Scientific RPN Calculator on the Pixi

[TheMarco]

I thought for a long, LONG time about how the hell I'm gonna make this app work right on the Pixi. I think I finally managed to come up with a solution that doesn't completely kill the user experience. I'm hereby presenting it as a GIF animation. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it and... if you have a better solution: let me know!



Note: pressing the button on the top left will 'switch' the two button rows on top. This enables access to all functions without having to scroll on the Pixi.

[wilsondm2]

Wow - a very elegant solution. Looks great!

[atlanta]

What exactly did you do to accommodate the screen size just some css changes?

[TheMarco]

Huh? I did nothing yet. Just presenting the idea here.

[johncc]

Originally Posted by TheMarco

I thought for a long, LONG time about how the hell I'm gonna make this app work right on the Pixi. I think I finally managed to come up with a solution that doesn't completely kill the user experience. I'm hereby presenting it as a GIF animation. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it and... if you have a better solution: let me know!

(....)

Note: pressing the button on the top left will 'switch' the two button rows on top. This enables access to all functions without having to scroll on the Pixi.

Or maybe this? (Excuse the rough image manipulation). I am thinking that it would minimise switching the row and I feel that the [f] and [g] keys should be permanently accessible. (the cube functions are missing, but can be obtained with Y^X). I do like the idea of the f and g functions on a key being the inverses.

[TheMarco]

UntidyGuy to be honest with you, I think it's the most stupid thing Palm could have possibly done. The whole 'it's fine, apps will scale' thing is a load of nonsense too. WebOS doesn't 'take care' of anything in a lot of cases unless you would call annoying scrolling 'taking care of things'.

I feel like I'm back in 2001 when I was dealing with i-mode handsets which ALL had a different vertical and horizontal resolution.

johncc not bad as it is but... that changes a LOT of keys. I'm trying to change as little as possible and have Pixi and Pre versions be as similar as possible as well in order to prevent confusion. This is why I think my original solution is probably better. Had the Pre version not been out yet your solution would have been better maybe.

As said, I want to try to keep differences between the Pixi and Pre version as small as possible Too many difference == coding and maintenance nightmare.

p.s. if Palm comes out with a device with yet ANOTHER different screen resolution I'm gonna tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine.

[johncc]

Originally Posted by TheMarco

...
johncc not bad as it is but... that changes a LOT of keys. I'm trying to change as little as possible and have Pixi and Pre versions be as similar as possible as well in order to prevent confusion. This is why I think my original solution is probably better. Had the Pre version not been out yet your solution would have been better maybe.

As said, I want to try to keep differences between the Pixi and Pre version as small as possible Too many difference == coding and maintenance nightmare.

p.s. if Palm comes out with a device with yet ANOTHER different screen resolution I'm gonna tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine.

I thought that might be your reaction. Oh well, it kept me amused for a couple of hours anyway.

You could always use something like mine for a version 2 of the Pre one.

Sounds like you are a little peeved about the resolution matter. Not so bad if you only have to deal with a few sparsely placed controls, but a complete pain in the .... with a complex and dense UI like your's.

[KerwoodDerby]

TheMarco, I'm an EE with a Pixi and I'm dyin' out here, man! I think the second idea is better, keeping the f & g keys always visible. It wouldn't hurt to offer a normal fixed-width font for the numeric display as an option -- the 7-segment stuff is hard to read.

I actually obtained your code and studied it, but I'm certain that I'm not as fast as you in coding the changes. I look forward to your changes, if they come. Thanks.

EDIT: Yah, never mind, I switched to the Pre.

[grxnlp]

Hey Marco, what's the status of the Pixi version? Have you resolved the above questions yet?

If you're still seeking input, I might have a thought or two.

[johncc]

Originally Posted by grxnlp

Hey Marco, what's the status of the Pixi version? Have you resolved the above questions yet?

If you're still seeking input, I might have a thought or two.

Don't think that he will hear you. Seems to have moved on to other things.

[TheMarco]

Hi all,

With the Veer coming I feel obliged to pick this back up. Stay tuned!

[TheMarco]

Ok I think i came up with the best possible solution. By default I go to the new fullscreen mode because most of the time that's the mode we want to be in anyway.

Then I added a notice to tap the LCD display to swap keys.
Now only ONE row of keys needs to be swappable. Here's a demo animated gif:



This will be part of the next release. I'll be tweaking some CSS still and adding some more stuff before I push it again though.