Gmenu2x V0.2 Released

[X-Code]

How about an option to scan first, and a sorting system second using a file browser?

 

[craigix]

DaveC in his element

 

[Griffer]

Okay this isen't really essential, as you could just do it manually... But what about a feature which allows you to choose different background images? Might be more trouble than its worth, i don't know much about codeing, so it might be more difficult than it sounds.

 

[paxl13]

I wouldn't have a "scrollbar" though. This would be something that you would have to go to or activate, then scroll , then de-activate then select icons again. If this would require more buttons to activate it is getting too complicated and less intuitive. It is more that the user has to remember and do. EX: Hmm I have more icons so now I select the scrollbar now move to second section, ok now I am done now I can deactivate and go back to icons etc. The less buttons , combinations, and controls the better. KISS. It is different on a PC that works because you have a mouse that can get to places real fast and in the same way.

The way I would suggest is when there are more icons just make a small arrow appear (I would suggest paging vertical as there are less rows 4 vs 6 to go through) pointing down. Then to get to that page just move the cursor down, when it gets to the last row you would press down one more time and the second page would come into view. you would then see the second page and an arrow now pointing up indicating that there are icons on a page upwards. You could have buttons assigned that flip pages too but you should have it so the stick does it as well.

I was planning a scrollbar but it was not going to be this difficult to use. The scrollbar would just show your position and the presence of other links up or down, much like the arrows you are suggesting. No need to select scrollbar or unintuitive controls...

I think if you separated the icons vertically by one pixel you would only need 3 lines that should work. you could also move the description text to fit in the bottom bar next to those small CPU speed and SD card memory icons.

Separating icons by 1px it's ok but I don't know how much this will help. The space on the bottom bar is not used now but would have been used in the future.
I'll do some tests with different settings...

BTW, Ryo, REAL great job, my perl script is comming along
I'll may be email it to you if you wish when it'll be completed.

Thanks your for your great job,
paxl13

Ok, I'm going to do it directly in the frontend instead of using an external scripts but it may be useful in the meanwhile and I'll look at how your solution works. Maybe you should also provide a pre-made working link for gmenu2x so it will be easier to get it to work.

After thinking a little bit, I could write the script into bash.. but the
file browser it the better solution also in my oppinion.

Great Work Ryo
paxl13

 

[michaeljustman]

I like the scanning idea, but I would also like the ability to browse to the program, but one would also need the ability to edit things like the title of the icon, the description and the clock speed or set paramaters, so you might have to implement some sort of text entry.

You should add the ability for your program to recognize png files in the same directory as a gpe or gpu with the same filename. You could just use the option AUTO in the config for icon... Ex: icon=AUTO

It would also be nice to have the ability to go straight to some of the settings screens on the original menu w/o having to exit to the other menu.

Need one off the wall suggestion too... what about some kind of uber-link that allowed you to link to a program (that hopefully accepted filenames as a parameter) and instead of making a link to the program you specified a directory and a filetype and it would magically create links to your files, so that you could launch a emulated game from the menu frontend. This also might work for JPGs, AVIs, etc, so that one would never have to see the previous frontend, yes?

Great program... I love it so much more than the original menu.

 

[Dzz]

or perhaps, instead of a scanner, how bout a file browser so you can browse to an app to have it added to the menu.

This is really a good idea, I would like to hear from other users which method they would prefer...
Personally I think the file browser is a better idea. It would prevent something like having to always delete an unwanted link over and over again at each scan, it would also allow to add a link to a non gpu/gpe file and there's no need for a dedicated category like "new links"...

Here's what I think:

I think you probably already have different "groups" of some kind -- one page for emulators, one for games, etc. Further, you probably have (or will have) a way to move an item from one group to another.

I propose that you hit some key combination (or something else that's easy to do). This scans your SD card and creates a new temporary group called "Scan" or something and takes you to it. It shows at least all gpes that aren't already in one of the permanent groups. "Scan" not a permanent group, you don't have to delete anything from it because it won't be saved anywhere. You could run the files from the scan page if you wanted to, or you could move them to one of the permanent groups (in which case the link gets saved at that point).

If this doesn't fit with your ideas about the program, that's cool... i'll just have to write my own menu

 

[michaeljustman]

or perhaps, instead of a scanner, how bout a file browser so you can browse to an app to have it added to the menu.

This is really a good idea, I would like to hear from other users which method they would prefer...
Personally I think the file browser is a better idea. It would prevent something like having to always delete an unwanted link over and over again at each scan, it would also allow to add a link to a non gpu/gpe file and there's no need for a dedicated category like "new links"...

Here's what I think:

I think you probably already have different "groups" of some kind -- one page for emulators, one for games, etc. Further, you probably have (or will have) a way to move an item from one group to another.

I propose that you hit some key combination (or something else that's easy to do). This scans your SD card and creates a new temporary group called "Scan" or something and takes you to it. It shows at least all gpes that aren't already in one of the permanent groups. "Scan" not a permanent group, you don't have to delete anything from it because it won't be saved anywhere. You could run the files from the scan page if you wanted to, or you could move them to one of the permanent groups (in which case the link gets saved at that point).

