Notices

If anyone ever (please...! :-) ) picks up the development of this applet I would love to see a feature built-into it that would allow you to set the transparency independent of what the theme is.

I second this. Really, it should be an option for any home screen applet, I think.

I'm working on it. Progress is a bit slow due to lack of time, Maemo/Linux development experience, or C knowlege in general.

But at least I have meanwhile a working build environment, Yellownotes applet builds without errors and I even managed to put a Tracparency box in the preferences dialogue and save/retrieve its value from the config file.

Now I just have to figure out how to use this value to actually set the transparency. :-) Have to check how e.g. homediskfree applet is doing this.

So maybe next weekend I can post a first working result.

i) great app!!!
ii) would it be possible to use the applet settings dialog (like e.g. omwaether) to change the yellownote parameters - that way on could get rid of the 'tool' button and the user interface would be more standard
iii) my desktop screen real estate is scarce, could there be an option to not show any buttons at all and just have the note (tap inside to edit, tap elswhere to save). For me an applet should be as lean as possible.

That's the next thing I'm planning to do after I get transparency working.

Other things on my todo list:
- Allow multiple notes. With left/right arrow buttons for navigating to the previous/next note (right arrow button shall also be used for creating new notes, when the currently displayed note is already the last one). And a button for deleting the contents of the note currently being displayed.

- Two layers per note. One for text and one for drawing. Transparent background for both layers. In additon to the already existing text edit button, add A button for drawing. Depending on which of the two buttons you press, the corresponding layer will become the foreground layer and enabled for editing.

Thanks for picking up the work on this awesome app Iskarion.
When it comes to multiple notes would it be feasible/desirable to have multiple notes show as 'tabs' behind the note. I'd personally prefer that to navigate with an arrow and may make it look a tad cleaner.

Regardless, good luck on this!

homediskfree is in Python, so it may be easier (*cough* ) to look at Personal Launcher, OMWeather, and Maemo and desktop plugin transparency.

I am not the original author, but I converted the program to maemo4 (diablo and chinook) so I think I can provide some insight.

When converting the desktop applet I left everything as the old maemo3 (bora) style declarations, rather than convert them to maemo4 declarations. This works fine for loading/unloading the applet, but you won't be able to do everything you can do with maemo4 applets. I am pretty sure you will have to convert to maemo4 style before you can implement transparency.

I wrote Personal Launcher (which uses maemo4 style declaration) and the transparency code for OMWeather, so those would be a good way to start changing the code for transparency.

I found that the API documentation for maemo4 desktop applets was better, but the maemo3 tutorial for writing desktop applets more helpful.

Maemo 3.x: How to write maemo desktop plugins for maemo
Maemo 4.0.x: Writing Hildon Dekstop Plug-ins for Maemo

Let me know if you have any specific questions, I may be able to help.

Andrew

Here, as promised, a new version of Yellownotes Home Applet.

Changes in version 0.3:

* Save and edit buttons removed. Textbox is now always editable. Notes are automatically saved when closing the applet, switching to another note and when sending the applet to the background (e.g. by launching an application).

* Added support for multiple notes (up to 99 notes).

* Added a button for erasing the content of a note.

No adjustable transparency yet. The next step will be converting the applet to maemo4 style declarations, as suggested by fiferboy. Adjustable transparancy and moving the settings dialog to the menu bar are next on the to-do list, once this is finished.



Please let me know in case you encounter any problems with the new version. I did some testing and everything seems to work, but honestly for some changes I have made, I have still no clue why they are working as expected.
Coming from the Java an ABAP world, some concepts in C are still pretty much a mystery to me.

Edit: if you want to keep your existing note from version 0.2, after upgrade just go to "/home/user/.yellownotes" and rename the file "note" to "note001".

Edit2: after upgrading, most likely you have to restart the tablet before you can use the new version

Thanks for picking up the work on this great app!

I must admit, though, that I kind of liked the save icon. To me it wasn't just the save feature that was valuable to me but that when it was in saved mode it was un-editable and the content was locked in. It has happened in the past that I've selected a chunk of text when scrolling and accidentally pressed a key causing the text to get deleted. Having a 'view'-only option saved me from doing that.

Also, I don't have the NIT near me until later but I am a bit confused when you mention the ways to save notes;
- closing the applet,
- switching to another note, and
- when sending the applet to the background (e.g. by launching an application).

I don't, in my mind ever 'close an applet' or 'send it to the background'. It stays active on my screen all the time.
So if I enter some text in then want to just put it in my pocket - how exactly do I go about making sure it's saved?

Apart from that it looks great and I am excited to try it out and I am SO looking forward to the transparency setting later on as that is my personal big issue.

EDIT: Additional:
1) Does clicking the Right arrow always create a new note if there are no further notes (does it ask if you want to do that?). I don't want to risk accidentally creating a bunch of notes if clicking the right arrow.

2) It would be nice if it would show what note your are on.
Say for instance 3/5 in the corner meaning you are on the 3rd out of 5 notes.

3) Would it be possible to if you held the stylus pressed down on the menu bar (or in the note maybe) it would change the transparency to be non-transparent for easier reading in some situations. The prior version did that when you moved the note around on the screen.

Thanks again!