Release Minimenu Preview Beta For You To Try!

[skeezix]

Zenbot -- btw, I love your avatar artwork. Which pnd is it? I'm betting its a 'bad pnd' -- where the dev has specified invalid/bogus information in the PXML descriptor, and its confusing mmenu. I've never seen a proper pnd do that behaviour, but I've checked a few bad ones and they do exhibit that behaviour.


--


Latest one is now here:


http://www.codejedi.com/pandora/minimenu/mmenu_beta_installer_20110209.pnd


Huge piles of changes in here, but the main attraction should be the custom categories support.


In theory it shoudl handle your handmade ovr's pretty well if you made some before; but thats onyl a handfull of people so I've not worried over it too much.


In the Select menu there's a new option "Manage custom categories", which is basicly a UI for creating, removing and listing your custom categories. Custom categories are just extra cats listed in the "Recategorize" and "Recategorize subcategory" menus in the Spacebar 'app menu'.


It does relatively strict verification of pnd suggested categories and if the dev has made crappy non-standard or typoed categories, mmenu will shove the guy over to Other, so people can bug the devs to fix their junk But if you have an ovr file, whatever is in there is taken as gospel. The Recategorize menu options just set up your ovr files.


So you can now remove a subcat assignment from an app, specify a new one, specify a new main category, plus other ovr edit options .. rename the app, change its preferred cpu speed, add some notes, and some other stuff.


Lots olittle extras too -- you can delve into the Select -> Configure -> General options to turn off having apps show up in their main category if they're in the subcategory, if you like, to keep things clean looking. (ie: If an app is Game and Game->Emulator, it will show up normnally in Game and Emulator; but you can now just have it show up in Game->Emulator, not in Game, if you like.)


Please give it a good solid workout.. there is a _tonne_ of new code in these betas, and not many eyeballs testing


jeff


edit: you might want to do a system restart after running the install, as I'm updating a core library and it might confuse a few things.

 

[skeezix]

I should note -- if you create custom categories and subcats, they will only really work in mmenu; xfce or other Freedesktop standard systems will stick the app into 'Other' when they encounter the non-standard stuff.


jeff

 

[lordbobjones]

sweet. Downloading to give it a try. You have been cranking out some first class updates. Thanks for your hard work!!

 

[skeezix]

You're very welcome Looking forward to hearing back .. so few actually test, but if we go live with some bugs, peopel will fill my mailbox with steaming poop. Can't win


jeff

 

[budweiser]

The slide bar is nice in the clock speed ,


but would love to see a few preset buttons in there as well


like default(500)


maybe a few others 600,700 etc.


So far the newest version works great no issues at all


Great work.... Bud

 

[Zenbot]

Thanks. I'm gonna give the new version and your suggestion a try. FYI, it actually wouldn't hide any PNDs, even ones that came pre-installed with the Pandora OS. But, I've been known to fall victim to user error before.

 

[skeezix]

ZenBot -- well, thagts just weird Let me know how it goes.


If it still goes bad, I'll want to see a copy of your ~/.mmprefs.conf file (in your homedir on NAND) to see if something is weird in there .. worst case, just remove the file and see if suddenly everythign is sorted


jeff

 

[skeezix]

lordbobjones -- I think its one of DaveC's custom ones.


I think he has a sample here: http://a.imageshack.us/img694/6877/iconsample.png


But we need to get a DaveC icon pack put together .. just dropthe .png beside your .pnd and it'll get used by xfce and mmenu


jeff

 

[lordbobjones]

ok sweet. Thanks! I am Atari fan from ages ago and that is one of the primary reasons I wanted a Pandora.

 

[ZXDunny]

Yeah, this is fun but I really want my emulators in the "games" tab, not in a sub-folder in the "games" tab. By default. nothing else makes sense, really - whoever wants the non-standard behaviour could always do the editing, but emulators should just be mixed in with the games without having to edit anything.


D.

