Pause & adjust volume when locked?

[gellfex]

I can't seem to find any reference to this feature ever being considered, I asked about it last year in "general". It was one of the best ideas on the much loved Motorola M25 and some of the Rio's.  It keeps the volume operational, and makes ALL the buttons a "pause" buttons when the lock is on. No more fumbling for a slide and pause when someone walks up to you talking, hoping you don't accidentally hit the forward button instead. Basically no more accidentally losing your place EVER! That particularly sucks when you're listening to podcasts or audiobooks.

If this isn't possible due to the lock slide simply disabling the buttons, what about a remapped mode with volume operational, and ALL the buttons "pause" buttons? It would need some mode gateway in and out like a sustained press of multiple buttons.

Thanks for any consideration, it seems like spoken word listeners are at the back of the features list from OEM's. The anythingbutipod audiobook forum is a sad unsatisfied place.

[JdGordon]

I can't see how this could be useful. the point of the hold switch is to stop accidental presses stuffing up playback. With this enabled you woulod get plenty of accidental pause/restarts and it would drive a calm person mad...
Also, on some targets I believe the hold switch actually disables buttons

[cool_walking_]

makes ALL the buttons a "pause" buttons when the lock is on. No more fumbling for a slide and pause when someone walks up to you talking, hoping you don't accidentally hit the forward button instead.

I personally never had problems pressing the right buttons, but an alternative is to use the "pause on headphone unplug" feature and unplug the headphones when you want to talk to people.

[gellfex]

Thanks for your replies, but I'm not the only M25 user who loves this feature! It made the M25 and similar Rio's a favorite of audiobook listeners. Jumping a song isn't usually considered a PITA by music listeners.

Member here Nate! said "My old Rio S50 and Nitrus had this functionality.  It was quite useful and configurable.  Mostly I used it to just turn the volume up or down.  It's one of those things that are nice to have.  The times I really miss this feature is when listening with in-ear buds and someone comes up and starts talking to you.  With it locked, you can just hit mute."

My Rockbox is an e260 and the pause button is quite close to the others. My M25 player is usually dangling from my belt, and occasionally is paused accidentally, but I find that far less annoying than losing my place or fumbling when the phone rings.

I didn't know about the pause on unplug feature, and that certainly is one way to do it, but abandons the volume adjust which is also handy. I work with tools and it's nice to easily adjust the volume to appropriate levels without also risking losing my place with a slip of the finger.

I guess if there's no interest in implementing this I'll be using the unplug feature on the sansa when my M25's all die at last. They're pretty tough but not immortal.  BTW, the one other feature that makes them a treasure is they take AAA's, an extreme rarity these days.

[JdGordon]

The e200 doesnt have pause-on-headphone removal (only ipods and gigabeats iirc).

Anyway, the usual advice works... patches are always welcome, and some are even accepted... I have a feeling that the hold switch on the e200 actually disables the button inputs so you need to tihnk of a way to switch modes...

edit: no the e200 can read button presses while hold is on so a patch for this could be simple...

[Llorean]

Considering it's physically impossible for Rockbox to make a player accept AAAs, that's pretty much irrelevant here.

Please stick to things that are actually on-topic to these forums.

[gellfex]

Considering it's physically impossible for Rockbox to make a player accept AAAs, that's pretty much irrelevant here.

Please stick to things that are actually on-topic to these forums.

Sorry, of course I had no expectation of that being an option, it was just part of pining for features no longer available anywhere. Won't happen again.

Jd, so it could be done huh? That's interesting. Unfortunately I'm not much of a coder, more of a mech E. How does this whole thing work? Do I need to support my idea by getting more people advocating it? Or is this about all I can do and I am done?

[saratoga]

Jd, so it could be done huh?

Yes, its a software hold switch, so you can make it do anything you want.

That's interesting. Unfortunately I'm not much of a coder, more of a mech E. How does this whole thing work? Do I need to support my idea by getting more people advocating it? Or is this about all I can do and I am done?

Making the hold switch do something completely different then be a hold switch is never going to be accepted into SVN, so theres no hope of getting support for it.  However, its physically possible for you to make the changes yourself to the source code.

[JdGordon]

Unfortunately I'm not much of a coder, more of a mech E. How does this whole thing work? Do I need to support my idea by getting more people advocating it? Or is this about all I can do and I am done?

then you need to find someone who is a "coder" and how likes the idea... although, as saratoga said, its very unlikely to be accepted into the main source, but that doesnt stop you using it in a custom build

[gellfex]

Making the hold switch do something completely different then be a hold switch is never going to be accepted into SVN, so theres no hope of getting support for it.  However, its physically possible for you to make the changes yourself to the source code.

Well, letting the volume still work and making all buttons "pause" isn't "completely different than being a hold switch", is it?

But I'd be almost as happy with the other option I described  in my OP: "remapped mode with volume operational, and ALL the buttons "pause" buttons. It would need some mode gateway in and out like a sustained press of multiple buttons." Disabling all the buttons but PAUSE would do it too, as long as the gateway in and out is doable.

I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to start on doing this myself. The last time I programmed was 25 years ago in an intro to Fortran course! Am I wrong in assuming there's a pretty steep learning curve here? While I hesitate to downplay other people's skill sets I do occasionally find certain crafts to be easier than the popular view. How does one go at this?

[Llorean]

The whole point of a hold switch is "prevent accidental button presses from altering playback in any way without disengaging the hold switch first" so allowing buttons to work is definitely "completely different" yes.

[gellfex]

The whole point of a hold switch is "prevent accidental button presses from altering playback in any way without disengaging the hold switch first" so allowing buttons to work is definitely "completely different" yes.

I do understand that if it was there was only one option. But the whole point of Rockbox is to give lots of options and control, no? On the M25 it's a toggle in settings, either the way I like it, or the way you like it, full lock. Choice is great!

It's not like I came up with this idea myself, it was implemented on a number of products.

[Llorean]

Another point of Rockbox is to keep the code maintainable, the settings managable, and to ensure an efficient and small binary.

This means "not adding every single feature anyone thinks is a good idea."

Rockbox has a long standing policy on not having customizable controls, as well, and this would certainly fall into that category.

As a suggestion: If you like to pause frequently, in the future don't purchase a player with a pause button you think is awkward to press.

[gellfex]

Another point of Rockbox is to keep the code maintainable, the settings managable, and to ensure an efficient and small binary.

This means "not adding every single feature anyone thinks is a good idea."

Rockbox has a long standing policy on not having customizable controls, as well, and this would certainly fall into that category.

As a suggestion: If you like to pause frequently, in the future don't purchase a player with a pause button you think is awkward to press.

Look, I understand your position as "guardians of the code", and that this option has a snowballs chance. But I must say in response, as a Rockbox newby, that hearing any frivolous setting was turned down is a surprise. After I studied the huge number of options available just on display like upside down or negative and "line selector type" (lets not get into themes!), it seems odd to hear you ridicule an ergonomic setting option that was implemented and much loved on a then and now highly regarded series of players that were relatively spare of options bells and whistles. 250mb M25's still sell at auction for the same price as a 4gb Sansa because people LIKE them. I could provide links to discussions of people wishing for this feature on their players, but clearly that's pointless.

Never mind, I'll toddle along and play with all the exotic font options on my rockbox...

[Llorean]

At what point was it actually ridiculed?

With the font and theme options there are usability implications. While they do add a graphical flourish, they also make it possible for the user to customize the player so its playback state and position can be more easily seen (large fonts, high contrast colours, large status icons). They allow the user to accomplish things there is no workaround for.

Meanwhile, your request can simply be worked around by actually making use of the existing pause button.