new tag on the tracker... FS#9477

[JdGordon]

I had a bit of fun with the %mv tag so I thought I'd go one better and let you setup proper view modes (like what the sansa OF does)

the basic jist of it is %?mo<one|two|three> will display one untill browse is pressed, then two, then three when browse is pressed again, then back to one.

go nuts and put up some nice WPS' so we have examples when/if its commited

[JdGordon]

really? no comments? not even the themers want this!?

[audio-i]

I would have liked to actually use this before my comment, but since I'll probably only be able to try it until next weekend or so, I just wanted to say that it looks like this is THE wps feature... seriously! If I'm getting it right, combining conditional viewports, it will allow to make themes so flexible, that with just one click you'll be able to actually make the whole wps change, something like the "hold conditional" trick, but more powerful, because you keep the freedom of being able to use all the buttons normally.

This opens new possibilities for creativity, but just to mention a simple idea that comes to mind quickly, I'd really like to make a personal wps that would have an "ultra clean" look, without losing access to very complete - and nicely displayed (graphically) - information.  So the main view mode would just have huge album art, perhaps a discrete progress bar, title and artist names in big fonts (I'd also use the %mv volume tag there!); in a second view mode I'd display graphically things like repeat and shuffle modes, battery, next song info, even song rating, replaygain or crossfade mode... Now, some things mentioned for the second view mode are quite important, a "must" for many people, so why leaving them out of the first view mode... but hey, after all, they'll be just one click away! 

[JdGordon]

yeah, seems its just you and I that like the idea though....
The idea of the wps being able to steal a button is not sitting well with pretty much everyone, so 1 proposal is to have a setting which would disable the tag by default, people wanting to use the tag would need to enable the setting manually. So i'll do this at the end of the week and see if there is any support, otherwise it will stay on the tracker for eternity :p

[yapper]

Couldn't it 'share' the button (long Select on my iPod) currently used to access the screen that shows Repeat/Shuffle/File settings?

[karashata]

I'll definitely have to mess with this when I get a chance, though I'm not sure yet what I would do with it...

Expect something in a few days, maybe.

[pixelma]

I'm not sure yet what I should think about such a feature, sounds very complicated to me at the moment and I don't like the changing of controls it comes with, no matter which button you would change.

Couldn't it 'share' the button (long Select on my iPod) currently used to access the screen that shows Repeat/Shuffle/File settings?

This is the button to call the "quick screen" and not all targets have this one (the Ondio and Player, lack of buttons and in case of the latter, charcell screen) - whereas every target has a button to access the file browser from the WPS.

[bzavala]

I had a bit of fun with the %mv tag so I thought I'd go one better and let you setup proper view modes (like what the sansa OF does)

the basic jist of it is %?mo<one|two|three> will display one untill browse is pressed, then two, then three when browse is pressed again, then back to one.

go nuts and put up some nice WPS' so we have examples when/if its commited

Jonathan,

I'm interested in this new tag and would like to give it a try. But I'm a little confused... what are the "one", "two", "three" elements? Just texts? more tags?

Also, could you or someone else provide a compiled version with this patch?

Thanks !!

Ben

[karashata]

Well, I tested the patch on one of my existing themes (just to make it switch from showing art to not showing art when art is present, nothing fancy), and it does work nicely.  I'll have to spend some time thinking up something more creative...  Just something I want to note, for the iriver H10s, there's nothing assigned to a short select, so perhaps the patch can be changed to use that key on those players?

@bzavala:  You'd probably use this tag with conditional viewports to display certain sets of viewports depending on what "mode" is set.  This could be used to display a really large album art image with minimal information in one screen "mode", and lots more information in another screen mode.  In the case of the Sansa E200s, one could use this tag to make a theme much more like the official firmware's theme.

According to the tracker, you can make 127 different modes (not that I would think anyone would need nearly that many...).

[ryran]

Wow. I LOVE the idea.
Methinks we could really use more designers/artists though...seriously.

[audio-i]

@bzavala, you may see it as an improved "hold conditional" view mode, because when you use the hold to display a different view, you are in one of the following situations: 1- you get the new info, but you obviously  won't be able to change volume, etc,  or 2- you block all the buttons using hold as intended, but you are "forced" to leave the main view. With this tag you get your new views without falling in these situations.
But this tag is much more than that; to give an "extreme" example, you could even make something like a "one click theme change" (of course if you stay within the current limits - viewports #, images loaded, etc -), because when you change the view mode, you could display a whole new set of images, still being able to use all the buttons normally, keeping all the functionality... and if this tag makes a "one click theme change" possible, many "in between" options would also be possible, wouldn't it? 

[pixelma]

...still being able to use all the buttons normally, keeping all the functionality...

No you are not. When using this tag you will not be able to enter the file browser with a short button press from the WPS anymore (at least on many targets even if you can find a spare button to do this on some). And the most cumbersome thing about it in my opinion is - that this button behaviour will change depending on whether your selected theme uses this tag in the WPS or not.

[GodEater]

Agreed, button behaviour which is changed depending on what theme you have loaded is a very bad idea.

[linuxstb]

My initial reaction to this patch was the same as many others - that changing button mapping depending on theme is a bad idea.

But the more I think about it, the less against it I am.  Users choose to install a theme, and it should be pretty obvious that the WPS is responsible when pressing SELECT (or whatever the ACTION_WPS_BROWSE action is mapped to) causes the WPS to change instead of the normal behaviour.

The manual could be modified to say something like "this button either changes the current WPS view (for themes that support multiple views), or provides a shortcut to enter the browser."

The other problem of course is that not all targets (although I think it's just one - the Ondio) simply don't have enough buttons to enable this feature to work.  So reluctantly, I think we would have to say that the Ondio can't have this feature due to hardware limitations (lack of buttons).   EDIT: pixelma has corrected me, so ignore this paragraph.

So assuming that people think this feature is useful, I think we should be prepared to compromise.

To the theme designers that want this patch committed - it's up to you to convince the Rockbox developers that this is a good idea!

[bzavala]

Thanks to all who responded to my last post. I also like this idea and would like to give it a try.. perhaps I can modify some of my themes to test this.

Does someone has an already compiled version with this patch that I can try?

Thanks a lot !!


Ben