Pandora Desktop Environment Prototype Try 2 (screenshots And Videos)

[PSyMastR]

The new OS looks fine, its just rather ugly

 

[efegea]

I have had a Windows Mobile pda/mobile (the HTC Touch) and I was able to close the apps just by touching the 'x' button on the corner. Not by default, though. It was a configuration option in the control panel. By default, it sends the app to the background without closing, so it consumes memory and cpu..

 

[mali]

My first step after a hard reset has always been installing Wisbar.

 

[wesbrown18]

The new OS looks fine, its just rather ugly

Fix it! I gave directions earlier on how to do that.

 

[PSyMastR]

What format do the icons have to be in?

 

[wesbrown18]

What format do the icons have to be in?

png, jpeg, whatever. You can look up online how to make matchbox themes. I've also provided the dotfiles to use.

 

[Prometheus]

I've also provided the dotfiles to use.

I'm a bit late posting this, but thanks for putting those up. I'm unlikely to be capable of making anything anyone else would want to use, but it'll be fun attempting to make something for personal use, at least.

 

[peca]

I agree that the inability to easily close a program is the biggest failing of Android, WiMo, and Palm.
Actually, this is incorrect. Palm has a handy Home "silkscreen" button you can tap that will instantly pop you out of the application.Yeah, it pops you back to the home screen, but it doesn't close the application.

On PalmOS, by pressing Home button, is application closed. PalmOS does not support multitasking (by standard way). It just so fast and comfortable, that you usually doesn't spot this.

 

[Svartalf]

I agree that the inability to easily close a program is the biggest failing of Android, WiMo, and Palm.
Actually, this is incorrect. Palm has a handy Home "silkscreen" button you can tap that will instantly pop you out of the application.Yeah, it pops you back to the home screen, but it doesn't close the application. If you're typing up a note in notepad, then go back to the home screen and do something else for a while, then go back to notepad, your half-written note is still there. At least this is how things worked on my Treo 600 a few years ago. This is helpful for some things, but sometimes you want to just shut a program down, not just stick it in the background, so it's not taking up memory.


It didn't stay in the background. PalmOS largely doesn't multitask. What you saw there was the app having pushed what you'd done into the database on the Palm's memory and exited. When it comes up, it pulls the last note/memo/etc. you edited out of memory- right where you left off. But it didn't background it.

 

[wesbrown18]

Hey, guys, we're kind of straying off topic here.

Yes, PandoraOS is going to be multitasking. And no, it will not be single-tasking, as it is based upon Linux and Angstrom. Trying to turn it into a 'singletasking' OS is going to be futile.

Linux has a quite good task scheduler. I am not worried about performance. It should be fairly obvious to a user that running a N64 emulator will eat up all the cycles.

 

[AireTamStorm]

The thing is connected to the internet most of the time and has the power to run full resolution divx movies so why not also use it to download them? I also see BitTorrent as a good option for big homebrew and indie games. Of course, ED would probably happily pay the bandwith bill as long as it doesn't get out of hand but why burden him with it? And to get into more shady areas, using public or cracked WLAN is probably the most safe way to get and spread the really sensitive and problematic data in modern surveillance states like China or Germany... Oh yeah, I'd also like to run a Freenet node on my Pandora. B)

Software on POND swarms will likely use BitTorrent to reduce server load.
I agree 100% that BitTorrent is both feasible and practical for this device.

 

[MDave]

Nice, matchbox looks to be very user configurable in terms of looks and function! Just looking at the screenshots they have on their site, and the Suger UI in particular caught my eye, with the radial menu.

http://matchbox-project.org/screenshots.html

 

[jakewastaken]

Nice, matchbox looks to be very user configurable in terms of looks and function! Just looking at the screenshots they have on their site, and the Suger UI in particular caught my eye, with the radial menu.

http://matchbox-project.org/screenshots.html



Thanks for posting that link. I feel a lot better about this gui change now. The default matchbox look is pretty ugly, but I think can customize it to look pretty cool. I'm sure those of us who want it to look badass will have nothing to worry about.

 

[wesbrown18]

Nice, matchbox looks to be very user configurable in terms of looks and function! Just looking at the screenshots they have on their site, and the Suger UI in particular caught my eye, with the radial menu.

http://matchbox-project.org/screenshots.html



Thanks for posting that link. I feel a lot better about this gui change now. The default matchbox look is pretty ugly, but I think can customize it to look pretty cool. I'm sure those of us who want it to look badass will have nothing to worry about.


Thank you, both of you, for grasping the entire point of Matchbox! It is an optimized full screen low-resource window and desktop environment that can be customized to an astonishing detail.

