v2015.11-1023-g773e24f observations

[embryo]

I was using the 587 version for many months now with no problems, so I had no reason to update (I still use Opera 12.x anyways...) but I wanted to check all those things I read about at github's pulse, that looked really interesting.
So I updated!
I'm using KSM7 and Nickel 3.4.1 (well, I don't really use Nickel anymore, that's a big plus for KoReader isn't it? ;o)
I hope that there is no compatibility problems because of that.

Overall there are smaller and bigger improvements in many places that I think worth the update.
There are a lot of additions (plugins etc.) that I don't currently use but I have to investigate more.

The reason for this post is a collection of some things I wanted to ask and some things I noticed that I would like a little different.
Since I don't want to bother the developers with every little detail I think it could make the reader better, I didn't open issues for all these at github.
But if you think there is a reason to create an issue for any of this, I will of course do it.
Some of these apply to previous versions too, but since are still present in this version I'm including them here..

• Checking the great Battery statistics plugin, it says at the end that the "Historical records are dumped to" a batterystat.log inside the koreader directory.
  Well, there is no such file there, so I wonder how could I enable this logging?
• Talking about the Statistics, I noticed that in all the statistics windows I have to swipe to move between pages because the tapping does not work.
  Since I am used to tap to change pages in the books, this is a little annoying because every time I open one of those, I first try the tap and then I remember that is not working here...
• I used to have an icon on the menu bar for the Power off. This was really convenient since whenever my device was sleeping the battery drops was significant, so I preferred to turn it off instead.
  Now the code to add this icon is changed and I can not add it anymore.
  I read some place that this option was now in Koreader. The only thing that I found was not a menu entry but [I think] the option to close the reader with long press of the power button.
  This has some disadvantages for me.
  First is the faster wear of the power button.
  Second is that its really difficult because of the sliding nature of this button at the old Glo model. Its almost impossible to use it with gloves, and even without them, most of the time I miss it the first time.
  Another problem is that when the reader is closed or is sleeping, you see the same cover, with nothing to indicate the different states. You have to guess if you slide it for the right amount of time for it to go to the state that you intended.
• And since we are talking about a menu icon, I noticed an inconsistency at the way the menus are constructed.
  All the menu bar icons are creating a sub-menu when pressed.
  All except one. The "Exit to File Manager" one. The most "dangerous". Because when somebody new to the reader, try to find out what all the menu entries are doing, press it, the reader is closed and she finds herself on a browser without a fast way to return back to the book. There is History of course but is inside a menu, not Top Level.
  There are two ways out of this.
  One is to create a sub-menu with a single entry that says what the button will do.
  The other is to just create a menu entry at the last menu (the one that has the "Exit" entry) and ditch the button.
  And while we are at it a "Shut down" entry there, will be most welcomed also.
• Another usability feature of these icons could be the return to the first sub menu.
  What I mean is that, when you are in a sub-menu of the first menu that any button creates, its easier to press the icon to return to the "first" menu than to target the little arrows (which of course are very helpful as they are).
  This is just a small addition that I propose.
• I created a greek keyboard layout that I was using in the previous version by adding

  local keyboard_layout = require("ui/data/keyboardlayouts/greek")

  at the file:

  \frontend\ui\widget\virtualkeyboard.lua

  Now this file's structure has changed, and I don't know how to load it any more. Any ideas?
• I read at github the conversation about the creation of the "Slide to show menu" thing. I read it too late to participate, but I was wondering:
  If the problem was the difficulty to chose between pressing to open the menu and pressing a link, why don't we use the center of the screen?
  There is more space there to avoid accidentally press a link when you don't want to.
  In fact, that was the way I had it configured in the defaults.persistent.lua file, but now is not working.
  Is there a way to change this option and use my settings?

These are the things I found the first half hour that I spend with this version. Maybe I'm missing much about the way the things work.
If I find more mentionable things I will add them in another post.

[Ken Maltby]

The "Exit" under the "hamburger Icon" drops me to KSM7. A "Poweroff" icon or option here, that gives us the KSM Poweroff display, like the old mod you mention, would be good to have as well.

Luck;
Ken

[Frenzie]

If the problem was the difficulty to chose between pressing to open the menu and pressing a link, why don't we use the center of the screen?

Because then you wouldn't be able to interact with links and highlights in the center of the screen. The arguments involved don't change based on location.

Regarding the keyboard layout, there's been a change where the GUI language affects the keyboard, see here. So we could actually bundle your Greek keyboard with KOReader.

[embryo]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Because then you wouldn't be able to interact with links and highlights in the center of the screen. The arguments involved don't change based on location.

Well, it does (a little )
It has to do with the space you have.
I think that is easier to have 4-5 lines full of links (top part of the screen) than 20-30 (center rectangle).
Anyway I never had problems using it for years now. The same goes for nickel...
But you are right.
Better safe than sorry!

Regarding the keyboard layout, there's been a change where the GUI language affects the keyboard, see here. So we could actually bundle your Greek keyboard with KOReader.

There is a problem with that.
I use the English interface and it will be difficult to change interface every time I would like to search for something in Greek or any other language that is not supported in the default keyboard.
Of course I'm attaching the keyboard to get bundled with Koreader.
For my problem though, I will try to replace the original one.
Now that I thing about it, there could be also an other solution.
Why not add all the translations to the default keyboard and choose from there (with a menu or something) the active one?
Just a quick thought...

Any comment for the other items?
Do you thing I should open any new issues over at github?

[Frenzie]

Naturally being able to choose keyboards on the fly would be a much better solution. I actually didn't even know this language-based keyboard switching existed until this morning! For your personal use you could just overwrite the default.

For your comment about swiping left/right in system statistics I opened #2863.

I wouldn't know about battery stats. You could open an issue about that.

The rest is probably tracked in some way or other already, other than switching keyboard layouts.

Regarding closing the book there's actually also "open last document" right underneath history.

[Frenzie]

robert00s already added your Greek keyboard layout to KOReader in #2866. For now it'll be bound to GUI language.

[embryo]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Naturally being able to choose keyboards on the fly would be a much better solution. I actually didn't even know this language-based keyboard switching existed until this morning! For your personal use you could just overwrite the default.

Yes, I did that and its working OK.

For your comment about swiping left/right in system statistics I opened #2863.

Thanks!

I wouldn't know about battery stats. You could open an issue about that.

Opened one here.
And since I was there, I opened one for the "Power off" function too.

Regarding closing the book there's actually also "open last document" right underneath history.

... yeah, but still inside a menu

[Alan_S]

I already suggested ability to power off directly from koreader (posted with link to suggestion there). Hope it will be included soon...

[loviedovie]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

Because then you wouldn't be able to interact with links and highlights in the center of the screen. The arguments involved don't change based on location.

Well that is not true. If you use scroll model you can just pull the page down abit then there you go, you can click on your lovely link. That is only an issue if you use page mode.

[Frenzie]

But your argument is still the same regardless of where the menu activation zone might be.

[loviedovie]

Originally Posted by Frenzie

But your argument is still the same regardless of where the menu activation zone might be.

Sure, but in my experience that is not a hinderance. Out of 100s of books I read, I never clicked a link inside an ebook. And highlighting is not so easy I just avoid it generally unless I really have to then I generally pull the page to a click comfortable zone and then highlight it. Highlighting is especially harder when the words are at the edges. Maybe it is my device's issue not sure.