From: Tomer Shalev <shalev.tomer_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 16 May 2009 20:16:34 +0300

>
> I am not trying to demean your work in any way, but if a user has there
> player connected to the computer at the same time as listening to music, why
> would they want to be able to use the player for adjusting volume and
> skipping tracks? as presumably they would be listening to music with winamp
> or a similar program which can be used to change volume and skip tracks
> anyway.
>
> That's ok, Alex...
There are to ways in which the player can be connected to the computer. In
one way it is only charges, and the computer can't access the player's
storage. This is not the default case, and the user has to hold some key
while connecting the USB cable in order to enter this mode. In that mode the
HID driver does not work and it is unusable.

The other, default mode, is that Rockbox stops playback, and acts like a
portable mass storage device (aka disk on key). Rockbox can not play music
in this mode, although any application on the computer can access files on
the player, and even play them.
While in this mode, the keys on the player used to be unusable until now.
When USB HID mode is enabled, pressing the keys on the player acts like a
similar key was pressed on a multimedia keyboard. If you play music on
Winamp and press STOP on the player, the Winamp stops. Of course you can
control Winamp in any other way, such as directly clicking its GUI, but
users can find it useful to contol it from the player, for example while
doing any other task on the computer, having Winamp minimized to tray. The
dial pad/key on some players is very comfortable for controlling volume. It
might be of real benefit for blind and visually impaired users as well.

> In the future, it would be easier for developers to add any other keyboard
> mappings, such as using Rockbox as a Power-Point remote control.
> I can sort of see the benefits of this, although I guess you would have to
> be connected to a computer for that?
>
> Of course... It is not the most useful thing in the world, as a wireless
remote control is much better for that purpose (although mostly very
expensive). Still, it is better than having the lecturer holding a mouse as
a control while standing in front of an audience.


> What exactly is an mtp device?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol
This protocol is controversial. I personally dislike it. Read the
Wikipedia's article to get more info.

Regards,
Tomer Shalev
Received on 2009-05-16