Some weeks ago I picked up the Id3 mp3 player/editor thingy again and started fiddling around. Allthough the standard available player on Vista (yes I am running vista these days) performs quite well, for me it has the following problems

1. It does not handle vast amounts very well. I have loads and loads of mp3's, at last count some 60 cd's filled with them. Once a file has been removed from the harddisk onto a cd or dvd, mplayer seems to forget about it completely.
   
2. Editing a tag is not easy at all in mplayer
3. cpu usage is high, even for just playing an mp3, it loves to eat cpu. I have music running a lot and I want the player to be as non intrusive as possible
4. good search options. The search options in mplayer are quite good, but they don't always fit my needs

Interesting list, question is now, can I fix the problems I hate the most? or make the features I want the most?

So I started coding a little. I lost the source code to Id3List a few years ago and I had used jode to get at least that back. Jode is awesome. The only small drawback would be the way it handles variables. Try to find your way to variables called int_1, int_2, string_1, string_2 and so on. Refactoring helped a lot, but at the same time it showed me several flaws in Id3List.

So it is being re programmed. The current list of actions is:

• duplicate file detection
  done, I use a CRC32 for that
• database model
  ongoing. the stuff is being stored in a mysql database. The model is far from finished. Refactoring ftw
• file and directory name normalizing.
  Partly done, partly as in I have decided how I want to store it namely as
  Artist/Album/track-title.mp3. There is no configurable setting for it. And I do not know yet if I will make that
• cd and dvd divider.
  This is one of the main reasons I am still using the old Id3List, let's face it, that is the best option in the program.
  
• builtin webserver.
  I played a bit with that in the old program and truth be told I liked that. With java 6. there is a decent systray class. So I would be able to minimize to there and control it by webbrowser.
• knowledge of files on a backup medium.
  It would be cool if the program would be able to tell you what file is where.

Lots to think about and lots to program :)