maemo.org - Talk - Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

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- - Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=27242)

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcuk (Post 269151)

as a user I would expect the presence of a big fat X in the top right to also act as a close button for a dialog.

The user might have to adapt, but different symbols on same location might be confusing.

I would find a big square with a line (sortof like an arrow) to a small square a logic way to imagine this.

Some things the user decides and quickly wants to get that done. UI consistency is then very useful for workflow. There is also no relearning afterwards.

Another way to close applications could be from a task manager, instead by default only minimizing applications.

Quote:

Personally I prefer giving people a clear way to (cancel/close/dismiss/do nothing) on actual dialogs, that way there is none of this. (at the same time I am even more guilty because I can make screens with no ui at all :p)

On a longer timescale users want to use symbols for such, that much I know. It might take them a bit longer to adapt to, but eventually they'll get used to it and love it.

This is the kind of UI consistency a good HIG aims for.

I think a black UI with little as much light colour is better for battery than other way around?

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

Quote:

Originally Posted by allnameswereout (Post 269491)

I think a black UI with little as much light colour is better for battery than other way around?

A dark background would help battery life on an OLED display, but not on a backlit display as used in the N800 and N810.

Regards,
Roger

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

The application menu can store until 15 items in the same screen (see the screenshot), if you have more than 15 items you can see the other items scrolling (kinetically) until the rows below.

Also, there is a new property in the .desktop files: X-Maemo-Prestarted. It seems to allow applications be pre-started (logically as the name indicates). I didn't can to do it work in scratchbox though.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

yerga,
that looks fantastic!

the only thing out of place is the back icon, why isnt it in the top left?

The prestarted application flag sounds good - :D lets hope its not abused too much :p

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

Quote:

The prestarted application flag sounds good - :D lets hope its not abused too much :p

Hopefully not. Though the hildon-desktop (who manage this) checks the used memory and acts in consequence.
A comment from the source code:

Code:

/* Prestarting depends on the env var HILDON_DESKTOP_APPS_PRESTART and the

 * amount of /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_free_pages up to

 * /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_notify_low_pages.

 * not set|false|no - Never prestart apps.

 * yes|auto|0 - Prestart if there are more free pages than stated in

 * /proc/sys/vm/lowmem_notify_low_pages.

 * number - Prestart if there are more than this number of free pages.

 */

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcuk (Post 269500)

the only thing out of place is the back icon, why isnt it in the top left?

Because cancel/back/close function is always in the top right

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

sometimes I want to close my browser without having to go back 4 pages.

think about that with dialogs.

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

Quote:

Originally Posted by yerga (Post 269498)

The application menu can store until 15 items in the same screen (see the screenshot), if you have more than 15 items you can see the other items scrolling (kinetically) until the rows below.

is there i way to organize applications systematically (like the well-established menu/submenu-structure) so you don't have to scroll planlessly through an unsorted list? having 50+ items in the menu and no way to group them would be quite a challenge. are the blue "example"-entries folders?

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

A fun tip for playing with the new UI on your existing tablet:

Install x11vnc on your Scratchbox machine; then, after the Xephyr :2 -screen 800x480x16 ... & line, do the following:

Code:

x11vnc -display :2 -nopw

Note the port that is being shared, and use VNC viewer on the tablet to go there (of course, start up your Scratchbox UI first). (eg 192.168.0.4:5901) Then just fullscreen the display. It's kinda scary -- it looks like you're running the new UI right on your tablet. It lets you try out the applications using your fingers. The kinetic scrolling isn't great (finger swipes don't translate well, I guess), but it works well enough for testing and you can tap on all of the buttons with your finger and get an idea for how big things will be on a portable screen.

In other news, I couldn't just untar the maemo5 armel rootstrap into a partition on my tablet and then chroot into it; I get an "illegal instruction" error (or something).

I also see why the GTK dialog box should be OK in Fremantle; the dialog boxes span the entire width of the screen. The problem occurs when taking the Fremantle-GTK dialog boxes and trying to sqeeze them into Diablo-sized dialogs. This is what was happening to me...

Re: Maemo 5 Alpha SDK released

qole, you just gained a whole new bottle of absinthe at the next summit!