Version 2.0 (by Michael Wu)

• Previous track is enabled with 64 history entries
• Works with Jump to File Extra
• Maintains paused status when going to next file.
• Works with very large playlists
• Cleaned up code / algorithm

Author's (Michael Wu) comments:

I've fixed it to work with JTFE / any other plugin that wants to modify the next playlist item also.
It allows 64 previous history entries so previous track does work.
It maintains the paused status (I couldn't get stopped to work, so I pretended stop was pause).

Some things to note:
Winamp crashes if your playlist is only separators. This is apparently is Winamp's fault and there is nothing to do about it. It goes into a stack overflow by trying to play the next separator until the stack gives out.

Winamp will crash if you attempt to sync a playlist with separators with an iPod or other portables. So remove the separators before syncing. This is not the plugin's fault.

Otherwise I have tested it on pretty large playlists.

I can't get it to crash other than the cases mentioned above... but I would like some outside stress testing.

Nic says: Great job! :)

Version 1.1

• Fixed large playlists bug (don't blame me if Dr.O's "Playlist Separator" crashes or is slow on large playlists !)
• Warning Message when attempting to push "Previous" button

Note:

If the plugin doesn't seem to work at first, you may have to do a slight modification of the playlist (i.e. drag a file up/down in the playlist) to trigger the plugin [I thought I fixed it in this verison, but seems like it is still sometimes needed :( ]

Version 1.0

Simple complete albums & separate tracks shuffle for everyone.

Let's start from this basic assumptions:

1. You have many albums, each one in one folder

2. You use Dr.O's "Playlist Separator" plugin, which lets you separate them very nicely in your playlist [get it here, be sure to choose the latest release]

and you want to:

3. Play one album track-by-track, then random pick another one, play it in order, and so on, without using a big complex plugin like "Albumlist". You just want to keep it simple, in your beautiful organized (with Dr.O's separators) playlist.

4. You also want to add to the playlist various single tracks, which should be randomly picked just like complete albums.

Well this is the plugin for you.

Just use Dr'O's "Playlist Separator" plugin [here] and make sure that:

1. Every album is preceeded by a separator, which starts with at least 5 minuses (for example "----- My Album -----", or simply "-----------")

2. A block of single tracks to be played randomly, not being part of an album, must pe preceeded by a separator which starts with at least five "equals" (for example "===== Tracks to be randomly selected ===="). You can create this with: Right Click -> Insert Separator, and put in the "New Entry" field something like "separator://?S====== ..."

The first entries in the playlist, before any separator, are considered random tracks.

Enable the plugin from the configuration window and just listen.

Things you should know:

1. The "Previous" button doesn't work and it has been disabled, as it messes with the shuffling algorithm.

2. The shuffling completely overrides Winamp's default shuffling. So nothing like "Shuffle Morph Rate" will work.

3. I use a Mersenne Twister algorithm to select the random playlist entry. See http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html.

4. To avoid playing the same file/album twice (by random), after one file/album is played it won't be played again until the whole playlist is played. One exception: the first file/album upon you double-click to start the playing is not taken into account.

5. There may be some problems large playlists. They seem not to be this plugin's fault, but Dr.O's "Playlist Separator" plugin's.