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Subject: Re: Configurability; was: Re: Voice patches

Re: Configurability; was: Re: Voice patches

From: Tapio Kelloniemi <spammi.helevetti_at_nbl.fi>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 19:44:09 +0300

On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 09:22:53PM +1000, Daniel Dalton wrote:
> On 7/10/2007 8:31 PM, Tapio Kelloniemi wrote:
> >All buttons, since many players, such as ipod and x5, don't have spare
> >buttons. Short and long presses of play and rec are already bound.
> >Therefore, as I have pointed out many times earlier, it is necessary
> >to make all buttons configurable so that owners of different types of
> >devices are not unnecessarily penalised (by not giving them an opportunity
> >to configure their DAP's behaviour).
>
> They did choose that device.

This is what I call fair, and what seems to be the spirit of Rockbox.

> But that won't happen.
> 1. To confusing for everyone.

It is very sad if configurable buttons are too confusing for developers. I'm
not proud, but I think I could stand them.

> 2. To hard to give basic support.

Well, many programs in the history of computers have had configurable
key bindings. Again I refer to Emacs which indeed documents how to remap
keys. The manual only lists the default key bindings; confusing, isn't it?

> 3. The devs won't like it.

Most of them won't, some probably will. After all, devs have created current
keymaps, so they can't complain.

> I was talking to JdGordon on irc and he said we don't like configurable
> buttons in rockbox.

That was probably an exclusive we (we here refers to those who speak, not to
those to whom they are speaking to).

> Well tell me this. You need a button to scroll up and down lists and to
> select options. Then you need a button for play and stop. If you own
> an ipod what button is left?

You could configure actions such as MENU+PLAY or even, if dead keys were
supported, first MENU, then MENU again to select an item, or first MENU,
then PLAY to immediately poweroff the player without having to press PLAY
for 4 seconds, or anything else.

> Do you know how to code and do button mappings?

I have programmed in many languages (including C), but I'm not familiar with
the Rockbox source code. Unfortunately I don't have time to work on this.
I have two children (both under four years old), so I'm a bit busy...

> Are you blind? If so what do you think of a quick menu for blind users?

I'm blind. I think that it might be useful, but I wish that we had a generic
and configurable system, so that it could be equally useful to sighted persons.

On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 12:29:41PM +0100, gl wrote:
> >Anyway these configurable buttons have been discussed to death and it is
> >clear that they will not be reality, not at least until someone submits a
> >patch.
>
>
> Why not make them all configurable, but only editable with an optional
> plugin? If a user can find, install and launch a plug, they should be able
> to understand what they're doing. If the plug also has a 'reset to
> defaults' option, I can't see any support problems. The bootloader could
> even have that option in case someone really messed up their layout.

It would be easiest to parse /.rockbox/keymap, and it would allow more
control. But I don't believe that the question is about support, coding effort,
documentation problems, or anything else, but the lack of interest from the
devs. This is pretty acceptable, since this is not a feature which all users
demand.

-- 
Tapio
Received on 2007-10-07

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