iLiad Better content lister?

Gogolo · 11-01-2007, 05:46 PM

Hi

Somewhere someone

wrote that he was able to "zoom" the content lister to make more text visible. Would this be very hard to implement user friendly?

I would love such a feature because I have very long filenames (Author, Title, Year), and only the first characters are visible. Id like to have more than 6 entries also.

On the (probably) long way to a new gui - couldnt this be implemented?
Thank you
Olivier

Adam B. · 11-01-2007, 05:54 PM

The biggest issue is that the contentlister is closed source. There's no way to make any modifications to it until iRex opens it up to the community.

It also handles button presses and almost all of the core funtionality. Building a new one from scratch would likely not be an easy task.

jharker · 11-01-2007, 06:43 PM

Adam is right, it does do more than just display files. But other than handle keypresses, what else does it do? I know some things it does NOT do:

It doesn't handle USB connectivity - kill the contentLister and connect your iLiad to your computer; you can still see your files.
I think I learned that it doesn't handle configuration details. I believe there's a separate program that the contentLister runs when you want to change options or network settings. Am I right about this?
Doesn't enforce window sizing; the Matchbox window manager does this.

So we would need to make a contentLister that reads buttons, browses files, and runs configuration utilities as desired. What else would it need to do?

Gogolo · 11-02-2007, 10:03 AM

Too bad that its close source. I think iRex should open it, because even they - I think it was Mathijs - said that they are not happy with the content lister regarding the huge sientific use of the iLiad...

Scaling the content lister would help already a lot...

iRex, do you hear us?

Olivier

Adam B. · 11-02-2007, 10:07 AM

In the past, one of their reasons was that they did not want it to be forked while they are still doing active development on it. This makes a little sense to me. They have done a lot with the contentlister lately, moving to xml registry, multiple delete, sharing, etc.

Maybe somewhere down the road the will release the source. I'm betting not though.

nekokami · 11-02-2007, 01:24 PM

Whether they open the source or not, I really wish they'd allow more display options than six items per screen. That's so hugely inefficient.

rincewind · 11-02-2007, 01:29 PM

I made a small mock-up content navigation app in Python for the iLiad, and zoom was the first thing I made. :-) It would be absolutely brilliant, as it would cover many different user demands in an easy-to-use fashion.

If iLiad open the source code to the content lister (I'lve been nagging about that for about a year now I guess), and the community would very likely make loads of progress in no time. I mean, Zoom is required really, and gestures would be sweet (the eInk is VERY nice for gestures and VERY bad for software buttons). And the speed of the content lister is really bad, using a lot of time to prepare a small page with info. It does of course have to open all the manifest files and parse the XML, even if they don't contain anything useful - and when no info is present, NO info is present. No "last read time", or page count or anything.

/R

nekokami · 11-02-2007, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rincewind

No "last read time", or page count or anything.

Are "last read time" and "page count" in the manifest somewhere? It would be cool to be able to display those.

I have to admit, I've kind of given up on Content Lister except when I'm reading PDF files. The FBReader display is so much nicer. Now if only I could figure out how to configure an alias to set one of the keys (e.g. News, which I don't otherwise use) to go straight to FBReader.... Then I could just have the iLiad open to FBReader every time, and exit if I need to do something with PDFs.

wallcraft · 11-02-2007, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

I really wish they'd allow more display options than six items per screen. That's so hugely inefficient.

I agree.

This is already available on the Cybook, which supports 5, 10 or 20 items in its library view. See the attached 10-item version (from Bookeen's standard images) and the 5-item version in the last photo of Cybook Gen3: I have seen the 1.00 firmware! (I promised some pictures...).

It would be a simple upgrade to the ContentLister to list 12 per page with smaller images, or ~20 per page with only one line descriptions.

