My first impressions of the Pyra

[jakko]

SDL, etc. is also not working properly yet

and from another thread:

Yes, SDL fullscreen is not working yet.

Not sure if this helps:
At GPD Win I had to

export SDL_VIDEO_FULLSCREEN_DISPLAY=0

for fullscreen to work with SDL. I don't know where's the best place to put that environment variable in, I had it added to the end of ~/.xsessionrc but probably /etc/profile.d/NEWFILE.sh (well, name it e.g. "sdl_fullscreen.sh") would be cleaner. The number after the equal sign has to be the same as the screen number in X11, which can be looked up in e.g. xrandr. Usually it's 0.

 

[TrashyMG]

@jakko, well it's not that full screen isn't working, it's just not drawing on the screen properly, as it's not accounting for screen rotation.

I did try what you suggested but didn't change anything.

 

[jakko]

Ah, ok. I don't have any suggestion for this, unfortunately.

 

[levi]

@jakko, well it's not that full screen isn't working, it's just not drawing on the screen properly, as it's not accounting for screen rotation.

Hmm, in that photo the game art isn't rotated, from out point of view, which is what I'd expect to have happened given what you said. Looks more to me like the art is being drawn so that the width is the height of the screen, and the height is worked out proportionally from there. Probably the game does the latter automatically, but the initial mistake to me reads like it read the Y coordinate as the X coordinate. I'm slightly surprised the rest of the screen is still visible, and I don't know if it's still updating, but I've never seen the screen behind a fullscreen app before so I don't actually know what it's meant to look like. But it seems likely that some API needs to be tweaked to swap X and Y when giving the screen size, to account for the rotation in action. Which is kind of what you said, but using more words.

 

[Phlyra]

Hmm, in that photo the game art isn't rotated, from out point of view, which is what I'd expect to have happened given what you said. Looks more to me like the art is being drawn so that the width is the height of the screen, and the height is worked out proportionally from there. Probably the game does the latter automatically, but the initial mistake to me reads like it read the Y coordinate as the X coordinate. I'm slightly surprised the rest of the screen is still visible, and I don't know if it's still updating, but I've never seen the screen behind a fullscreen app before so I don't actually know what it's meant to look like. But it seems likely that some API needs to be tweaked to swap X and Y when giving the screen size, to account for the rotation in action. Which is kind of what you said, but using more words.

Forgive me if I’m barking up the wrong tree here but I thought @daveshah had already addressed this issue?

 

[EvilDragon]

Forgive me if I’m barking up the wrong tree here but I thought @daveshah had already addressed this issue?

Umm... no? Where did you read that?

 

[Phlyra]

Umm... no? Where did you read that?

Back when he addressed TILER rotation issue shortly before (or just after?) receiving the first dark chrome production Pyra?

 

[levi]

That's rotating the video data. There may be an API which is linked but rather orthogonal to that effort, namely an API to describe the dimensions of the screen, which is still giving the arguments in the wrong order.

 

[Phlyra]

That's rotating the video data. There may be an API which is linked but rather orthogonal to that effort, namely an API to describe the dimensions of the screen, which is still giving the arguments in the wrong order.

Ah. Ok!

 

[oskda]

The resistive touchscreen feels outdated in 2020 but is absolutely necessary to be used with a stylus ..

Really it wasn't as there are other options:

1/ IR (infra-red) sensors on borders. My Nook (eink reader) uses this tech and it works perfectly.

2/ Even better: a digitizer under screen, like for example in Galaxy Note smartphines and Surface tablets. I suppose the problem here is price and availability for a such niche device like Pyra.


Both options would deliver better display quality because there is not a flexible plastic layer above screen like in resistive technology.

For me now there is more reasons to have a no touch screen option for Pyra. Even if it is an add-on, something you have to pay for, not a standard component.

 

[pyrat]

smartphines

See ? That's a brand for pine64 phone. Instead of pinephones, they could have called them smartphines.

 

[oskda]

See ? That's a brand for pine64 phone. Instead of pinephones, they could have called them smartphines.

On-screen keyboards are very creative so it is not my achievement but their

PD: About that horrible on-screen keyboard I perefer a errata instead of a changed word by "smart" word predictor.

 

[oskda]

The touchscreen is nothing new - I mentioned that years ago already when we received the first touchscreens.
The problem is: As resistive touchscreens are not really used anymore these days, they don't have such a big surrounding frame as they used to have.
Unlike capacitive touchscreens, resistive ones can't be bonded on top of the screen - they need to be affixed around it.

Due to the minimum space on the screen where they can be glued to, the edges are affected a bit. ...

