I recently switched over from using Columns UI to the better combination of Default UI + Facets & SimPlaylist - really an eye opening improvement in almost every way. There are just a few things in the looks department preventing absolute perfection, so thought I'd mention some ideas I'd like to see, however unlikely they might be.
Firstly, a picture to illustrate. (Left: The current look with Aero. Right: A mock-up to spot the difference) -
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> O.P. - I recently switched over from using Columns UI to the better combination of Default UI + Facets & SimPlaylist - really an eye opening improvement in almost every way. . .
I've been using CUI for ever and played with countless preferences, tweaks and layouts. A few months ago I decided to play with a DUI layout.
The display of text and fonts in DUI has never matched the look I get in CUI which is razor sharp and highly readable; I always get an impression of slight blur when looking at text in DUI.
Facets (DUI component) and the CUI built-in Filters do the exact same thing as each other except that Facets also offers you a filter/search toolbar . . . personally I prefer to use a popup foobar2000 built-in "Media Library Search" window and a custom edited copy of "Query Syntax help.html"; I have added a new table in this document which is a list of my favorite search queries . . . for me, the whole point of forcing myself to constantly open this document is to get constantly better at understanding and using the query syntax; thus i find the Facets toolbar a superfluous thing which dumbs down the long-term user experience and negates deep understanding of foobar2000's built-in tools . . . . . . . An annoying thing about the Facets toolbar is you cannot completely hide it even if you remove all checkmarks from the options; it leaves behind a blank toolbar space; the Columns UI Filters don't have such an aesthetic problem. . . . . . . Another annoying feature of Facets is that in the Filters view, any text enclosed in brackets is dimmed, even if you don't want this.
SimPlayist (DUI component) is what I initially started my DUI layout with . . . . however, after more playing around I soon came to realize that EsPlaylist surpasses it in every possible sense; to be honest, I have no idea why SimPlayist needed to come into existence . . . . . One annoying feature of SimPlaylist is that it dims any text enclosed in brackets, even if you don't want this . . . . . . Another annoying thing about SimPlaylist is it gives you NO OPTION to have a horizontal scrollbar, it force-locks right alignment of the last column, and dragging column headers to change widths is a pain in the ass. . . . . . . the CUI playlist viewer ("NG Playlist") is better on all counts except for one fact; it does not allow multiple lines for grouping.
And color preferences . . . . unlimited ways to specify colors for items in CUI is just fantastic; DUI does not give you any such thing.
That's my 2 cents worth. Cheers.
3rd party developers can use the same edge styles as columns UI components if they want. i use a few in DUI already (ESplaylist and WSH panel mod) and there are probably more that i'm unaware of. i think it's highly unlikely the default panels will ever get this option but you never know.
whilst on the subject of trivial appearance thingies: aero for album list please. i vaguely remembering posting about that when foobar hit v1 but nothing has happened.