 

[skeezix]

ZXDunny -- so you're covered then


By default, subcat apps are shown in their main category. You just turn off "Emulator" in the config, and good to go .. you'll just have Games, and all the games in it. (You can show/hide any tab or subcat-folder. Plus with recategorizing and custom categories, should be pretty flexible.)


jeff

 

[ZXDunny]

ZXDunny -- so you're covered then


By default, subcat apps are shown in their main category. You just turn off "Emulator" in the config, and good to go .. you'll just have Games, and all the games in it. (You can show/hide any tab or subcat-folder. Plus with recategorizing and custom categories, should be pretty flexible.)


jeff

Yeah, I'm working my way around the options


TBH, I was trolling DaveC *just a little bit* for fun. Looking good, MM gets better. Just need the themes updating!


D.

 

[skeezix]

*g* Ahh, gotcha. I'm a little slow .. I think I've been going full speed in RL work and full speed in Pandora-work, so I'm about ready to crash soon


jeff

 

[lordbobjones]

Jeff I put several hours running various emulators, games and apps and everything looks fantastic in this release. The interface for Minimenu has made huge strides and has really become in my opinion the best way to use my pandora. It is fast, simple yet has a ton of features.


I have not had one issue that is related to Minimenu to report.


Outstanding work!!!

 

[skeezix]

Awesome, thanks for testing, and thanks for reporting, and thanks for the kind words Did you exercise the new ovr-edit type functionality (registering new categories/subcats, assigning apps around to new folders, that sort of thing)?


I'm 99% of mmenu, but at least some credit should be griven DaveC; he's my (irritable muse who fights and wrestles with me over ever change, and makes 3/4 of the suggestions/requirements and twists my arm. In the end, he's usually right when i'm going too far or not far enough. mmenu pretty much exists because he is so demanding of a fast simple interface.


I'm still debating a push in hf6 to have mmenu have display options sort of like 'windows explorer' -- normal icon mode, or a small icon mode, or a detail list text mode. That'd break skinning the way we do it now, but is not too hard to implement. Well, perhaps I can add details text list mode without breaking skins, but the icon-sizes/grid-sizing/columns/rows/etc stuff is all specified in the skin right now, not by user onthe fly.


I've been tempted to add a mode which is 'double density' mode -- half size icons and 'cell spacing' in the grid, and dropping the text part or maybe half size font, too. Somethign you can hit a button to toggle on/off and get crazy amounts of icons on screen, but really should have a 'grid editor' to let oyu specify how many columns/rows you like, and size the icons, etc. But that'd break how we do skins....


See, can't help myself, planning for hf6 already


jeff

 

[dsleaf67]

Thanks Skeezix,


Mini menu is almost perfect! Its what I use as my main starting point all the time. A couple of questions / suggestions:


1) Evildragon mentions in HF5RC1 (which updated to last night) added adotool for mapping keys. Is this in mini menu or just XFCE? Would be nice for quick access to most used apps (toggle WiFi, Bluetooth, qorganizer, or whatever.


2) Can you test Super Mario War with categorizing etc. It seems to be one that doesn't follow or has bad something. only super Mario world editor shows up in games and also, when in other hide apps menu (from previous versions) changing one to no changes all to no. Also, I can't reconfigure that one with space tried and nothing. Finally with this in mind where do OVR's go. Will I have to redo all this every time I re-flash to newer firmware?


3) I would like to have option to not show folders or subcategories at all. I can at least change them to show folders so I don't have the tabs but I'd like to stick with just main cats and nothing else. Is this possible?


4) Can the SPACE menu return to the last TAB executed from?


Just ideas, It really is perfectly usable as it is and will be my main screen for a long time.

 

[skeezix]

Glad you like it Seeing some feedback is great .. usually people just use the firmware, and comment about apps; getting feedback helps keep it interesting


1) adotool -- not looked into it yet, but its of that family of tools for mapping events to other events -- when key is hit, simulate a mouse click here, ot simulate a button press for buttonX, that sort of thing. I've not looked into how its configued or what features it has .. if it can map chorded keys to execute app, you'd probably be in luck. For mmenu operations I may have to build an API for it or something, but not had time to look yet.