As usually, when using the OS most tend to use the nubs and as it's only at the edge of the screen, this was considered as being the best solution (no touchscreen or a capacitive one would've been the others).
Everything in the middle works fine, so for most games, etc. this is absolutely no problem. I wished I could've improved it, but that's when you try to combine modern tech (720p screen) with tech no one really uses anymore (resistive touchscreens).

For me this is another reason to have no touchscreen: if it isn't good enough I won't use it and without it we gain a better display image as we can eliminate flexible plastic layer in resistive screen. That resistive layer gives reflections (and even worse distorted reflected light/images as it isn't a completely flat surface) and reduces screen bright/contrast.

Even, without that layer it can be used a matte/antireflective layer to elimite some reflections.

It woukd be good to have that option, even id it isn't a standard option when purchasing Pyra but an add-on you have to pay for.

PD: I have own a lot of devices with resistive touchscreen and I know how bad they.

 

[TrashyMG]

Resistive screens are the best choice for a device not using a finger centric gui like android or IOS. that said I'm not that big into using them, just feel like physical controls a superior in most cases.

 

[pyrat]

Well, I'd buy a Pyra without touchscreen too, but I think it is useful to have one.
I'm not talented enough to draw on it, but I can imagine drawing paths on maps and get distances, etc. or entering data for OpenStreetMaps or so, pointing directly on the screen, and that might be more comfortable than with nubs.
Somebody might also use it as some kind of blackboard, with a projector, being able to anotate slides. I don't know.
I don't know whether that's easier with resistive or capacitive touchscreens.
I hope not to need finger touch interfaces, I find them too limited. My fingers are too big and screens too small.

 

[Askarus]

There are situations where I use the touchscreen and want one.
Scrolling PDF or websites for example.
No precision is needed and the screen is sensitive enough to make that comfortable.
Browsing in general feels good with the stylus.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2021

I like it and I would not want to miss it.
It's not useful for precise mouse control on the edges, but nevertheless it's valuable

 

[Askarus]

Me too. People will have their preferences, but, on Linux (or any desktop environment) the actual problem is no software is really designed to be used with touch based interfaces.

For example, you won't be scrolling a pdf on Linux with touch, you will be tabbing or spacing through it because the kb is there and faster. Touch will force you to hunt and peck the scroll bar because the reader wont be expecting touch.

That is simply wrong.
All major browsers (Firefox with an extension) and the default PDF reader on Pyra support touchscreens as phone users would expect them to work.
Tap the screen with the stylus anywhere to drag the PDF/website up/down/left/right.
Telegram also works that way if I remember right.

In fact I had most of the software working with the touchscreen as it should.
Linux supports touchscreen input far better than during Pandora days.

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2021

It gets worse if you want to draw or take notes.

It's going to get interesting as toolkits get revamped to include touch + responsive capabilities.

Why is it getting worse?
Here not Linux is the issue but screen size.
The screen is simply too small for me to take hand written notes.
But why should I want to do that?
I can place textboxes on PDFs or write my notes with the keyboard in a text file.

I did take notes with the Pandora for years during Psychology lectures.
That is perfectly viable.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I guess the only thing that worries me a bit is the hole poked in the battery, is this a soft battery like in the pandora? I think pressuring the battery in a very small area might not be a good idea, is this the case in all units?

 

[Askarus]

That Pyra does recognize the different input devices.
A click with the touchscreen is handled differently than a click with the mouse if the underlying software supports it.
A lot of software does. Most of it.

What does not work is grabbing a text document or LibreOffice document and scrolling with that method I think.
There the stylus is treated like a mouse pointer.

And of course and very unfortunate, pinch to zoom does not work.

 

[Askarus]

I just tested FF and a bunch of software on my Debian laptop and none of it actually scrolls on touch. Instead, the behaviour is left mouse click. I guess you can get the FF extension.

I am 100% Linux on everything, my laptop has touch. I don't know of a single application that interprets touch as anything other than left mouse click.

Are you using Ubuntu or a new compositor aware of touch or some other configuration?

I am using a Pyra prototype since years and the touchscreen does work.
You may trust me with that.

Pyra uses MATE desktop. XFCE is less touch friendly.
I tested both. I like XFCE but because MATE has great touchscreen support I am supporting MATE as standard desktop for Pyra.

For FireFox you need to do what the first answer here says:
https://superuser.com/questions/1151161/enable-touch-scrolling-in-firefox
If that does not work for you, then your hardware does not recognize the touchscreen as such maybe.
The Pyra does it does it for years.