This is a really good point:
However, in building my Smart Folder I discovered that an annoying Apple design trend from iTunes has made its way into Spotlight as well: an oversimplified search interface that prevents you from doing even somewhat complicated searches.
Want to create a Smart Folder that contains all Microsoft Word files modified in the past 14 days with either a name that contains “22″ or “23″ but not “21″? You can’t do it, just as you can’t (without faking it via using other playlists as intermediaries) create an iTunes playlist that isn’t either all “and” or “or” operations.
I will admit that some users won’t even think of making these kind of searches. But they’re also very powerful — and many users would appreciate having that power at their fingertips. It’s past time for Apple to design an easy-to-use interface that also lets users harness the power of or and not.
I’m listening right now to an iTunes “Smart Playlist” called “Irish/Folk.” It’s an “or” playlist; the criteria are that at least 1 of the following 7 things must be true:
* Artist contains “Clancy”
* Artist contains “Makem”
* Artist contains “Chieftains”
* Artist contains “Irish”
* Genre contains “Irish”
* Genre contains “Celtic”
* Genre contains “Folk”
The problem is, these crtieria result in the inclusion of various songs I don’t want in this particular playlist. For example, Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco songs are labeled as “Folk,” but as much as I love Ani and the Girls, they clearly they do not fit into the theme I’m going for. Also, there are some cheesy “Irish” songs by Bing Crosby, like “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” but I don’t really want those, either. I could solve this problems very easily, with minimal effort (which is the whole point of Smart Playlists, after all), if only I could add some “and not” crteria to my “or” search, like:
* Artist does not contain “DiFranco”
* Artist does not contain “Indigo”
* Artist does not contain “Crosby”
I can do this sort of serach on Google, for heaven’s sake; why can’t I do it in a “Smart Playlist” (or a “Smart Folder” for that matter) in my glorious, advanced “Tiger” operating system? Argh.
I’m looking at you, Apple. How does putting these features in iTunes 4.9 and OS 10.4.2 sound? :)
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Categories: Technology & Nerdy News
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May 27th, 2005 at 12:41:19 pm
um Brendan, not to make you look unsmart or anything, but you can add an Artist does not contain to a smart play list really really easily.
There is the pop up menu after the Artist one that says contains, just click on it and change it to does not contain. You can also do is and is not, and ends with and begins with.
May 27th, 2005 at 1:14:32 pm
There is the pop up menu after the Artist one that says contains…
Well duh, I know that, but that doesn’t solve my problem because it’s an “or” playlist, not an “and” playlist. If I added the criterion “Artist does not contain ‘Crosby’” to my existing list of criteria for my “or” playlist, that would add every single song in my iTunes database that does not contain “Crosby” to the playlist, rather than just adding the Clancy/Makem/Chieftains/Irish/Celtic/folk songs that don’t contain Crosby. Thus, it would essentially disregard all my other criteria! Moreover, the songs that contain “Crosby” but are in the “Irish” genre (the ones I was targeting in the first place) would still be in my playlist, because a song only needs to meet ONE of the criteria in order to be included! That’s the nature of an “or” playlist. Ultimately, the only songs that WOULDN’T be in my playlist are songs by someone named Crosby that don’t fit into any of my defined genres! So basically, your proposed playlist would contain my entire iTunes Library!
Apple allows “and”/”and not” playlists, and it allows “or”/”or not” playlists, but it does not allow playlists that combine “or”/”or not” with “and”/”and not.”
I think you probably get what I’m saying by now, but just in case not, here is a simple example. Suppose I had a “Smart Commentlist” feature on my blog that could parse my blog commenters by ideology and display only the desired comments. Now suppose I create a Smart Commentlist that says:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; or
* Ideology contains “libertarian”
But I also decide I want to exclude Andrew from the commentlist, cuz he’s an annoying Orange County pretty boy. :) (Hi Andrew :) So I want to change it to:
* Ideology contains “conservative” or “libertarian”; and
* Last name does not contain “Long”
With Apple’s Smart Playlists, there is simply no way to do this, because I can’t combine “and” and “or.” Instead, what your proposed solution would leave me with is:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; or
* Ideology contains “libertarian”; or
* Last name does not contain “Long”
Problem! That commentlist would include all the moderates and liberals as well (because none of their last names contain “Long”), and it would still include Andrew because, although he does not satisfy the third criterion, he still satisfies the first one, and you only have to satisfy one.
Alternatively, if I made it an “and” commentlist based on the above criteria, it would say:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; and
* Ideology contains “libertarian”; and
* Last name does not contain “Long”
But this doesn’t work either, because the only people on this commentlist would be people not named “Long” who are BOTH “conservative” and “libertarian,” which is not what I wanted… I wanted all conservatives and all libertarians, not just conservative libertarians.
Now, I admit, that whole example was mostly just an excuse to randomly pick on my Best Man :) … but do you see what I’m saying?
Bottom line, you failed in your mission to make me look unsmart… better luck next time. ;)
May 27th, 2005 at 1:36:28 pm
Brendan,
You better have some Pogues in there, or you’re just not a fan of Irish music…and some Waterboys too.
