Many media players (totem, smplayer, mplayer, ...) seek forward and backward with the mouse scroll. Parole does nothing. This is particularly helpful to find a particularly interesting point doing smaller jumps than when using the progress bar or to jump back a few seconds to see/hear again something.
This behavior was (intentionally) dropped in this commit: http://git.xfce.org/apps/parole/commit/?id=99548fb13d88e71aff2ad2e86fc47463f2227f16
Can I ask why? Was it causing problems? I'm searching for a reasoning behind that change but can't find it, so if it was discussed anywhere I would appreciate a pointer as to where. This is the kind of functionality that makes the difference between players. Without it, it's a good player, with it, it's a good player with a good user experience.
It's a feature that may be great for some, or a great nuisance for others. Not all touch-scrolling is made the same. Single-touch touchpad: scrollbars on left or right, easy to accidentally bump. Some mice have "clicky" scrollwheels that page once and then click. Other mice have "fluid" scrollwheels that will either page once or numerous times. Since the controls are not guaranteed to be precise, there has to be a better way for all users. Since we've extended our keyboard shortcuts to be able to fully control the playback experience (including skipping 10 seconds, 1 minute, 10 minutes), we consider scrolling with a mousewheel unnecessary and obtrusive.
Well, that's the reasoning I couldn't find. I suppose I'll just have to try reimplementing it as an extension or, if I cant, look for a different player that meets my tastes. Anyway, thanks for answering my question so fast!