The 'select' Button

[Tobriand]

MWeston: Sounds perfect

 

[Edy]

Pandora - Select - Start sounds perfect!

The Pandora button would always be locked to the OS, not quitting the running app (maybe just freezing it) but bringing up an overlay ALT-TAB style menu with the OS options.

For those who still need the "menu" button, remember that the keyboard has a "FN" key. So the "FN-Select" combo could be interpreted as "menu" by the app.

Leaving no labels as shown in current renders wouldn't be appropiate - how the app instructions would reffer to a specific button? "the first one of the three central buttons"?

My two cents

 

[Arialia]

Here's my opinion:

START and SELECT are generic and mapped however any program wants to use them. In an emulator they are exactly what they say. In a web browser, SELECT could switch tabs if multiple pages are open. These buttons can be anything to any program.

The MENU button (now considering a Pandora logo, how cool is that? ) would be tied to the OS. Obviously, hitting it should not automatically kick you out of anything because mistakes happen but it could bring up a task manager that you can use to switch between tasks, kill tasks, go into standby (power button can do that too), enter a kernel menu with all kinds of stuff (like what to do when lid gets closed of power button cycled) or just cancel and go back to the current task running. To me that seems really handy, what do others think?

perfect

Something like this would work as a simple program switcher with one-botton options to go out to the main UI or to system settings. Basic system stats are an added bonus.


Of course, the real one should look less crappy.

The only problem with keeping the select button and making the menu/pandora button bring up this menu is that it leaves no menu button for the software. We still need to drop the select button to get both system menu and software menu buttons.



and why not the Menu/Pandora button first use for menu of current program
and with combine with Shift or Fn key (depends of user) use for Pandora tasks ?

so if user press only 'menu' he has the menu of his program B)

and combining 'Shift'+'Menu' launch Pandora system as MWeston explain , what do you think about that ?

 

[Kowalski_GT-R]

I was one for keeping "select", but I see that MWeston has a valid point. A function button more could be useful, as long as it doesn't spoil the gaming sessions; I cannot properly judge Pandora's dimensions until I hold it in my hands.

ciao and good work to Craig and everybody involved in the developement,

Andre

(otherwise mark it "Timewarp" of "FreeBeer", they're both things the Pandora is capable of... )

 

[astro]

I say Bo Selecta

 

[cappuchok]

MW: go for it, sounds like the best solution. And yes, the Pandora button (MENU) should not be overrideable by other software, it should be kept an entrypoint to functions of the OS so to speak, in order to be able to control tasks, settings and whatnot whenever.

 

[yodaofborg]

Start, Select and Pandora buttons sound nice. A way to kill misbehaving apps is a must. That would be good for de-bugging on the Pandora with no PC present nicer, as you could launch an app from a terminal, and then switch to the terminal when the program bombs to view any errors that maybe output.

 

[Squidge]

The MENU button (now considering a Pandora logo, how cool is that? ) would be tied to the OS. Obviously, hitting it should not automatically kick you out of anything because mistakes happen but it could bring up a task manager that you can use to switch between tasks, kill tasks, go into standby (power button can do that too), enter a kernel menu with all kinds of stuff (like what to do when lid gets closed of power button cycled) or just cancel and go back to the current task running. To me that seems really handy, what do others think?

START & SELECT as you say.

How about a slight modification for the "MENU" button however - A quick press of "MENU" goes to the app to show something application-specific. A press and hold "MENU" for say 1.5sec or so however, and it gets handled by the OS to bring up a OS menu. That way it has two useful functions (which both the same kinda thing). The button could then be used as a standard to pause a game or emu and go back to the menu menu of that game/emu.

I realise SELECT could also be used for in game/emu menus, but wouldn't it be more intuitive to have a button called MENU to bring up the menu?

 

[PokeParadox]

Here's my opinion:

START and SELECT are generic and mapped however any program wants to use them. In an emulator they are exactly what they say. In a web browser, SELECT could switch tabs if multiple pages are open. These buttons can be anything to any program.

The MENU button (now considering a Pandora logo, how cool is that? ) would be tied to the OS. Obviously, hitting it should not automatically kick you out of anything because mistakes happen but it could bring up a task manager that you can use to switch between tasks, kill tasks, go into standby (power button can do that too), enter a kernel menu with all kinds of stuff (like what to do when lid gets closed of power button cycled) or just cancel and go back to the current task running. To me that seems really handy, what do others think?

Thanks for clarifying to the masses This is exactly what I was wanting to explain. Also Pandora-Select could be a hot-key for quick app-switching. Basically the Pandora key could be a modifier key that accesses the hooks in place from the system itself.