If this doesn't fit with your ideas about the program, that's cool... i'll just have to write my own menu

I tend to agree with Dzz, but perhaps repeatively pushing a button combination one by one to move all of the scanned icons into place might get old quick, if you have a relatively large amount of programs, even though you only have to do it once.

Plus how under this system is one supposed to set the title and description for the icon or other parameters. You would have to include the ability to bring up a property box for each icon and add these things in text boxes or something.

 

[ryosaeba]

Editing the scripts is a bit tedious but the real pain comes when something won't show up for some reason. I stil have a few scripts that don't work and I don't know why. Anything to eliminate this is great. Whatever is easier for you to code.

As far as I can see, nearly the totality of link errors are from incorrect paths or DOS line-endings.
The line-endings issue have been fixed in svn.

The browser would be slower in the initial setup as you would have to do it for every app. After that though it would be faster as you wouldn't have to scan the whole card every time. Since the latter would be used more maybe the browser would be better.

I think that I'll end up coding both features, I just have to decide which first.

As far as the scroll bar you could make it pretty thin as to not use up alot of space, maybe 3 pix wide.

Already did and I managed to separate the icons a little.

I like the scanning idea, but I would also like the ability to browse to the program, but one would also need the ability to edit things like the title of the icon, the description and the clock speed or set paramaters, so you might have to implement some sort of text entry.

That feature should be used to initially create the link, still requiring some manual editing if you want to fix the title and description. This doesn't mean that in the future I will not end up adding a text-entry feature.

You should add the ability for your program to recognize png files in the same directory as a gpe or gpu with the same filename. You could just use the option AUTO in the config for icon... Ex: icon=AUTO

Added to the tracker. Still i wouldn't use an AUTO value, just search for the icon if no icon specified.

It would also be nice to have the ability to go straight to some of the settings screens on the original menu w/o having to exit to the other menu.

Impossible...
Has the original frontend sourcecode been released yet? Is it going to be released at all?

Need one off the wall suggestion too... what about some kind of uber-link that allowed you to link to a program (that hopefully accepted filenames as a parameter) and instead of making a link to the program you specified a directory and a filetype and it would magically create links to your files, so that you could launch a emulated game from the menu frontend. This also might work for JPGs, AVIs, etc, so that one would never have to see the previous frontend, yes?

That would be possible if I code the selector-like feature like I wrote before and if the gp2x apps like the movie player would accept the filename as a command-line argument which I don't think it does at the moment.

I know, I end up planning too many features... A lot of code to write...

 

[DaveC]

I think you probably already have different "groups" of some kind -- one page for emulators, one for games, etc. Further, you probably have (or will have) a way to move an item from one group to another.

I propose that you hit some key combination (or something else that's easy to do). This scans your SD card and creates a new temporary group called "Scan" or something and takes you to it. It shows at least all gpes that aren't already in one of the permanent groups. "Scan" not a permanent group, you don't have to delete anything from it because it won't be saved anywhere. You could run the files from the scan page if you wanted to, or you could move them to one of the permanent groups (in which case the link gets saved at that point).

If this doesn't fit with your ideas about the program, that's cool... i'll just have to write my own menu

Good idea, I posted it awhile back in the first thread. I think you are referring to the same thing as below:

Ryo said eventually it would do this as he was thinking of doing it too

Looks nice.

...
NOTE: the top bar should also contain a catagory called "unfiled" or something like that. When you do a scan all un-catagorized icons will show up in the bottom panel.

Then after a scan you can select an icon and with a certain button TBD and it will bring up a dialog. The dialog will then have options with all catagories listed. you would then select that catagory and then the launcher would move that icon to the selected catagory and no longer show up in "unfiled" It would then save this to the system file in the launcher that determines where icons are shown. If you leave in "unfiled" you can still launch the app as well which is good for testing apps. When you have a "keeper" you can file into another catagory.

For example you scan after adding "DRMD" to your card.

DRMD shows up in "unfiled" after you do a scan.

You select "DRMD" and highlight "Emulators"

The icon now appears under the "emulators" catagory and is no longer in "unfiled"

The launcher now saves the config file so that DRMD always shows up in "emulators" (unless you move it using the dialog to a different spot again).

This allows users to completely set up how their icons are shown through the GUI itself. No faffing with a PC or scripts is needed to set up. You should also be able to add or remove catagories as named by the user. You can have an "add catagory" and "remove catagory" in the dialog. If you delete a catagory and there are icons in it they would all default back to "unfiled".

After thinking a little bit, I could write the script into bash.. but the
file browser it the better solution also in my oppinion.

Great Work Ryo
paxl13

I think it should be in the frontend too. Too much linux makes my head hurt. A nice easy browser to find and put icons into the desired section would be nicer than bash scripts and stuff.

I know, I end up planning too many features... A lot of code to write...

Yeah I think we are getting a bit carried away with featuritis.

I think we need to remember what this app is for *launching apps*.

I have a feeling that all of this code is going to balloon up the program size taking longer to load. That would not be good as you want the fasteest startup time possible.

