changes to the Gigabeat button mappings

[AlexP]

I completely agree with Llorean.  In the past I argued for swapping power and select in the WPS to make it consistent between screens.  I'm not bothered which button is labelled what (i.e. say button 1 is play on iRiver and A on gigabeat, button 2 is A/B on iRiver and menu on gigabeat etc.), I just think that the usage of button 1 (and button 2 ...) should be consistent.

Now that power and A have essentially been swapped, select and A should be swapped in the WPS to have consistency between what each button does across different screens in rockbox.

[markun]

The Archos Player (didn't check the other targets) has 1 button (the "on" button) to go from the WPS to the file browser and from the file browser back to the WPS. Should that be changed as well to make it more consistent with the rest?

[bascule]

Llorean, I absolutely agree with your proposal. If my gigabeat was like my iriver, using the centre cross (joystick press on H1x0) to access the browser, I would get my fingers much less in a twist. The A button is just too low down for one-handed use.

...Getting back to the WPS is slightly harder (Hold left, then tap left once, then choose the Now Playing entry) than a single button press...

But wouldn't the A button (play/pause) take you back to the WPS as per other targets?

[Llorean]

Yeah, I personally have this general opinion on button maps:

1) Rockbox shouldn't ever go out of its way to match the other software beyond acknowledging that buttons are labelled, such as "Play", "Stop", "Menu", etc.

2) Rockbox should attempt, where the number of buttons permits, to respect Rockbox's own button mappings on other platforms, so that for example the button labelled "Menu" does the same thing on the same screen independent of which hardware you're holding. This way someone who's used Rockbox before can pick up a new target, and other than the positioning of the buttons, know what they'll do in any given screen once they've learned which button is which for any one screen.

That's my personal philosophy on pretty much the whole matter.

[AlexP]

Llorean has just put what I was trying to say much better.  I agree with him!

[ilikedirt]

I'm mostly interested in a as-good-as-possible one handed operation. So I'm all for iriver like navigation (select takes to browser).

[Llorean]

Yes, the A button would take you back to the WPS, I was just talking about within the context of one-handed, I think going to the "Now Playing" menu entry is slightly easier than hitting the A button (unless you're left handed like me).

[lights0ut]

I wouldn't mind the switch of A and centre tap for going to the file browser.

I was thinking about the paged scrolling with the vol +/- buttons, I know paged scrolling is achieved by holding A, but it would be quite nice to use the vol. buttons because it would be quicker, and I now agree that the loss of the ability to change volume in the menu is not that big a deal.