160x128x1 (iRiver H1x0 and iPod 4G Grey) theme: ROCKboxed--please review and tes

[JustJohnny]

I've created my first theme for ROCKbox. I have a 1st gen. Nano, so that is the original target device. I've started modifying it for use on other devices.

The theme is available on the iRiver H1x0 & iPod 4G Grey WPS gallery pages of the wiki.

Please try out the theme and let me know what you think.  I'm particularly interested in testing the progress bar and volume icons.

Does the progress bar fill the outline at the end of a song? I was having some difficulties while testing this with the uisimulator.

The inspiration for the theme is the Rockbox logo. Comments are appreciated.


ROCKboxed, version 1.0
Icons along bottom: volume, shuffle, repeat shuffle, play, hold, and battery level.

Other screenshots can be found on my personal website.

[Peter200lx]

Did you mean for the theme to start out inverted? I personally think it looks better with it being normal instead of inverted.

Other then that, It's a nice and simple theme for getting the information across. I would personally like to have a next song line, but that's just me. It might make this theme too packed. All in all, it's a nice theme.

[JustJohnny]

Did you mean for the theme to start out inverted?

Yes, I put the invert command in the configuration file, but the version of the uisimulator software I used apparently doesn't handle that setting. I just didn't take it out, but will do so.  Could you take a picture of your iRiver using the theme as it is and post it/send it to me, so I can see what it looks like inverted. It would be a great help.

I would personally like to have a next song line, but that's just me. It might make this theme too packed.

Yes, I didn't want the screen to feel to packed/cluttered.  Once I've redesigned the current version of the theme for all the various Rockbox supported devices, I will come back and try some tweaks. Please feel free to implement and post revisions.

Thanks for the compliments, and taking the time to load and review this theme.

[Peter200lx]

Well, the screen dumps don't capture the inversion. I have some dumps I made and then inverted to that it's like what is was. The screen dumps has a blue as the background, although that's only what it looks like with the background. The screen dumps I'm showing were converted to 160x128x1.

This is the default look
Switched the inversion section
As dumped	Converted to two bit color

I believe that the inverting of the screen is a special feature that is just part of the actual LCD driver chip. That is why it wasn't showing up on the simulator. *This from what I understand, I could be wrong

[JustJohnny]

Thanks Peter200lx!! Inversion is definitely not what I wanted.  I have changed the config. file to set inversion to off, repackaged the theme, and uploaded the new version it to the wiki.

[stinkingpig]

nice work -- I've switched to it, after using Marquee for maybe 6 months or so. The only problem with Marquee was that scroll didn't pause.

[JustJohnny]

nice work -- I've switched to it, after using Marquee for maybe 6 months or so. The only problem with Marquee was that scroll didn't pause.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.  

I'm not sure what controls the scroll. I used code from the example in the manual.  While using the uisimulator, I occasionally run into title's of songs or albums which continually scroll across the screen, but I haven't figured out what triggers that behavior. Usually it scrolls right to left, pauses, then scrolls left to right.

[bascule]

nice work -- I've switched to it, after using Marquee for maybe 6 months or so. The only problem with Marquee was that scroll didn't pause.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. 

I'm not sure what controls the scroll. I used code from the example in the manual.  While using the uisimulator, I occasionally run into title's of songs or albums which continually scroll across the screen, but I haven't figured out what triggers that behavior. Usually it scrolls right to left, pauses, then scrolls left to right.

Scrolling is user-configuable (as explained in the manual...)

[stinkingpig]

Thanks for the tip -- I've been playing with it, but can't come up with a reproducible example of what I was seeing. To be clear, it was that bidirectional scrolling had no pause, but rather reversed instantly.

[Peter200lx]

Hi, I did some more testing of the theme and wanted to offer a few more suggestions. You have your code return "Artist?" for when there isn't data for the Artist information and such:

Code: [Select]

%al %s%ac%?ia<%ia|Artist?>%ar
%al %s%ac%?id<%id|Album?>%ar
%al %s%ac%?it<%it|Title?>%ar
One cool idea I've found is that you can have it give the file name and directory names when the meta data information isn't available:

Code: [Select]

%s%ac%?ia<%ia|.. %?d2<%d2|%?d1<(Root)|>>>
%s%ac%?id<%id|. %?d1<%d1|(Root)>>%?iy< (%iy)|>
%s%ac%?it<%?in<%in. |>%it|%fm>I don't claim credit for the logic of that system, I grabbed it from another wps that I had used back on the Archos. I just took that section and then changed a bit here and there for what I wanted. There might be some messed up logic in it. But it works great for what I need.

If you look at This page, these are the tools that is being used by the codebock:

Code: [Select]

%fm File Name
%fn File Name (without extension)
%d1 First directory from end of file path.
%d2 Second directory from end of file path.
%d3 Third directory from end of file path.

[JustJohnny]

Thanks Peter! I'll give them a try.

[stinkingpig]

There seems to be something funny about the battery display -- should it be all black or all white when the battery is full? I've seen both. It starts out all black, then it turns all white at some point within the next hour or so. When the battery is genuinely low, I get the all black with a hash mark on the left that you show in your screenshot.

Still my favorite theme, it's quite readable.

[JustJohnny]

Hi stinkingpig,

I'm glad you like the theme!

Battery states:
Full = all white
Low = hash marks on left
Unknown state = all black (battery outline)

While testing this on with the uisimulator software, occasionally the battery would disappear at different levels. Have you run into this?

[stinkingpig]

that makes more sense. I've propped it against my laptop to watch more closely, and the battery is full.

It boots up with the battery all black. Stays that way through a song change. Now it's been 10 minutes and it's still all black.  Shutdown and restart, it's still all black.

I've been keeping up with nightlies and this is now 1-28-07. I don't see anything in the changelog about battery detection on the IHP-120, and other themes are showing a full battery... Still, now I'm wondering about that unknown state... do other themes use it?

How about using a black battery for full, hash the whole thing for low, and use white for unknown? Can a pixmap question mark be put in for unknown? Is a separate icon necessary for "All Full"?

thanks for your efforts,

[JustJohnny]

... Still, now I'm wondering about that unknown state... do other themes use it?

Haven't looked through other themes for its use. Just tried to follow the manual's example for battery states.

How about using a black battery for full, hash the whole thing for low, and use white for unknown? Can a pixmap question mark be put in for unknown? Is a separate icon necessary for "All Full"?

Hmm, at the very least I'm going to have to come up with a more definitive icon for the unknown state. I will try out your suggestions, look at some other themes, and see if I can come up with something less confusing.

Thanks for helping out. Let me know if you have any other ideas.