This brings me to an idea. Make the launcher itself clean, small, optimised and simple as possible like it is now which just loads apps without all of the scanning features, file management etc. Then make a separate file manager app module that you can load to scan, edit sections, set parameters etc. This app would save everything to the launcher config files etc. This way it doesn't have to load all of that extra code that most of the time won't be used when launching apps. I don't know you would have to see if that is worth it. I don't know how much startup speed will be lost doing the features in the launcher itself.

 

[Lobo]

I like the file browser idea myself, more than the scan card one.

I don't move my stuff around a lot, so once the initial setup is done, after that it would be just changing one link every now and then: if I had to rescan everything and then go and remove all the stuff I don't even want to see in the menu whenever I added a new app or emu then it would become a real pain real quick.

I suppose the ideal solution would be to have both options to keep everyone happy, but the file browser gets my vote. The way I see it, the scan card option would be used only once anyway (during the first setup) while the file browser one would be used quite a lot after that.

my €0.02...


BTW Great app!

 

[Durga]

or perhaps, instead of a scanner, how bout a file browser so you can browse to an app to have it added to the menu.

Come to think of it this would be better, it would take abit longer with the first set up but it would be worth it.

 

[DaveC]

Editing the scripts is a bit tedious but the real pain comes when something won't show up for some reason. I stil have a few scripts that don't work and I don't know why. Anything to eliminate this is great. Whatever is easier for you to code.

As far as I can see, nearly the totality of link errors are from incorrect paths or DOS line-endings.
The line-endings issue have been fixed in svn.

I don't know. I tried to just make a copy of a working link and then edit the path and gpe name. It still refuses to show the icon. I am completely stumped. It seems that it simply doesn't like some stuff and will not show it no matter what. I use programmers notpad with linux LF selected. I guess I will have to remove this menu and not use it. It is too bad because I like it alot. I have checked, double and triple checked all paths and file names, still no worky on some select things, but at the same time iother stuff works fine. It just doesn't make sense. I hope for a new version that is a bit more forgiving of ?? what ever it is that keeps my games to show.

 

[XerXerz]

When I am tries to changeing icons, I have using notepads, and it is working. I never having needed to check paths or anthing. For me, the notepads is the better choices of using editing things.
Also, I do not haves to changing any of the lines of ending with letters.

 

[X-Code]

1 - Pre-scan SD and make a list of files that will get stored on SD
2 - Compare list of files with current files on SD every time we boot
3 - If new file is found, add to list, but retain list order
4 - Mark new item and ask user where they wish to place it ( via a small pop-up menu or similar method )

On the other hand, I don't think that the text editor idea is bad... But it does require an auto scan option of some sort ... I need a coffee lol

 

[DaveC]

1 - Pre-scan SD and make a list of files that will get stored on SD
2 - Compare list of files with current files on SD every time we boot
3 - If new file is found, add to list, but retain list order
4 - Mark new item and ask user where they wish to place it ( via a small pop-up menu or similar method )

On the other hand, I don't think that the text editor idea is bad... But it does require an auto scan option of some sort ... I need a coffee lol

That comparing everytime we boot would be a very bad idea. It would slow down boot times WAY too much. It should only scan when the user decides to scan. There is no advantage to doing it everytime you boot up. I think you know when you added something and can handle pressing a button to scan afterwards. Why do you want to wait for it to scan everytime you boot even if you didn't add anything? imagine scanning files on a 4 gig card every time you load the menu :blink:

 

[X-Code]

Forgot to add optional :lol: ... I did say that I needed a coffe ... On the other hand, yes, it is more logical to scan when you know that you have added something lol

 

[EvilDragon]

I can't get my XMESS links to work either. I have everything else working I am stumped with these. Everything else seems to work, doesn't make sense. I used Programmers notepad to do them.

title=XM_A7800
description=Atari_7800
exec=/mnt/sd/Emulators/XMESS/a7800.gpe

Seems fine. Try using a all-lowercase path. If this does the trick we discovered the root of the problem and I can try to fix it.

As I had the same problem with lots of my emulators, I figured out what's wrong...

Two uppercase-chars beneath each other in an exec-link don't work.

i.e. SNES won't work, Snes will.

 

[ryosaeba]

As I had the same problem with lots of my emulators, I figured out what's wrong...

Two uppercase-chars beneath each other in an exec-link don't work.

i.e. SNES won't work, Snes will.

I just cannot imagine why there's such a problem. Adding links through file browser will probably help get around this issues...

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, don't ask me why, at least I now know why some of my links weren't working but are now
I had NES, SNES, SMS, PC-Engine... and all those didn't work.
Renamed them to Nes, Snes, Sms, Pc-Engine, changed the scripts, and they do work

 

[sam fisher]

Well, don't ask me why, at least I now know why some of my links weren't working but are now
I had NES, SNES, SMS, PC-Engine... and all those didn't work.
Renamed them to Nes, Snes, Sms, Pc-Engine, changed the scripts, and they do work

Reminds me of a small C program I wrote that was for some reason buggering up if you wrote two 4 letter words followed by a three letter word ending in a '?'. I still don't why it happened, or I do but forgot cos its almost 2 am. I had to fix the problem by making sure that an old bit of code that was no longer required was removed.