May 27th, 2005 at 5:34:26 pm
Add Drop kick murphys?
And Real McKenzies, if you’re up for Scots nationalist punk. I only mention it in this context because, well, they rock. Not Irish, of course, but I’m a sucker for bagpipes.
May 27th, 2005 at 5:41:19 pm
um Brendan, not to make you look unsmart or anything, but you can add an Artist does not contain to a smart play list really really easily.
There is the pop up menu after the Artist one that says contains, just click on it and change it to does not contain. You can also do is and is not, and ends with and begins with.
May 27th, 2005 at 6:00:43 pm
Brendan, I feel your pain, and raise it. My job is to write software that interfaces with a realtime database. However, the database (chosen without my input) doos not support ‘not’ or ‘nor’ or ‘nand’. Also, it doesnt even support joins in an efficient manner. So, my point is, Apple isnt the only entity that limits database query operations.
May 27th, 2005 at 6:05:13 pm
Doc - seconded !
May 27th, 2005 at 6:14:32 pm
<i>There is the pop up menu after the Artist one that says contains…</i>
Well <i>duh</i>, I know <i>that</i>, but that doesn’t solve my problem because it’s an “or” playlist, not an “and” playlist. If I added the criterion “Artist does not contain ‘Crosby’” to my existing list of criteria for my “or” playlist, that would add <i>every single song in my iTunes database</i> that does not contain “Crosby” to the playlist, rather than just adding the Clancy/Makem/Chieftains/Irish/Celtic/folk songs that don’t contain Crosby. Thus, it would essentially disregard all my other criteria! Moreover, the songs that contain “Crosby” but are in the “Irish” genre (the ones I was targeting in the first place) would <i>still</i> be in my playlist, because a song only needs to meet ONE of the criteria in order to be included! That’s the nature of an “or” playlist. Ultimately, the only songs that WOULDN’T be in my playlist are songs by someone named Crosby that don’t fit into any of my defined genres! So basically, your proposed playlist would contain my entire iTunes Library!
Apple allows “and”/”and not” playlists, and it allows “or”/”or not” playlists, but it does not allow playlists that combine “or”/”or not” with “and”/”and not.”
I think you probably get what I’m saying by now, but just in case not, here is a simple example. Suppose I had a “Smart Commentlist” feature on my blog that could parse my blog commenters by ideology and display only the desired comments. Now suppose I create a Smart Commentlist that says:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; or
* Ideology contains “libertarian”
But I also decide I want to exclude Andrew from the commentlist, cuz he’s an annoying Orange County pretty boy. :) (Hi Andrew :) So I want to change it to:
* Ideology contains “conservative” or “libertarian”; and
* Last name does not contain “Long”
With Apple’s Smart Playlists, there is simply no way to do this, because I can’t combine “and” and “or.” Instead, what your proposed solution would leave me with is:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; or
* Ideology contains “libertarian”; or
* Last name does not contain “Long”
Problem! That commentlist would include all the moderates and liberals as well (because none of their last names contain “Long”), and it would still include Andrew because, although he does not satisfy the third criterion, he still satisfies the first one, and you only have to satisfy one.
Alternatively, if I made it an “and” commentlist based on the above criteria, it would say:
* Ideology contains “conservative”; and
* Ideology contains “libertarian”; and
* Last name does not contain “Long”
But this doesn’t work either, because the only people on this commentlist would be people not named “Long” who are BOTH “conservative” <i>and</i> “libertarian,” which is not what I wanted… I wanted all conservatives and all libertarians, not just conservative libertarians.
Now, I admit, that whole example was mostly just an excuse to randomly pick on my Best Man :) … but do you see what I’m saying?
Bottom line, you failed in your mission to make me look unsmart… better luck next time. ;)
May 27th, 2005 at 6:36:28 pm
Brendan,
You better have some Pogues in there, or you’re just not a fan of Irish music…and some Waterboys too.
May 27th, 2005 at 7:55:30 pm
Ok Brendan, that makes much more sense now. Glad to see you aren’t turning into an idiot :D
May 27th, 2005 at 8:01:50 pm
hehe :)
May 27th, 2005 at 10:34:26 pm
Add Drop kick murphys?
And Real McKenzies, if you’re up for Scots nationalist punk. I only mention it in this context because, well, they rock. Not Irish, of course, but I’m a sucker for bagpipes.
May 27th, 2005 at 10:57:55 pm
That iPod should have some Young Dubliners in it.
May 27th, 2005 at 11:00:43 pm
Brendan, I feel your pain, and raise it. My job is to write software that interfaces with a realtime database. However, the database (chosen without my input) doos not support ‘not’ or ‘nor’ or ‘nand’. Also, it doesnt even support joins in an efficient manner. So, my point is, Apple isnt the only entity that limits database query operations.
May 27th, 2005 at 11:05:13 pm
Doc - seconded !
May 28th, 2005 at 12:55:30 am
Ok Brendan, that makes much more sense now. Glad to see you aren’t turning into an idiot :D
May 28th, 2005 at 1:01:50 am
hehe :)
May 28th, 2005 at 3:57:55 am
That iPod should have some Young Dubliners in it.