From: c s <rb_dev_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 02:17:00 -0800 (PST)

--- Daniel Stenberg <daniel_at_haxx.se> wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Nov 2003, c s wrote:
>
> > I don't see what's confusing about switching to
> > the charging screen when a
> > user turns the unit off while plugged in. That
> > seems perfectly logical.
>
> Because OFF doesn't turn the unit off, it simply
> makes it reboot into another
> weird state. I'd say it is illogical.

There is nothing weird or illogical about the "BATTERY
CHARGING" screen. When I turn any appliance off that
could have an external charger attached, I would
expect to see some indication that the batteries are
being charged. It's sometimes a simple LED labeled
"charge". Just because the Archos is slightly more
sophisticated and displays "BATTERY CHARGING" on its
LCD display will not lead the average user to conclude
that the Archos has "rebooted" into some "weird"
illogical state. That is absurd. The average user will
see the "BATTERY CHARGING" screen as nothing more than
a simple charge state indicator when the player mode
has been turned off.

> > Users wonder why they can't turn the unit off.
>
> You described way is NOT turning the unit off.
>

Yes it is. Just like many other modern electronic
devices today, "off" is only a logical state. Just
because a device is still drawing power doesn't mean
that it's not in the off state.

> > As you pointed out Linus, it may be true that it's
> >not really switching the
> > player off but rather booting to the charging
> >screen, but to the typical
> > user the charging screen looks like "off".
>
> Lots of people have asked why it does this "reboot"
> instead of turning off.
>

I doubt that's true for the Player which just clears
the display, turns off the backlight, and then goes
directly to a simple static "BATTERY CHARGING"
message. The average user isn't going to think "what's
this new program that just booted?" The average user
will watch the display go dark and be replaced with
the charging message and consider the unit to be
off... and it is. It's in the off/charging state.

> > The current behavior may make some sense on
> >Recorders because it keeps the
> > Rockbox charging algorithm in control (although I
> >think it would make more
> > sense to switch the Recorder to a Rockbox charging
> >screen)
>
> Why?

Because when a piece of equipment has an off button,
the user expects it to do something... not sometimes
perform its labeled function and sometimes not, as
documented in the manual... which of course every
consumer reads word for word before using a new device
thus eliminating any chance for this inconsistent
behavior to cause confusion ;-)

>
> > but since Rockbox doesn't control the charging on
> a Player
>
> And neither does the Archos firmware you'd rather
> have running...

You seem to think that there is no reason for favoring
one over the other? What if one provides more
information (like showing the charge state), or
provides more consistent behavior (like exiting the
player from the on state as anyone would expect to
happen when the off button is pressed). As it turns
out disabling the off button and leaving the Player in
the on state doesn't provide either of those
advantages... only confusion, but switching the player
to the off state does have those advantages, so
disabling the off button makes little sense.

>
> > disabling the off button accomplishes nothing
> functionally, and only
> > confuses the user who may wonder why he can't turn
> the unit off.
>
> Again: you can't turn it off while the charger is
> connected.
>

Again: "off" is only a state, not a shutdown of a
device, and if you have an off button on a device,
pressing it should take the user out of the "on" state
even if you do nothing but change the current display
to indicate that the off button was accepted, or the
user will think that the off button is malfunctioning.

Repeat this mantra... "Off is only a state. It doesn't
mean that anything has been powered down".



=====
Craig

rb_dev_at_yahoo.com

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Received on 2003-12-02