KUAL: Kindle Unified Application Launcher (v2.7)

[twobob]

Originally Posted by wolftail

I would have loved to contribute, but I don't have the necessary experience so I did the only thing I could: share my thoughts and ideas.

And we thank you for it.

plus it's not such a tough ask to put together a "working button" that does "something" these days : )

so perhaps you could start getting involved now.

I re-read your points again. Will certainly attempt to subsume that which makes sense. Although much of it already has been included; laterally.

Have a shiny day. Thanks for your interest in the project.

[knc1]

In the menu items list -
For "action": target -
In the few examples I have seen, it has a path and filename relative to the button's top level directory for 'target' ;

Q?: can 'target' hold just a shell command?

[twobob]

erm. I guess. if you prefixed it with /bin/sh or something.

I suppose I should try.

should I even ask why?

[knc1]

OK - Don't bother, I'll check myself (my) tomorrow.
I just thought it was something that you knew about already.

[DuckieTigger]

Random thought that just struck me about standardization: Provide a ways for dependencies. Like most package tools do, only not completely automatic. KUAL extensions say what they need, and what they provide. If you start an extension, that cannot find what it needs, a popup comes up and says: MEEEP, cannot run, depend on having a keyboard, but none found. On DX and KK nothing needs installed extra, since they kind of have a keyboard build in. On other Kindles you only need to have ANY extension that says: I provide keyboard - and lets KUAL know what to execute to embed and link it to the other extension that needs keyboard.

Example, shell script again. Imagine a shell script that goes through some files, gathers information, processes it, outputs something meaningful - think something like 411, 711 for example. For all this you will need:

- a shell that will output the result
- a keyboard to get out of there
- the extension that creates the data to be displayed

(you need all 3 to make it work, but you don't have to create all 3 parts yourself, you just have to have them all - possibly from 3 different developers / projects)

The shell provides, well, a shell that can be displayed on the Kindle. It depends on a keyboard to be able to run stand-alone. Install keyboard depending on which extension provides keyboard for your Kindle. And so on and so on. Keyboard maybe not enough, now another extension requires a custom layout for defining their own keys - now a customizable keyboard needs to be installed. On the KK or DX that could be as simple as a little display on screen that says: Play [p], Stop [s], Rewind [r] .... to know which buttons on the physicaly keyboard to push. On Touch models it could be a Touch keyboard, that sends p, s, or r key-events, but display [Play] [Stop] [Rewind] as the buttons.

Now you can start developing for any Kindle - and it does not need to be a complete application all at once. Does not need to be the program that gathers the information either, it could be a port from one Kindle to next. gtkSudoku comes to mind. That does not work on Paperwhite, but it might as well work "easily" if you only run it in part of the screen, and put a keyboard on the bottom.

[atleon]

Hi guys. Just a question regarding KindlePDFViewer. In the first post can be read that notes have to be read before installing this extension in PW. These notes say that KindlePDFViewer is not ready for PW yet, don't they? Thanks in advance for your help .

[Yolina]

Thanks to all the devs for their work, much appreciated

Currently everything is sorted alphabetically in KUAL, but could it be possible at some point for users to change the order manually? I would quite like to keep Collections Manager right at the top of the list

[hawhill]

atleon: Yep, we still do not have a "public beta" for KPV on the Kindle Paperwhite. It can be created by developers, but nothing official yet.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Thanks to all the devs for their work, much appreciated

Currently everything is sorted alphabetically in KUAL, but could it be possible at some point for users to change the order manually? I would quite like to keep Collections Manager right at the top of the list

Not at this time, other than to rename the button aaaaaaCollections Manager ;

When you look at the menu.json file of any button, you will see: 'Priority' (sort priority) fields - -
Currently not being used, but intended to be used in the future.

[Yolina]

Would be fantastic if priority gets implemented at some point in the future. Since I'm one of the "dumb end users" meaning I can follow instructions but actually "doing" that stuff goes right over my head I'm afraid, I'll just wait and see if it happens.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Yolina

Would be fantastic if priority gets implemented at some point in the future. Since I'm one of the "dumb end users" meaning I can follow instructions but actually "doing" that stuff goes right over my head I'm afraid, I'll just wait and see if it happens.

Wasn't asking you to do it.

But if curious:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205610

Third box down, with the red lettering -
You can see there is a 'priority' field for the group (helper) and a 'priority' for each of the buttons within the group.

Once our 'Button Man' (twobob) decides how he will present menus to the user other than as a single alphabetical list, then those fields will be used.

Part of the delay is the challenge he has set for himself -
To implement something that works on seven different models of the Kindle - - **NOT** an easy task.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by knc1

Wasn't asking you to do it.

probably just as well

But if curious:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205610

Third box down, with the red lettering -
You can see there is a 'priority' field for the group (helper) and a 'priority' for each of the buttons within the group.

Oh yes I see, thanks for the link.

Once our 'Button Man' (twobob) decides how he will present menus to the user other than as a single alphabetical list, then those fields will be used.

Part of the delay is the challenge he has set for himself -
To implement something that works on seven different models of the Kindle - - **NOT** an easy task.

As I've said, I am *extremely* grateful for what all of you are doing and I'm sure things are not always straightforward. I am a patient sort though and I would never dream of asking for an ETA or anything like that - things are ready when they are and that's that really. I'm just glad that sort other than alphabetical has been thought of and is likely to happen at some point.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by twobob

erm. I guess. if you prefixed it with /bin/sh or something.

I suppose I should try.

should I even ask why?

The "action" : "whatever"
is opening a shell with the argument of "whatever".

So a button action of a quoted shell command, like:
{"name": "Ash Command", "priority" : 1, "action": "set > /var/tmp/set.txt"}

Does what one would expect.
The "action" field also accepts multiple shell commands with the ';' statement separator.
(PS: the above is not a good scripting example, it writes directly to flash, one line at a time.)

And a button that does not re-direct its output anywhere, like:
{"name": "Ash Command", "priority" : 1, "action": "set"}

Writes its output to stdout, on which nothing is listening (as expected).

@dsmid : which means that none of your script outputs will ever be seen by anything other than the bit-bucket.
Check out my DateTime button script for a good way to get messages back to the users, at the same time as avoiding a massive number of writes to flash memory.

[dsmid]

Originally Posted by knc1

@dsmid : which means that none of your script outputs will ever be seen by anything other than the bit-bucket.

I don't rely on displaying stdout on the screen, I use eips to print the messages.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by dsmid

I don't rely on displaying stdout on the screen, I use eips to print the messages.

And who is going to clean all that mess up on the screen once it is finished?