All I am doing is laying down the engineering and integration framework, and working off a default Matchbox theme, so that you, the users, can create or use themes. I know that the default theme is not very pretty.

If you guys can come up with a theme that works with the goals, you might find it as the default theme on the Pandora.

 

[MDave]

Nice, matchbox looks to be very user configurable in terms of looks and function! Just looking at the screenshots they have on their site, and the Suger UI in particular caught my eye, with the radial menu.

http://matchbox-project.org/screenshots.html



Thanks for posting that link. I feel a lot better about this gui change now. The default matchbox look is pretty ugly, but I think can customize it to look pretty cool. I'm sure those of us who want it to look badass will have nothing to worry about.


Thank you, both of you, for grasping the entire point of Matchbox! It is an optimized full screen low-resource window and desktop environment that can be customized to an astonishing detail.

All I am doing is laying down the engineering and integration framework, and working off a default Matchbox theme, so that you, the users, can create or use themes. I know that the default theme is not very pretty.

If you guys can come up with a theme that works with the goals, you might find it as the default theme on the Pandora.


I will definitely try to come up with something during the christmas break

 

[javaJake]

I was going to post those screenshots. They brightened my view on Matchbox as well.

 

[RavenX]

Good news for those interested in E on the P. I have it on pretty good authority that Rasterman himself preordered a Pandora and is intending on porting E to it:

i have one on order - got in in the very first batch before most people.

So, hopefully we will see it soon, whether or not it is the default WM.

 

[PandoraSuechtig]

those matchbox screenshots are nice. i like very much the shots from the memo especially the left one with those sharp edges and futuristic look, also colors and style. And it looks very usable because of the categories on the left.
general question about icons: I guess a PXML installed app can supply several icons in different resolutions? Does the plugin for the windowmanager decide which icon to use or is the windowmanager just getting a hint to the folder and deciding which one of them to use by e.g. checking their names, expecting a certain name schema like <name>16x16.<ext> / <name>32x32.<ext> ?
If the plugin makes the decision and supplies the right icon, fine, no problem, just to be reimplemented in each plugin for each alternative windowmanager/gui.
but if it only tells the windowmanager which folder, maybe an alternative windowmanager uses a different naming schema to look up the icons. so worst case, each app would have to duplicate the icons in it's folder to be compatible to all yet ported GUIs for the pandora.
i guess the plugin will know about required resolution at runtime and pick up the icon or maybe there is a naming standard used by all window managers and i'm worrying for nothing

 

[Trip]

those matchbox screenshots are nice. i like very much the shots from the memo especially the left one with those sharp edges and futuristic look, also colors and style. And it looks very usable because of the categories on the left.
general question about icons: I guess a PXML installed app can supply several icons in different resolutions? Does the plugin for the windowmanager decide which icon to use or is the windowmanager just getting a hint to the folder and deciding which one of them to use by e.g. checking their names, expecting a certain name schema like <name>16x16.<ext> / <name>32x32.<ext> ?
If the plugin makes the decision and supplies the right icon, fine, no problem, just to be reimplemented in each plugin for each alternative windowmanager/gui.
but if it only tells the windowmanager which folder, maybe an alternative windowmanager uses a different naming schema to look up the icons. so worst case, each app would have to duplicate the icons in it's folder to be compatible to all yet ported GUIs for the pandora.
i guess the plugin will know about required resolution at runtime and pick up the icon or maybe there is a naming standard used by all window managers and i'm worrying for nothing

As far as I'm aware the PXML format is sticking to the usual way that Linux handles desktop icons to keep compatibility. e.g.
The icon files are 48×48 pixels size wise, in the .png format and located in /usr/share/pixmaps/.

The text files that donate the shortcut can be found in /usr/share/applications/.
They're set out like this..
QUOTE
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8 (Type of encoding for the text file)
Name=SpeedPad (Name of the program, as you want it to appear in the menu)
Comment=Configuration tool for Nostromo Speed Pads (Description of program)
Exec=nostromo_config (Start command for the programme)
Icon=usr/share/pixmaps/n50,png (Location of the icon you want to use)
Terminal=false (Change this to true if the program needs to run in a terminal)
Type=Application (Type of program it is)
Categories=Application;Utility; (Part of the menu that you want the link to show up in)


I created a quick tutorial on this last year in case you need a read?

They might have decided to go another way on this by now though??

 

[Loon]

Never heard of Matchbox before, but after a bit of research it seems ideal for Pandora.

As long as the GUI is lightweight & easy to use I'll be perfectly happy.

The community can worry about refining the look and feel after Pandora is released.

My prediction is that Pandora users will have quite a few choices of GUI within 6 months of release, hopefully it will be relatively easy to find one to suit your individual needs.

Good luck Wesbrown and thanks for all efforts to date.