Ive tried starting threads about this before, but still cannot figure this problem out. Very basically, this is what I am looking for:

-some utility that can sort an mp3 collection by "genre" in id3 tag
-generate playlists based on these results
-save playlists for use in xmms or the like

This is something ive been trying to figure out for a while. Going from Chopin to the Chemical Brothers just doesnt work for me.

I'm writing an app right now that will do just that. The ideal is to provide the app with directories and it will catalog your mp3 and ogg files. You can then create playlists and search through the files based upon album, artist etc.

I started writing it last week (rewriting actually) and the alpha should be out in another week or so.

The alpha will be able to list mp3 and ogg files and create playlists. however the ability to search by filename or id3 tag will not be in there yet.

I'll post when the alpha is ready.

Cool, sounds really promising. I'd be glad to help test out the alpha. I think a good app like this is one of the few things that linux is still missing.

That does sound pretty cool. Don't forget to drop a link to it once you have the alpha out so I can have a looksie at the source code!

All:

Lucien's very first premier never before seen you gotta have it now Alpha release has just been baked fresh and delivered straight from the GNU oven to Sourceforge. Here's a link to Lucien's project page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lucien/

Let me begin this with a major MAJOR warning or notice. This is an Alpha release. A VERY alpha release. I am not responsible if this blows up your computer, turns your hair white or eats your dog.

This provides only the MOST basic of capabiliy. It is pretty much just the first executable produced from the project (after two rewrites). It works however look for it to advance quite a bit over the next 4 weeks. In the next 4 weeks expect file listings to include information from ID3 tags such as artist and album. In addition expect a search function to be included.

There are mailing lists and the like provided through the sourceforge page. (but no homepage yet so don't even try it). So if you have any comments or questions feel free to email me or post it through the sourceforge website.

Additional Disclaimer: this is my first GTK / Gnome project. I was depending on Anjuta ( a great dev environment ) to help me in the areas I am none to familiar with (creating makefiles, etc). However Anjuta failed to help me create a proper distribution file. As such if you have problems with dependancies or compiling please tell me.

It compiles successfully on two of my machines (an LFS 4.0 and a Slackware 8.1 system). If there are any problems please let me know.

Enjoy,
jpbarto

Ok, with a little work I got it to compile under Slack9. In order to do this I had to install gnome-libs-1.4.1.7, which then wouldnt compile until I installed IMLIB-1.9.14. After getting these two items installed and doing an ldconfig, Lucien compiled and installed just fine.

I think this app has a lot of potential, once it has id3 reading and sorting capability it should be a pretty powerful little tool. Keep up the good work on this one.

Next up I may try to compile under Gentoo, I'll keep you updated.
Thanks again!

thanks for the feedback... I've been using GTK 1.whatever and the same for gnome (1.4 I think) just because that's what I started in. Plus up until recently (slack9, LFS, etc) most distros supported the older gnome (part of the transition process).
If anyone would want to work on porting this over to Gnome 2.0 let me know.

thanks cav for the feedback. I'll have to be sure to find where to list the dependancies on sourceforge.

Well I posted a comment under the 'help' forum on your sourceforge page, basically I cannot get lucien to export the playlist correctly to xmms, there seems to be a problem with the path naming convention.

If you would like I could just continue posting in sourceforge (i'm caav), or I can keep posting in this thread. Whichever you think is easier.

probably best to move everything over to sourceforge

Use mp3info or ogginfo and bash scripting.

This also looks interesting -
http://prokyon3.sourceforge.net/

Yeah that does look cool. Complicated, but cool.