Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

I think this is a lot easier with a user-controlled rotation, rather than auto-rotation. If an application does not support a rotated UI, with a button an application can display a "rotation not supported" message. I guess this is also possible in the ASR case, but I would hate for a message to constantly pop up because the device thinks I'm rotating it.

ASR is one of the things I hate about the iPhone and iPod Touch. Sometimes you just shake the device and it rotates and then rotates back. When I hold it parallel to the ground, sometimes it will rotate for no reason in the middle of reading a paragraph, or when using the scientific calculator. Then at other times it just does not rotate, and I would have to play with it to get the screen to rotate. I know this is more of a complaint about the iPhone than something constructive about Maemo, however I think that the community sentiment is to respect the user more than the tree-fruit experience.

The device should respect what I want it to do, not what it wants to do. ASR to me is just a pain. Give me a button for it and I am happy. I know better than the device if I want it portrait or landscape. A button is a definitive decision by the user. A 47-degree angle may or may not be indicative of a user decision for rotation. No ASR for me please.

With all due respect, a "dissident" thread has been created, yet you are the #1 poster in the thread.

Obligatory xkcd

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

Just to inform myself, are applications today forced to have landscape support? Just interested what would otherwise happen if an application was designed only for portrait support; we would have the above problem even without rotating dashboard?

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

I have been playing with portrait mode in Xournal and I can tell that I am thinking not to support it yet.

Some widgets are not really that ready to be rotated and if so, they don't look nice.

Some GTK widget are simply not been designed with so few horizontal space in mind (480 pixels wide is not a common display in the PC world).
This implies that Nokians need to adapt all of those that look ugly + probably make some of their own + think about a whole new UI for all the stock applications + re-test them + involve designers and bla bla bla.. lot's of work, trust me.

I have, for example, to think about a shorter toolbar in Xournal, and I have to think at an alternative way of showing the Tools page (and I haven't yet made the landscape one!!), need to check how the PDF generated from a rotated screen looks like and if it's ugly adapt it.

Need also to check if the keyboard is open what to do.
I will have to detect it and rotate the UI in landscape, the user closes it and I need to check if he also rotated the phone and react accordingly.

Trust me then.. not easy and it's one application.

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

Slightly theoretical - since landscape is the current norm - but no, in theory. You can select an orientation and then ignore the orientation change signals. Now, since there is a HW keyboard, not supporting landscape isn't highly recommended, but nothing is preventing it... well, except currently the Dashboard expects a thumbnail for each running task, and it is shown in landscape -> might be funny if you cannot do a landscape thumbnail for your running view.

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

The n900 is mainly a landscape device.
New applications should aim at that orientation first and think twice or more before adding rotation.

Anidel

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

Continuing on the theoretical path -- would the dashboard handle it at all (and just look funny) or would it break?

What I am getting at is if there currently is a way to handle the vertical/horizontal conundrum (technically, not aesthetically).

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

Good point. One could make the case the user knows about that once he tried to rotate it, and confirmed it with 'OK'. But even having to confirm that for every application, isn't it enough feedback when the application simply does not rotate?

Yes, I can imagine several use cases. When in vehicle in mountains. When lying on couch. Even when walking down a hill. Therefore, one could argue ASR should be a configuration option one is able to put off. In iPhoneOS that is possible with jailbreak. Then one can use I think winterboard and have a quick way to toggle it.

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

A bit hard to say, but perhaps. If I press the switcher key in portrait mode call, the Dashboard appears (in landscape). For a split second it draws the call UI portrait version, cropped so that the top 50% is shown (so that text does not go 90 degrees up), then it is rerendered with the landscape version.

I would guess that if the app is portrait only, it would just stick with that cropped thumbnail. Cannot test this currently, since there is no such app.

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

The N95/96/97 solved this by letting you turn off ASR. I like the option of a rotation button on the screen as a third option, too. That's a great idea. You should put it as a solution in the Brainstorm here:
http://maemo.org/community/brainstor..._in_fremantle/
If you don't soon, I just may do it for you, because its great to have options, and ON/OFF/Rotation Button is perfect if the rotation button is in a good place. Maybe bring it up like the mouse for copy and paste in the N900 browser...

Re: Glad there is no universal portrait support
 

Hmm :confused: not sure we understand each other. My point and compare was allowing one to toggle ASR mode on or off.