2) If changing one app between yes/no changes a bunch of apps, it means the pnd is definately broken a little. That implies multiple apps within one pnd, all with the same unique-id, so mmenu has a hard time addressing them individually. In the past it'd show them, but now it tries to do 'unique pruning' so might be getting confused.


I could change 'unique pruning' to go by unique-id + title, to solve that, perhaps .. but the pnd is still broken, so the real fix is for someone or the dev to fix it up. *hmm*


2b) ovr files sit beside the pnd; if you have /pandora/menu/foo.pnd you'll find /pandora/menu/foo.ovr -- so no, a reflash won't lose them. If you want to override the preview pic, you can do that too -- /pandora/menu/foo.png, but thats up to you to do outside of mmenu, of course (a reflash will have mmenu forget your custom made categories for the picker-list in 'recategorize', but the custom made cats and such will still be in the ovr files and used for those apps. So you won't lose anything in a reflash, but may have to re-add custom categories to your picker list. I've been mulling over a 'backup/restore' set of options for mmenu to copy even those little things to SD so you can do it around a flash, but I think a more robust 'home directory backup/restore' option may be in the cards for everyone .. like a 'preflash backup' and 'postflash restore' type pnd.


** anyone think I should make up a pnd like that? or build somethign into firmware? just to let you move your homedir to SD and back.


3) Select -> Configure -> disable categories; just go through and nuke whatever folders/tabs you don't want. In subcat-as-folder mode, or in subcat-as-tabs mode, only visible ones show up .. you turn them all of, they're all 'gone' until you bring them back.


4) spacebar -> ... oh, it goes back to your 'default tab' (if you didn't get rid of it ; I did that on purpose -- its entirely possible you got rid of the tab you were on -- say if you recategorize the last app of the category, that tab will be gone now. I'll put a note on my to-do list, I coudl maybe stay at same tab if it survives whatever you do bu tI'll worry about it later.


jeff

 

[lordbobjones]

Yes I did mess about with the categories and moved a few things around. Mostly I like things the way they are. I LOVE the overclocking settings and how all that has grown and matured. First class in every way.


The idea of a list mode is interesting. It might help especially in finding apps in a long list. Small Icons I am not so sure about due to touch screen use (which I sometimes do) Smaller Icons might make that more difficult but I like the idea.


Keep on innovating. And thanks to DaveC for his work too! I appreciate your hard work!


Heading out to a shop I just got a call about that has some old video game consoles that they want to get rid of. Not sure what I am going to find, but I love the adventure and the ignorant sometimes horde amazing treasures. Maybe I will find a pinball machine too. I need one of those... Well not so much need as want.

 

[skeezix]

Silverballs (pinballs) are _huge_, is the only problem. (as someone who collects arcade cabs, I call pinballs huge


A list/detail mode could be handy, with showing file sizes and such; I sort of like the idea of a basic search feature .. start typing to real time narrow the app listing. *shrug* Someday


jeff

 

[dsleaf67]

Thank for the reply skeezix,


1) Good news, look forward to it.


2) Thanks again, this was just kind of a heads up and an example of some of the you might be trying to look out for. Also, thanks for ovr's location then I don't have to keep changing.


3) I think you mean Select -> Configure ->show hide tabs? I think you miss understood here. I realize about going into here and going through the list, I've done it everytime I reflash. However, that also, only shows tabs and cats that you have on that card, another card may have apps with different cats/sub cats so I have to go in to do this for every card. What I was asking for is a option that turns off the use of sub-cats altogether and I just use main categories. I suppose there could be overides allowed or something.


4) Thanks, I see your point, it sounds like you see the other side too. I was in Other try to re-categorize (at least the games) and would have to keep going back to other tab for next one. Its fine whatever you decide on these, its just my thoughts on the matter.