First copy bounced for some reason.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 17:33:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: David A. Desrosiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Plucker Development List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Modest patch proposal: Pixel tweaks to icons, autoscroll,
narrow fixed font
> Some viewer tweaks are available for your feedback. I have been using it
> for the last week with no problems, and find it quite useful.
I found a few problems, though I'm not sure if it's related to your
patch yet.
> A .prc is available at
> http://www.rob.md/projects/plucker/2001_07_16/viewer_en.prc
No color icon?!
> -Find icon: right earhook made parallel to left earhook.
The original was purposefully foreshortened, but yours works as
well in this context.
> -Bookmark icon: bookmark instead of book, since user changes the ebook
> with the open folder icon. 'b' taken off the graphic to ease
> localization, as the word for bookmark might not always start with 'b'
> in different languages.
I agree with the removal of the 'b' on the icon, however, I don't
think the 'book' motif is confusing, since Plucker is not an ebook reader.
It is an offline HTML reader. No, I'm not trying to spark a war here, but
everything Plucker (currently) reads comes from HTML in some form. Whether
that HTML is considered a 'story' or a clickable page of links matters not.
My biography page is a webpage, but is it also an ebook?
> -Addition of an autoscroll button, with increase (+) and decrease (-)
> scroll speed on either side. Autoscroll has a play arrow like the arrow
> that shows the tape direction on a cassette player so not confuse with
> the 'forward' arrow icon.. Autoscroll play icon changes to a square
> 'stop' icon while scrolling.
Except... the [-]/[+] chevrons are too small to reach with a stylus.
Ideally changes/updates to this should include the ability to stop the
scrolling while the speed is changed. Another press of the play icon after
changing speeds should resume the autoscroll option (speed had absolutely no
effect on my Palm m505, speed was the same 'slow' or 'fast' with zero
difference)
> 3. Increase and decrease speed with +, - buttons, and save to
> preferences: OK.
Not OK. There was absolutely no speed difference after tapping on
the [-] icon 10 times and then tapping on the [+] icon 20 times. Zero
difference.
> 6. Prevent a power-off when autoscrolling, since will have no user input
> for a minute or 2, which would normally cause device to shut off: OK.
This is a problem, and is related to a bug in the autoscroll as
found in your version of the viewer. If you set autoscroll on (play), and
scroll to the bottom of a page, the page KEEPS SCROLLING to 100% over and
over, causing a nice flicker, and wasting battery considerably and causing
an annoying navigation problem.
Solutions:
- stop the 'play' of autoscroll when the following options are
selected/hit:
- ANYTHING on the scrollbar is touched.
- The [-]/[+] is tapped
- Home (house) icon and the two forward/back icons
- Menu
- Percentage indicator
- Power button off/on should disable autoscroll.
You can see this bug by setting autoscroll, then select 'Top' from
the percentage indicator. EEP! Shouldn't do that.
> 1. Hardkey/Gesture options to increase/decrease speed.
Up/Down rocker is an intuitive selection here. Let's not try making
things difficult.
> 2. Ability to choose to autoscroll upwards instead of downwards...does
> anyone ever do this?
Yes, advogato diaries are a perfect example of this.
Additionally, I'd suggest a new record_id, which when reached at the
top/bottom/middle/whatever of a database, would 'autoscroll' into the next
page. Basically if I build a page which has a faux tag like:
AUTOSCROLL=2.html
(from the 1.html page), and set autoscroll on, and this tag is
reached (yes, as a record_id), it would then 'tap' on that invisible link
and go to the next page. Just an idea.
> 3. Upper time limit on the prevent of power off without user input so
> that can't accidently leave it running and wipe your PDA since it ran
> out of juice.
Make it selectable.
[x] Stay on while autoscrolling
..when selected, should pop up an alert which says something like:
'This option will force your Palm device to stay ON forever, or
until you hit the power button'
When they disable autoscroll (which should remove the toolbar
iconset also), the sleep value should be restored.
You can also trap the low power event sent by the OS, which will
drop a dialog in the way anyway. Simply stop scrolling while that dialog is
in place (I don't think you have any other option, it's modal)
> -The rubber chicken in the 'About Plucker' form: smoothened up pixel
> edges.
Looks great. All of the changes you've made are really good. Let's
shore up the autoscroll with the limits I've mentioned above, and see where
we can implement as much code reuse as possible. The viewer is now 77k
total, and that's quite large (though not 293k like "Them(tm)").
Anyone else have comments/suggestions?
> Best wishes, Robert
<snip large 14-line sig>
EEP! Some of us read mail on our Palm devices. This sig was painful!
/d
