Pressing LEFT to get to WPS from file root

[hshah]

Well, I asked someone nicely on the IRC channel and they made me a SMALL patch (only like 2 lines long) that does this for me... it works a treat.  I have asked for his permission if I can post it here, and if he says Yes, then I will

[Marcogringo]

I didn't read all the previous messages, but, here is my idea :

When u are in "browse screen" :
- "play" button : do the default action (like dubble clic on windows), so, it'll open a directrory, play a music file, ...
- "record" button : allow the switch between active screens (a bit like Alt + Tab on windows). If u are playing a song while browsing files and that u press this button on time, it print the WPS screen. An other pression will make u return to the "browse screen". If u are listenig to the radio while browsing, it'll be the same thing with WPrS (While Playing radio Screen).
After, we'll could extend this system, per example : if you are recording the radio. One press on "record" button will carry u out, from the WRS (While Recording Screen) to the WPrS. The next pression will carry u out to the "browse files" screen. The next pression will bring u back to the WRS.

What about this idea ?

[Marcogringo]

Maybe it would be better to use the "jostick clic" to do these screen switch....

[Marcogringo]

No reactions. Was my idea not clear ?

[kenshin]

I agree that the button layout needs rethinking and more consistency but the idea that one button will have one function regardless of what screen is active is ludicrous. Buttons should perform the most logical function on the current screen. Retooling buttons is not inherently bad if there's a logical layout on each screen. And frankly, using "play" to exit the menus back to the WPS seems stupid to me. I would prefer "stop" which to me says "stop browsing".

And voting for "favorite layouts" is, in my experience, at best a crapshoot. What makes most sense to one user will seem insanely stupid to another. Quite frankly, only a handful of users really understand the impact of changing how buttons are handled and which one performs which function on which screen. I've been using Rockbox for over 6 months. I've dug into the code and subitted patches. And I still don't know which buttons do what on half the screens I use.

[TiMiD]

And voting for "favorite layouts" is, in my experience, at best a crapshoot. What makes most sense to one user will seem insanely stupid to another.

I totally agree
I'm convinced that the best thing would be to make the button's layout totally customisable with a config file in which you could associate an action with a key, a key combination, a short press / long press

Also, a feature that miss me the most when I'm using rockbox is the "skip to next/last directory" shortcut (short + long joypad key press or rec on the remote in the original fw)

[Mikerman]

Timid--  I agree with you as to the folder skip idea and I posted it as a feature request last weekend--hopefully, someone will pick it up!



I also think that the short+long press key combination is a great possibility that isn't being taken advantage of as an option, such as for the folder skip or to scroll through long lists--that assumes that Rockbox could use that combination, of course.

[hshah]

Oh I forgot to post the patch that allows you to go from root to wps:

Code: [Select]

Index: tree.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/rockbox/apps/tree.c,v
retrieving revision 1.343
diff -u -b -r1.343 tree.c
--- tree.c 6 Jul 2005 22:57:54 -0000 1.343
+++ tree.c 16 Aug 2005 18:07:03 -0000
@@ -746,8 +746,10 @@
                     break;
                 }
 
-                if (!tc.dirlevel)
+                if (tc.dirlevel == 0) { /*root*/
+                    start_wps = true;
                     break;
+                }
 
                 if (id3db)
                     db_exit(&tc);


[Mikerman]

Hmm--for some reason, doesn't work for me with today's build.

[hshah]

It doesn't work after you have just unplugged the USB cable, and it boots to root.  It will only work when you end up going to root yourself. 

[Mikerman]

Thnaks, but Hmm again:  I just booted up, started playing a tune, clicked the joystick to get to the root director, and moved the joystick to the left to get back to the WPS, and no go ...

I had copied the above text as is into a Notepad file and used that as a .patch; by any chance was I supposed to delete something (like the top header info.)?

Ah, well ....

[hshah]

Try applying the patch manually!

[Mikerman]

Thanks, and now you're REALLY testing my skills--I'm happy to be able to get CVS to work for me (or, better said, me to work for CVS) and to patch some files!

[Mikerman]

OK, Hshah, applied the patch manually and it worked great!  (Actually, I'm just relieved I didn't break the player.  )

The left press really is intuitive--I had to think about what was different, it was so natural to use.  And it avoids having to move one's hand around to use the play/pause button--highly recommended for adoption!



A couple of manual patching questions, from someone who doesn't do this (and so please forgive their basic nature):

--  In Windows Wordpad (which I used to edit the file), I get save document  choices of Text Document, Text Document - MS DOS Format, and Unicode Text Document (as well as Rich Text Format RTF)); I used the first, at which point I get a message about formatting not being saved--was this the correct format for saving?

--  In manually adding in the changes, are the spaces in each line important?  I tried to make everything look like the original above, including the blank spaces in each line and how the lines lined up, but wasn't sure that this was necessary.

And, thanks, again!

(edit:  And actually, a final question:  sometimes when I open a file in Windows Notepad, all the text is a run-on paragraph, with no line breaks; other times, the lines breaks are there.  Is there a rhyme or reason for this?  It doesn't seem to relate to Word Wrap for me.  Wordpad almost always seems to keep line breaks in.)

[kenshin]

Oh I forgot to post the patch that allows you to go from root to wps:

Thanks for the patch, hshah. Now I'll know exactly what to change back in my personal builds if this ever goes into CVS.

--  In manually adding in the changes, are the spaces in each line important?  I tried to make everything look like the original above, including the blank spaces in each line and how the lines lined up, but wasn't sure that this was necessary.

In general, extra whitespace in C code does nothing. If the whitespace is quoted then your output will be different. But if you're talking about leading or trailing whitespace have as much as you like.

(edit: And actually, a final question: sometimes when I open a file in Windows Notepad, all the text is a run-on paragraph, with no line breaks; other times, the lines breaks are there. Is there a rhyme or reason for this? It doesn't seem to relate to Word Wrap for me. Wordpad almost always seems to keep line breaks in.)

The file you opened is using unix end of line markers (one character) and notepad only reads Windows end of line markers (two characters). Notepad is just being stupid.