Space bar should be the shortcut for play / pause

[lazka]

Original issue 1288 created by simon.boulier on 2013-11-07T11:45:52.000Z:

I would want to change the space bar shortcut so that it toogles play/pause. Don't you? (Currently it activates the selected button).
It seems to me that it's an usual shortcut in other audio players.

Quodlibet is amazing, thank you very much!

Simon

[lazka]

Comment #1 originally posted by s@kazlauskas.me on 2013-11-07T15:14:51.000Z:

We have Ctrl+Space bound for that function.

[lazka]

Comment #2 originally posted by simon.boulier on 2013-11-07T15:31:39.000Z:

Yes I know but it is much less practical (especially when the computer is used as "music controller").

[lazka]

Comment #3 originally posted by nick.boultbee on 2014-04-25T11:58:27.000Z:

It could be configurable...

[lazka]

Comment #4 originally posted by joschuaga@yahoo.de on 2014-10-07T20:49:43.000Z:

I agree, every player I know uses "space" to play / pause. Also, isn't "enter" the key to active the selected (button)?

[lazka]

Comment #5 originally posted by joschuaga@yahoo.de on 2014-10-07T20:51:38.000Z:

I agree, every player I know uses "space" to play / pause. Also, AFAIK normally "enter" is the key to activate the selected button or else.

[marcelpaulo]

The accelerator for <Actions>/QuodLibetWindowActions/PlayPause is always reset to <Primary>space when QL starts. I tried:

1. Stop QL
2. In ~/.quodlibet/accels, uncomment the entry for <Actions>/QuodLibetWindowActions/PlayPause, and change the accelerator to space
3. Start QL

The entry was reset to the default: commented and accelerator set to <Primary>space.

[alexforencich]

This bug is absolutely infuriating.

[jmorez]

It shouldn't be "configurable", spacebar should be the default play/pause toggle...

Also, shouldn't the play button change to the pause button if there is music playing?

[CreamyCookie]

Also, shouldn't the play button change to the pause button if there is music playing?

Huh? It already does that. Which version are you using?

[jmorez]

3.5.3., downloaded it in Ubuntu 16.04's software center.

Spacebar acts as a play button, not a play/pause toggle. If I manually click the play/pause button, it starts acting as a toggle. If I double click a song, it works as a play button again. So somehow only within the "Play button was last clicked/selected" context does the spacebar act as a toggle. Also it does not change icon. Could it have something to do with me using the Flatabulous theme/Vibrancy Colours Icons theme?

[CreamyCookie]

Oh, okay. You need to upgrade to at least 3.6.0 if you want that:

Player controls: use a normal button with two icons instead of a toggle button. #1814

You could add the PPA from here: http://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/downloads.html#ubuntu-logo-ubuntu

[scottyeager]

+1 This is maddening. I really can't imagine a workflow where it makes any sense. Like,

1. Song is playing
2. User navigates to another song
3. User wants to start the new song
4. User presses Enter (this works already, why use the space bar?)

As others have mentioned, every single other music/video player in existence works this way. That might not even be an exaggeration. Configurable would be nice, but space bar as a play/pause toggle is the sane default.

Can this be fixed via a plugin or other means that don't require directly modifying the source?

[jacebot]

I would like to add to this. The cmd+Spacebar for macOS(osx), is the default for Spotlight/ search. So having it as the 'play' option with no way to change the bindings is the only negative to this wonderful audio player. Otherwise disabling or changing the Spotlight key bindings is not really a solution especially if end user has already become accustom to the cmd+spacebar for all-the-things.

[urielz]

@jacebot yes, keyboard shortcuts are a bit messy at the moment. I have reported this before #1878. But now that I understand the code a bit more I might try to come up with a solution consistent among all systems (without getting into remapping).

[marcelpaulo]

Even though @lazka committed d4ec970, the accelerator for PlayPause is still bound by default to <primary>space, and it's still being reset to <primary>space everytime QL starts (as I reported in this comment).

I'm running QL 47e925a on Xubuntu 18.04.

[rphair]

in #1878 (Support OS-dependent keyboard shortcuts), this comment points out an additional workflow problem:

The SPACE button does the same thing on all operating systems: killing the playlist position (resetting it to the beginning) with no way of getting back to the song you were on before.

It's a very easy thing to do when you are moving gradually through a playlist of hundreds of songs. It is the easiest key in the world to hit by accident, and the most commonly pressed when you think you're focused in another window, and easy to fat-finger when you are trying to Shift-Space to exit the playlist gracefully, or Ctrl-Space to pause immediately, and didn't press the right meta key.

Thanks to the SPACE key interrupting a playlist with zero chance of getting your original position back, there are huge playlists that I have never been able to go through systematically, song by song. This is nearly the opposite of QuodLibet's design principle of putting the user in control.

[deutrino]

I tend to get frequently bitten by this bug after almost 20 years of using players that bind the space bar the way people are requesting. I really think it makes much more sense to have space as play/pause. Right now it's a minor but relatively frequent pain point for me.

[marcelpaulo]

I stand corrected: PlayPause is currently bound to both space AND <primary>space ! It must be using the defaults, since its entry in ~/.config/quodlibet/accels is commented out:

; (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/QuodLibetWindowActions/PlayPause" "<Primary>space")

So, contrary to what I said before, commit d4ec970 fixed it.

PS: I'm running QL 47e925a on Xubuntu 18.04.

[frestr]

I stand corrected: PlayPause is currently bound to both space AND space !

d4ec970 bound PlayPause to space in the songlist, i.e. it only works when the songlist is in focus.

The main issue of having space as a global shortcut (as far as I can see) is that global shortcuts seem to be processed before local key events. So if the shortcut is changed from <Primary>space to space (without any further modifications), it will not be possible to write spaces in the search entry.

[marcelpaulo]

d4ec970 bound PlayPause to space in the songlist, i.e. it only works when the songlist is in focus

Indeed, I've just confirmed it.

The main issue of having space as a global shortcut (as far as I can see) is that global shortcuts seem to be processed before local key events. So if the shortcut is changed from space to space (without any further modifications), it will not be possible to write spaces in the search entry

It makes perfect sense !

Shouldn't this issue be closed ?

[alexforencich]

No, it should not be closed. If a global shortcut doesn't work, then what could make sense is to add it to every element that could potentially have focus that doesn't need space for its own function - for example, you would bind it to the play list so pressing space in the play list is equivalent to pressing the play/pause button, but not on the transport controls or the search box so you can type spaces in the search box and 'tab' through the transport controls.

[declension]

Remember for accessibility Gtk uses tabs & space / enter for moving focus and activating widgets.

Whilst I rarely encounter this issue (due to the songlist fix in d4ec970) - I think there are some low hanging fruit as per what @alexforencich said, in particular the info area, and maybe the Cover Art (+ window)