 

[Ayla]

About the position of the buttons, I think that
< Start >
< Select >
< Menu >
is not very practical, the < Start > button should be the easiest to reach. I propose this :
< Menu >
< Select >
< Start >

What do you think about it?

 

[magicman5421]

I'm thinking more along the lines of
<Start>
<Menu>
<Select>

 

[Karel Jansens]

Would all those Pandora-specific buttons be mapped to "pc-standard" function keys? Like "start"=F1, "A"=F6, "left shoulder=F11, etc...? (these are random examples, NOT my proposal for mapping!) This would make it rather trivial to use them in non-gaming applications.

 

[sindbad]

Call them play/pause, stop and toggle. Works everywhere.

 

[Squidge]

They would come through as normal keypresses.

 

[foft]

I vote Start, Select and Option as Prophet

As for non-overridable functions - to ensure programs can always be exited etc - the idea makes sense. But how about a combination, then emulators are free to use the raw keypresses how they choose. Something like ctrl-alt-del or ctrl-amiga-amiga but mapped nicely to the pandora keyboard. A combination would also be better from the perspective of accidentally hitting the exit/switch app button.

 

[Alex.]

I'm thinking more along the lines of
<Start>
<Menu>
<Select>

That would just get in the way of normal use. Since the Menu button will call a system menu and pause the current app, prevention of accidental pressing is a must. Secluding it at the top sounds best to me Also, great to hear that flexible multitasking will be a firmware feature!

 

[JuhoZero]

Yeah, I also would like it as:
<Menu>
<Start>
<Select>

 

[greendots]

Pandora, Start, Select as MW suggested is perfect.

There should be enough buttons that people can map what ever they want to them. A single button that doesnt change in functionality would be great.
If any one wants to change what the pandora button does they can just change it in the kernel.

 

[fusion_power]

Wow, there are gazillions of posts about Action-Button labeling and Craigix starts a own thread just fo the select button... :lol: I've never thought there need to be a discussion about these part of the Pandora Buttons.
Start+Select are a team since old Gameboy days. Many Handhelds had a select Button and I don't know why the Pandora shouldn't have one. Many Emulators use the Select Button and I like it this way. Because the Pandora will also have a MENU Button, we can use Start+Select only for the emulated System itself instead of weird Button combos like onto GP2X to activate the Emulator-Menus (big improvement IMHO!!!!)
I'm fine with START, SELECT, MENU and I don't know any better labeling.

It would be more interesting to know, how Craigix thinks about the labeling of the 4 ACTION BUTTONS!.

OH, and you should add the famous"ANY" key somewhere! :lol:

If Pandora is going to have a truly multitasking OS, then there needs to be a button that switches between tasks. Call it whatever you want, but one of those three buttons needs to either cycle through active programs or bring up a program switcher window.

I plan to use the SHOULDER BUTTONS for this. Fits much much better for tab-switching than another Button. See Gmenu2X onto the GP2X.

So long as apps can override these buttons for their own uses if needed.

Actually, I like the idea of the software application not being able to control that button. It might be a nice way to get out of a stuck program as long as the kernel isn't crashed. Plus it kind of is like the HOME button on the PSP and it should always have the same function on everyone's system all the times.

Do you know a better button for Program-menus like Emulators etc. ? I never ever want to press a weird button combo to go into Emulator Menus!

I realise SELECT could also be used for in game/emu menus, but wouldn't it be more intuitive to have a button called MENU to bring up the menu?

SELECT should be always for Ingame-things if a Emulated System uses a Select Button. Your SquidgeSNES uses Select to go into the Emulator-Menu and this is a very bad solution if a Game uses this button to. I always loose a Item in Super Mario World when I go back to the Menu.
So yes, MENU should be used by EVERY program to go into the Menu of this Program. and not only for the Pandora OS iteslf

 

[Chip]

If Pandora is going to have a truly multitasking OS, then there needs to be a button that switches between tasks. Call it whatever you want, but one of those three buttons needs to either cycle through active programs or bring up a program switcher window.

I plan to use the SHOULDER BUTTONS for this. Fits much much better for tab-switching than another Button. See Gmenu2X onto the GP2X.


I think you misunderstand. I mean that you need a button that lets you switch between already running tasks. If you're in an SNES emulator and want to switch out to another running program, or GMenu (or whatever the main UI is) to start something else, you need a button that lets you do it. L and R are going to have program-defined functions, so they're no good. The system button needs to be hooked directly into the firmware so that no matter what program you're running, you can hit the button and get to other running programs or the main UI.