The Cybook 2-column approach might be harder to do, because iRex made the mistake of not mapping a long keypress of the up-arrow and down-arrow keys to left-arrow and right-arrow - but that could either be changed globally or just for the ContentLister. That way, the iLiad's 3-key navigation pad emulates a conventional 5-key pad (as on the Cybook).

ebookie · 11-03-2007, 02:17 AM

Rince,

Given that ContentListener is just started from the rc scripts why not consider writing a replacement from scratch? I guess the only questions are what is sent by the pen and keys to the application, and can the existing applications be supported and/or replaced with equivalent functionality.

--Chuck

11-01-2007, 05:46 PM	#1
Gogolo Addict Posts: 353 Karma: 92 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: DR1000S, Nook ST (rooted), Kobo Aura one (ksm)	Better content lister? Hi Somewhere someone wrote that he was able to "zoom" the content lister to make more text visible. Would this be very hard to implement user friendly? I would love such a feature because I have very long filenames (Author, Title, Year), and only the first characters are visible. Id like to have more than 6 entries also. On the (probably) long way to a new gui - couldnt this be implemented? Thank you Olivier

11-01-2007, 06:43 PM	#3
jharker Developer Posts: 345 Karma: 3473 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Device: iRex iLiad v1, Blackberry Tour, Kindle DX, iPad.	Adam is right, it does do more than just display files. But other than handle keypresses, what else does it do? I know some things it does NOT do: It doesn't handle USB connectivity - kill the contentLister and connect your iLiad to your computer; you can still see your files. I think I learned that it doesn't handle configuration details. I believe there's a separate program that the contentLister runs when you want to change options or network settings. Am I right about this? Doesn't enforce window sizing; the Matchbox window manager does this. So we would need to make a contentLister that reads buttons, browses files, and runs configuration utilities as desired. What else would it need to do?

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11-01-2007, 05:54 PM	#2
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	The biggest issue is that the contentlister is closed source. There's no way to make any modifications to it until iRex opens it up to the community. It also handles button presses and almost all of the core funtionality. Building a new one from scratch would likely not be an easy task.

11-02-2007, 10:03 AM	#4
Gogolo Addict Posts: 353 Karma: 92 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: DR1000S, Nook ST (rooted), Kobo Aura one (ksm)	Too bad that its close source. I think iRex should open it, because even they - I think it was Mathijs - said that they are not happy with the content lister regarding the huge sientific use of the iLiad... Scaling the content lister would help already a lot... iRex, do you hear us? Olivier

11-02-2007, 10:07 AM	#5
Adam B. Addicted to Porting Posts: 1,697 Karma: 7194 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: iRex iLiad, Nokia 770, Samsung i760	In the past, one of their reasons was that they did not want it to be forked while they are still doing active development on it. This makes a little sense to me. They have done a lot with the contentlister lately, moving to xml registry, multiple delete, sharing, etc. Maybe somewhere down the road the will release the source. I'm betting not though.

11-02-2007, 01:24 PM	#6
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Whether they open the source or not, I really wish they'd allow more display options than six items per screen. That's so hugely inefficient.

11-02-2007, 01:29 PM	#7
rincewind Connoisseur Posts: 58 Karma: 479 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: iLiad	I made a small mock-up content navigation app in Python for the iLiad, and zoom was the first thing I made. :-) It would be absolutely brilliant, as it would cover many different user demands in an easy-to-use fashion. If iLiad open the source code to the content lister (I'lve been nagging about that for about a year now I guess), and the community would very likely make loads of progress in no time. I mean, Zoom is required really, and gestures would be sweet (the eInk is VERY nice for gestures and VERY bad for software buttons). And the speed of the content lister is really bad, using a lot of time to prepare a small page with info. It does of course have to open all the manifest files and parse the XML, even if they don't contain anything useful - and when no info is present, NO info is present. No "last read time", or page count or anything. /R

11-03-2007, 02:17 AM	#10
ebookie Entrepreneur Posts: 36 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: California Device: Iliad v2	Rince, Given that ContentListener is just started from the rc scripts why not consider writing a replacement from scratch? I guess the only questions are what is sent by the pen and keys to the application, and can the existing applications be supported and/or replaced with equivalent functionality. --Chuck