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Subject: Re: GUI

Re: GUI

From: mathew holton <mathew.holton_at_zirconsoftware.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 14:44:04 +0000

hhmm, interesting.
I recently put rockbox on my girlfriends iPod nano and although she
couldn't argue with the fact it was better being able to just drag and
drop mp3's over (fantastic, I reckon) and browse the file structure, she
didn't like "the way it looks" and preferred the stock firmware. I
reckon it would be pretty easy to remedy this, by being able to set
background colour for instance (the iPod is white, whereas rockbox is
sort of bluey) and also have the exact same font as the iPod.

These are (I reckon) easy to sort out, if I have time between real-life
and messing about with debian and pointless asteroid games then I'll
have a crack...

but I do agree to a certain extent the GUI could be improved (only on
the higher res displays, the archos is fine and dandy)

mat

Gabriel Meier wrote:
> Am Freitag, den 03.03.2006, 13:19 +0100 schrieb Daniel Stenberg:
>
>> On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, Gabriel Meier wrote:
>>
>>
>>> does anybody know, if there are any plans for making a proper gui?
>>>
>> First, developers that might work on such a thing might be reading the dev
>> mailing list and not the users list...
>>
>
> I know, but the actual purpose of this mail was to find out, if there
> are any other users, that are interested in a gui. There will be no need
> to ask developers about it if I am the only one interested.
>
>
>> I think "a proper gui" needs a whole lot of definition. I don't think "proper
>> GUI" is an objective way of describing a specific vision of a GUI. What you
>> may consider proper, someone else might consider crap.
>>
>
> This is exactly why I created this thread - to find out what others
> think.
>
>
>>> I think usability is something that would help roxbock to beat iriver in
>>> every respect.
>>>
>> An by "beat" you mean "look better" ?
>>
>
> You know the difference between look and usability? Usability is about a
> way to do what you want ths easiest, perhaps fastest and most intuitive
> way, fitting the needs to as many users as possible. this has not so
> much to do with look, but some nice icons might e.g. help you to find
> the menu you need faster. anyway, look might (I think should) be
> customizable.
>
>
>> I personally cannot and have never understood how any sane person can say that
>> iriver's firmware is better, easier or more user-friendly than Rockbox. I
>> couldn't understand it while I used it. Luckily those days are passed tense
>> now.
>>
>
> There are some few things the iriver firmware does better or at least
> does, rockbox doesn't. Anyway, I agree, roxbox is as a whole much
> better, and I haven't used iriver's for a while now.
>
>
>> (I mention this just to put some perspective on the subject, I realize we're
>> not all the same.)
>>
>>
>>> When I switch my iriver on, I don't want to see the file-structure of
>>> the disc, but want to have a choice on what to to
>>>
>> I don't.
>>
>
> OK.
>
>
>>> This could be made with a text-interface as well, but a gui would put
>>> the finishing touches.
>>>
>> When you go pondering further on this subject I only want you to remember a
>> few things:
>>
>> * custom language strings
>> * custom font
>> * speach (i.e "talking menus")
>> * various LCD sizes
>> * various LCD depths
>>
>
> This would be a matter of programming. I guess this should all be
> possible, but unfortunately I can't do this. Best would be an interface
> on which users could create their own look, as it is possible for the
> playback screen now. with a large choice of themes LCD properties should
> be no problem.
>
>
>> When you cover them and bring a nice eye-candy GUI at the same time, I bet
>> many users will support it.
>>
>
> First, I hope I will find some developer to support this, as I will
> create a feature request out of this, if anyone else is interested. It
> will be up to the developers to accept or deny...
>
>
>> (I also better point out that these are *MY* opinions and I do not speak for
>> anyone else.)
>>
>
> This thread was intended to be about opinions...
>
>
>
>
Received on 2006-03-03

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