[Sansa Clip+] A better shortcut to return to WPS

[lolmaus]

The shortcut to return to WPS on Sansa Clip+ is Home+Select.

It has severe disadvantages:
1) It won't work on pause (works only "If there is an audio file playing").
2) It is very unconvenient to press. It is difficult to press with one hand when the player is attached to your shirt/strap and impossible to press with one hand when you're holding it.
3) It is tricky: you should press Home prior to Select. Simultaneous press will fail.
4) It won't work from a submenu, only from the root of the main menu.

This renders the "return to WPS" shortcut unusable.

So each time i navigate my player, i have to press Home, then navigate to "Now Playing", then press Select. It's too unconvenient!

I think that a more handy shortcut should be introduced.

I've got a couple of suggestions:
1) Home button. Currently it returns to the main menu which can also be acheived by pressing Back a number of times.
2) Back button while in the top level of the main menu. Currently it does nothing.

[mamanakis]

A little clarification: I believe you are talking about the behavior while in the menu system as home+select is the key lock from the while playing screen.

To be more inline the the sansa intuitive interface it would make sense to use the home button. With the Sansa firmware pushing the home button from the menu system will return to the while playing screen. Currently in rockbox the home button returns to the previous screen, so as long as you have not pushed any other buttons, then pushing home will return one to the WPS. I don't know how other players are mapped keywise in rockbox, e.g., do all ports have the same home (or equivalent key) behavior. I think the best thing would be to make the interface intuitive for someone coming from the Sansa firmware (like myself) which it, the rockbox interface, is not. I would vote for having the home key lead to home from anywhere but home and lead to the now playing screen from home. At most you would be two key presses of the same key away from the now playing screen. Also, (like the original sansa firmware) I would have a timeout on anything but the WPS so that after a period of time with no key presses they WPS would reappear.

As far as key changes go, I also think that the select and submenu(down) buttons should be switched in the WPS. Currently short submenu does nothing and select brings up a menu. I have gotten used to (from Sansa firmware) pushing the select key to light the display after the backlight has turned off. Switching the keys would make short select do the same thing it did with sansa firmware and the submenu key would (gasp) bring up a submenu.

TLDR, make the interface intuitive for someone used to the original Sansa interface.

[saratoga]

TLDR, make the interface intuitive for someone used to the original Sansa interface.

Generally we don't really care what the original firmware did on the device, although we are open to changing keymaps, at least in principle. 

[lolmaus]

I would vote for having the home key lead to home from anywhere but home and lead to the now playing screen from home.

That's great! I adhere.

select and submenu(down) buttons should be switched in the WPS. Currently short submenu does nothing and select brings up a menu. ... short select do the same thing it did with sansa firmware and the submenu key would (gasp) bring up a submenu.

Nice point. Less vital but reasonable!

[mamanakis]

Also, as you mentioned, the back key from the home screen does nothing. It could be made to do what the home key currently does from the home screen -- go back to the last menu viewed. This is good on the intuitive side because the back button would take you back to where you were.

I recognize that it does not really matter what the original Sansas firmware did. The point I was getting at by referring back to it was that it would aid use and adoption of rockbox by people coming from the original software.

[[Saint]]

I recognize that it does not really matter what the original Sansas firmware did. The point I was getting at by referring back to it was that it would aid use and adoption of rockbox by people coming from the original software.

Feel free to submit a patch...


[St.]

[Llorean]

Keep in mind, sometimes the reason certain things aren't done isn't obvious. For example, if you press "Left" enough times you end up at the main menu. I'm not sure what you're calling "back" but it sounds like you're suggesting if you press "left" in the main menu it should take you somewhere. There's a reason it doesn't - for blind users it's convenient to have a reliable way to get to the main menu, because the "menu" button doesn't work everywhere.

[lolmaus]

Llorean, if Left is a method to return to the root of Main menu, then make Home return to WPS instead of doing the same as Left. Ain't WPS the home?!

[bluebrother]

No.

[Artursk]

As I see it the most convenient way would be:
Home - main menu
back button in main menu - wps
holding back button anywhere else - also wps

[mfe555]

In the original firmware this is handled much more eligant: Pressing 'home' twice brings you back to the playback screen (the first press takes you from the file list to the menu, the second press exits the menu).

[Llorean]

One error in thinking is that "exiting the menu gets you to the playback screen." The playback screen is not the main screen. It's more like the main menu is, and the playback screen is something "on top" of it, that you can see when playback is happening.

[mfe555]

Knowing the structure of the software and the menus very well you may call this an "error in thinking", but I think many users would appreciate, and find logical, if "exiting the menu gets you to the playback screen."

Could it be made configurable where exiting the menu takes you?

[lolmaus]

Llorean,

imagine you're cycling and wish to switch to next track. You press Next, but nothing happens. You're on the menu! You try to press two keys simultaneously with one hand to get to WPS but you fail. You try to get to WPS by choosing the appropriate menu item, but you can't find it. You put the player next to your eyes but your hand is shaking as you move and you can barely see the items. Finally you get cursor to the WPS menu item... ah, a baby on the road! You crash.

How much simplier it'd be if you could just press Home to get to the point from where you can actually control your player.

[saratoga]

In the original firmware this is handled much more eligant: Pressing 'home' twice brings you back to the playback screen (the first press takes you from the file list to the menu, the second press exits the menu).

This seems like an acceptable change, although I'm not sure if we allow double click button actions?