What Would You Like To See On A Menu Replacement


efegea

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If someone makes a menu replacement, what features would you like to see on it?

Any wishes/ideas?

What do you think about "programable skins" (skins coded in C/C++ and loaded dinamically)?

I'm working on it :D
 
An easy way to add/manage shortcut icons from within the gp2x itself would be a lifesaver. Especially if they could be organized into 'folders'. Then I wouldn't have do browse down my directory tree so much, and I wouldn't get stressed when things had to be in a specified directory.
 
A wallpaper feature. As in - select some image file using a graphical interface and "Set as wallpaper".
 
I'm sure there is a topic like this already, but customisable icons and hidden files/folders is must. gotta be tidy tidy TIDY TDIY TIDY.... tidy

Skins made of C++ !! whoa maybe a little overboard :) But some sort of custom scripting would be nice. You wouldn't ever need anything more complicated than Python
 
Something like Mocca, where it seeks out all the .gpes and .gpus on your card and gives you a grid of icons. And animations, yeah!
 
I was hoping something like this may come up. PReferably, I'd love somethinbg customizable so that we can customize our GP2X without needing too much coding.

The ability to have flexibility to have the standard skin to much more interesting ones.

Perhaps using XML or something to define 'pages' that can have various elements on. EG filebrowser, graphic, button, link (to another page) etc. Then you could create something like the standard menu, or be more creative and build something much more interesting: From a tab based system with pages for games, utilities etc. to perhaps a virtual windows desktop (I love trying to make handhelds look like desktops for some reason ;) )

Basically, the more flexible the better. Allow people to make their dream menu's and GUIs and open whole new skinning possibilities. As obivously people have different ideas as to what they want, giving the freedom would be best.
 
my main suggestion (already mentioned i guess) is something more elegant than the current "alphabetical list". whether it be a grid, or a set of categories that the user can customise.. whatever. that's what i'd like to see :D
 
I would just like more functionality, and ergonomics.

PS. Has anyone else seen the xynth thread?! Nice.
 
Oh, how about a zoom-like thing? Where you have everything on one screen, grouped under different categories, and then you move a zoom square over a place on the screen and zoom in. That'd be so cool, and original too ("Hey, I bet your PSP can't do this")
 
iignotus posted on Feb 13 2006 at 10:06 PM said:
Small text. I want lots of information/options on one screen.
I want to be able to connect my GP2X to the USB of a computer, open mIRC up on the computer and have one of the channels print out all of its text on the GP2X's screen. Is anyone up for making a program that does that. As I don't have a dual screen.
 
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saboteur posted on Feb 13 2006 at 04:45 PM said:
Themes including sounds - maybe background music ( like being in a lift :) )
OH GOD NO! Not elevator music!!! NO NO NO *gouges out ears*
 
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Let's see, where to begin:

Full compatibility with normal versions of mPlayer, both for music and video, alongside preferably the ability to easily view photos or read e-books. You might think it goes without saying, but it is necessary in a replacement for the menu.

Setings data including, preferably, TV-out, a battery meter, and LCD fiddles. Possibly also a startup config bit, to allow you to add various widgets and/or checks to the loading of the console. For most, I imagine this would be fairly sparse and untouched, but it would be useful in terms of manually telling the unit how much you wanted it to write on start up and where to, for example. possibly also the ability to switch NAND between read-only and normal in the menu. Overclock settings, preferably with different rates for inside menu and outside. An extension of this might be to allow the linking of some programs to particular clockspeeds set before the menu were to close, though I don't know how many would actually bother to do so.

USB link which works, with any luck.

Then on from functionality to more appearance factors:

Possibility to have animated icons (probably use gif or an array of images in some other format), with scriptable pausing, looping, or continuing from a given frame, preferably linked to being moved in any of the four cardinal directions, or along a path template or some such.

Custom sizes of icons, alongside position.

Possible animated backgrounds (I'm thinking plasma things, but I'm sure you could simply set it to use an animating pic for simplicity).

The ability to script icons to different menus, programs, or potential future tasks. Some automation of this might be handy (Mocca style), though it'd be sensible to leave that up to the theme designer.

Might be useful to be able to use a directory of scripts in the root dir where it could look for custom "per-SD" things. Alternatively, read an SD card's ID when inserted, and then refer to a set of scripts stored on the Nand.


I think that's pretty mcuh everything I can think of, although obviously a lot of it is pretty superfluous; but in terms of an ideal replacement, with freedom of skinning and the capability to look very very snazzy indeed, that'd be about what I'd be after in one. Think, everything the current one has, with the capability of being extended through scripts, and a very versatile skin system...
 
vic20-ian posted on Feb 14 2006 at 09:05 AM said:
Hibernate mode button with a few keypresses for instant restore.

Now that is a good idea.

BTW (and completely off topic) when u turn off a linux box it has to shut down open process/daemons etc or it could corrupt the file system - seeing as u just turn the GP2X off does this mean file corruption can/will occur ??

Just curious
 
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