1.7 announced

[yingwu]

Any effort they spend now implementing code for reopening documents will be wasted time since the next power mode should make that code unnecessary

Sorry, I don't think so. If you are sure the power management can be done in 1.7, then I say nothing. However, I don't believe this. So it is worth spending short time in implementing the reopening function, instead of waiting for another half of year for a full power management and the file open at the same time. The suspend-to-flash does not mean reopening the files. They are different functions.

[olis]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

IMO, if they will automatically get that functionality later, I'd rather them spend their resources working on other priorities.

Do you think that "tabs" are a priority?
Switching between documents is already very easy, it needs only two taps.
Why spend "precious" resources on a function that is already well implemented?

[yingwu]

Originally Posted by olis

Do you think that "tabs" are a priority?
Switching between documents is already very easy, it needs only two taps.
Why spend "precious" resources on a function that is already well implemented?

Good point. There is an additional consideration.

Shaggy, you says reopening the files and the power management are duplicated, so the Irex should focus on the latter one. OK, We imagine the suspend-to-flash is finished now. So when the device is hibernated and we want to wake it up. I do not know the detail process, but I am sure there is a step to check whether there are files opened before the hibernation, what the opened files are and where they are so that the device can reopen those files. When developing a software, we want to implement a function as a component so that many components can work cooperatively to form a bigger function. Thus reopening files can be a component that is used or called by the component of power management, which means the reopening files must be mandatory, because it is just a step in the power management. olis is right. I guess they have such component already and what they do is just link the initialization of the tabs to the reopening-files component. It should not be difficult.

Therefore, reopening documents will be NOT 'wasted time' and NOT 'unnecessary'.

[omro]

And what about all the time I waste having to reopen every document whenever the DR shuts down on me if I leave it too long or when I want to conserve power by shutting it down?

Making it so that the DR will reopen the documents it had open when it shuts down would be a huge time saver for the individual. It might actually encourage people to turn the DR on and off more frequently thus saving power!! I leave mine on (usually connected via usb cable) all day because I really can't be bothered to deal with the finding and opening documents every single time.

[ThR]

Originally Posted by omro

[...]with the finding [..] documents every single time.

This time is very short for me: I add a shortcut for every document I'm "working" on to the homescreen (mainmenu - add shortcut). After finishing the document, I delete the shortcut. So - no waste of time.

But please, irex - implement the automatic reopen function as soon as possible! Thank you.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ThR

This time is very short for me: I add a shortcut for every document I'm "working" on to the homescreen (mainmenu - add shortcut). After finishing the document, I delete the shortcut. So - no waste of time.

I do exactly the same thing.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

OK, We imagine the suspend-to-flash is finished now. So when the device is hibernated and we want to wake it up. I do not know the detail process, but I am sure there is a step to check whether there are files opened before the hibernation, what the opened files are and where they are so that the device can reopen those files.

That's not how it works. There aren't any steps to check what files were open and then reopen them. When you suspend to flash you take a snapshot of the entire system and store it, then when you wake up you pull that snapshot out of memory and resume running. It doesn't know anything specifically about files or reopening things, it basically just resumes all of the applications exactly as they were.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

Sorry, I don't think so. If you are sure the power management can be done in 1.7, then I say nothing. However, I don't believe this. So it is worth spending short time in implementing the reopening function, instead of waiting for another half of year for a full power management and the file open at the same time. The suspend-to-flash does not mean reopening the files. They are different functions.

I'm pretty sure 1.7 will not have the power management. They've said that 1.7 is a small bugfix release.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by omro

Making it so that the DR will reopen the documents it had open when it shuts down would be a huge time saver for the individual. It might actually encourage people to turn the DR on and off more frequently thus saving power!! I leave mine on (usually connected via usb cable) all day because I really can't be bothered to deal with the finding and opening documents every single time.

My understanding is that when the final power management is complete you won't shut it down anymore. When you aren't using it, the idea is that it will go into the suspend-to-flash mode instead of being shutdown.

If that's true, then you can let it go into the suspend-to-flash "off" mode when you're not using it, and it will resume all of your documents automatically when you "turn it on" again.

[omro]

which would be great, but how far away is that?

[yingwu]

Originally Posted by omro

which would be great, but how far away is that?

Really no idea. But good thing is there is a new firmware, anyway.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by omro

which would be great, but how far away is that?

Nobody knows, they haven't given any schedule for it.

The question is whether it's worth it for them to do a temporary workaround that won't be required anymore once the power management is done. I have no idea if they will or won't, I'm just speculating. My guess is no, but I could be completely wrong.

Something like that would actually be a great idea for the open source community to work on, but I don't know if there is anybody outside of iRex with enough familiarity with the code yet to pull it off. So far, most of the work on the DR I've seen is porting applications, not modifications to iRex's code. I'm also not sure if the best place to do it would be in the UDS (which we don't have access to), or the individual viewers. There are others out there with a lot more knowledge of the DR code than me though.

[ghostwheel]

I haven't looked at the code, but I think a very simple hack would be that when you open a document, a link to it is automatically created in the System folder or so, in a visible folder, called something like "recent". This way you would still have to click on the link after you turn the device on, but you wouldn't have to create the ilnk every time you open a document (which is pretty much what I, and I think also others, do)
You could even have several recently opened links....

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Nobody knows, they haven't given any schedule for it.

The question is whether it's worth it for them to do a temporary workaround that won't be required anymore once the power management is done. I have no idea if they will or won't, I'm just speculating. My guess is no, but I could be completely wrong.

Something like that would actually be a great idea for the open source community to work on, but I don't know if there is anybody outside of iRex with enough familiarity with the code yet to pull it off. So far, most of the work on the DR I've seen is porting applications, not modifications to iRex's code. I'm also not sure if the best place to do it would be in the UDS (which we don't have access to), or the individual viewers. There are others out there with a lot more knowledge of the DR code than me though.

[smp_iliad]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

My understanding is that when the final power management is complete you won't shut it down anymore. When you aren't using it, the idea is that it will go into the suspend-to-flash mode instead of being shutdown.

If that's true, then you can let it go into the suspend-to-flash "off" mode when you're not using it, and it will resume all of your documents automatically when you "turn it on" again.

I have some concern about "unknown" bugs. Maybe it's the case of just my DR, but I continue to see many unknown bugs that force me to reset the device frequently. I guess that's mostly related to memory leaks. Thesedays, I have to reset the device once a day on average to put the system into fresh state. Even if suspend mode is introduced later, I think I'll continue to power off the device to "refresh" it. So, to some extent, opening previous documents in boot time make sense to me.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by smp_iliad

I have some concern about "unknown" bugs. Maybe it's the case of just my DR, but I continue to see many unknown bugs that force me to reset the device frequently. I guess that's mostly related to memory leaks. Thesedays, I have to reset the device once a day on average to put the system into fresh state. Even if suspend mode is introduced later, I think I'll continue to power off the device to "refresh" it. So, to some extent, opening previous documents in boot time make sense to me.

We'll have to see what bugs they are fixing in 1.7. They said it was a bugfix update, but I haven't seen a list of the ones they're addressing.