«I need a media player that thinks about music the way I think about it.
This is such a program.»

satyr is a rather minimalistic audio player/tag editor based in KDE
technologies, and developed in the Python language.

It pretends to have the following features:

 * The PlayList and the Collection(s) are the same thing.
 * Yours is a Collection of Albums, nothing else[3].
 * Some Albums are from the same artists and some are compilations[3].
 * If you want an ephemeral playlist you could queue songs.
 * If you want non-ephemeral playlists, then this player is not for you[5].
 * Ability to search à la xmms, but in the same interface
 * Skinneable.
 * Tag reading and writing.
 * Order you collection based on the tags[6].
 * The collection discovers new files and adds them to the playlist on the fly[4].
 * Be able to use the whole interface only with your keyboard (die, mouse, die!).

[1] Functionality available via dbus only at the moment.
[2] There is no 2.
[3] Not yet available.
[4] Of course this only works if it's running. Otherwise, you can always ask for
    a rescan[1].
[5] Yet?
[6] Not completely available; compilations are not supported completely in the
    sense that they're not detected automatically and even when you can say
    «this song comes from a compilation», the state is not saved.


DEPENDENCIES:
============

package[1]		version[2]
-------------------------------
python-qt4-phonon	4.6-1[5]
python-kde4		4.3.1
python-tagpy		0.94.7
pyqt4-dev-tools[3]	4.5.4[4][5]

[1] The names are the ones used in Debian.
[2] These are the versions used while developing
[3] Or the package that provides the pyuic4 tool.
[4] I think any 4.5.x is enough.
[5] python-qt4-phonon was added after my system changed to
    python-qt4-4.6-1. if it's not working with 4.5.x, let me know.


INSTALATION:
===========

Once unpacked, run 'python setup.py install --help', and follow
instructions. make sure that the chosen prefix (which you can change
with the --prefix option) is in the proper paths; that is:

 * $prefix/bin is in PATH
 * $prefix/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages is in PYTHONPATH

where X.Y is the version of the default python in your system. If they
are not, add them in your .bashrc file or equivalent. If everythong is
setup correctly, satyr will be able to start with your X session.


RUNNING:
=======

satyr still lacks of configure dialogs, but can be configured from the
command line the first time it's run. So far you can configure the skin
shown (use the -s/--skin option to change it) and the paths to the
collections. Run 'satyr_main <path to collection>...'. satyr will
remember all this, so next runs can simply be 'satyr_main', unless you
want to change something.


SHORTCUTS:
=========

Discover them using the Settings -> Configure shortcuts menu entry.
Also, modify at will!


ABOUT:
=====

If you have any question or suggestion and you want to contact me, you
can send me an e-mail to:

Marcos Dione <mdione@grulic.org.ar>

or contact me via irc: I'm StyXman on the freenode network. Good luck
and happy song listening!


Shooting troubles in the head (a.k.a FAQ):
=========================================

Q: I get no songs after scanning my collection! What (doesn't) give?
A: It happened to me once. phonon didn't had any backend so no mymetypes
    were supported. Check if the output has a line like:

No mimetypes! do you have any Phonon backend installed, configured and/or working?

   If so, then please check that phonon is properly installed,
   configured, and has at least one backend.

Q: Search takes ages!
A: Yes, I know. I'm looking for alternatives, but so far they have
    proven even worse. Also, sometimes it takes some time to load the
    tags of the songs that are shown for the first time, specially when
    the program has just been run.