, there would be a 0/1 ms delay before showing line#1 because it's the 1st line, followed by a 15000ms delay, followed by another 0/1 ms delay due to line#2 being blank, followed by showing line#3, so the total time from /play to ON PLAYEND would be 15000+ 0-or-2 ms.
These might even be something that can be combined as a single new switch for compressed display.
Use case is a script that I'm helping with that has a 15000ms delay between lines so the lines come slow enough to be read slowly.
(1) Suggesting a switch or parm for /play so that the 1st line plays after either a 0ms or 1ms wait instead of after <delay> millisecs.
While people using short delays don't notice and/or mind if there's a 1000ms or shorter wait prior to showing the 1st line, they often wouldn't want to wait the full <delay> of 15 secs prior to seeing line#1.
The script uses saved variables to know where to resume-play where it had been stopped, and a workaround would get complicated by trying to resume at line N by using $read to show just the 1st line then followed by resuming at play -fN+1 because of trying to calculate whether N+1 exists, or either line N or N+1 is a blank line, where the next 2 non-blank lines exist beginning at line N, etc
(2) Switch for 0ms or 1ms delay after a blank line. In the above example of 15 secs between lines, I created a sample 3-lines file with line 2 being blank, and it had a 30 sec wait between the displays of line#1 and line#3, instead of waiting extra intervals each time there's a blank line.
--
From using the combination of the above switches, there would be a 0/1 ms delay before showing line#1 because it's the 1st line, followed by a 15000ms delay, followed by another 0/1 ms delay due to line#2 being blank, followed by showing line#3, so the total time from /play to ON PLAYEND would be 15000+ 0-or-2 ms.
These might even be something that can be combined as a single new switch for compressed display.