Noticed something in Touchpad conf files

[rmausser]

EDIT 2:

This works the best if you install "Bigger Active Screen When Minimized" patch from Preware and set the keyboard size to Small ("S"). I will be adding this patch to Preware that does both, called "BIgger Active Screen and Bigger Mojo Apps"


EDIT: I've put the correct patch file at the top of this thread in order to not confuse people.

My patch didnt really do anything, its really GyroJoe's patch that got us to where we are now. Please thank him as well!

In the luna-platform.conf file, there are these values:

ModalWindowWidth=320
ModalWindowHeight=480

Which leads me to believe that these are settings for how big the emulator mode window is.

I've doubled the value, hopefully making the emulator window double in size.

Anyone brave enough to try this patch?

I dont have a Touchpad.

Let me know what happens :P

This may bork webos and you will have to doctor. So use only if you want to possibly further webOS. Take one for the team!

[GyroJoe]

Interestingly there is also EmulatedCardWidth and EmulatedCardHeight.

These do have an affect - but it's not a simple doubling. Check out what Accuweather looks like with this change.

[mikevember]

I like where this thread is headed.

[GyroJoe]

Alright, here's a patch if you want to try it.

1.5x seems to work best, since it leaves enough space for the virtual button and keyboard.

Some apps work better than others.

[GyroJoe]

Are third party apps patchable, or do they need to be signed? There are some simple issues, like not being able to read text because the background image is too small.

[rmausser]

as a web developer I find it abhorrent that the Palm guys didnt have the foresight for the SDK to CENTER certain aspects and do css scaling on different images so that they would scale nicely on different screen sizes.

Oh well, I guess its better than nothing.

I guess theres no way to zoom into the apps now as its web languages, the apps would have to be rewritten.

[Jawbox]

It's too bad this can't be done on a per-app basis

[rmausser]

Originally Posted by GyroJoe

Alright, here's a patch if you want to try it.

1.5x seems to work best, since it leaves enough space for the virtual button and keyboard.

Some apps work better than others.

Can we try something with a different aspect?

Howabout pushing the limits of both the width so that it completely fills to the sides of the Touchpad, and the height so that it is JUST small enough to leave the gesture area and keyboard visible.

Theres no need to keep the aspect the same considering how web languages scale.

Unfortunately images and other elements are pre-rendered and do not, but at least if we are going to mess up the layout of the apps, we should push the size to the absolute limit.

Thanks.

[rmausser]

Originally Posted by GyroJoe

Are third party apps patchable, or do they need to be signed? There are some simple issues, like not being able to read text because the background image is too small.

You cannot patch third party apps as their code is closed source and property of their creators.

I think our only option is to see if we can somehow trick the apps into thinking they are in a 320x480 window when the emulator size is 1.5x as big, and thus zoom in on the app rather than rescale it.

There must be a way to change the pixel density or something of a window in HTML or CSS.

For example, when you zoom in with Firefox, it resizes all elements rather than just moving them further apart on the screen.

[BoRn]

I like it I've been messing to scale up some of the apps I got from my phone that don't have HD version that I really like. Is it possible to have a slider or buttons for the size on certain app, since not all of them look pretty scaled up or any change to that conf file requires luna or device restart? I've seen ipad has 1x and 2x button. I guess we can have 1X and 1.5X. It should've been there from the beginning. Maybe very few apps are written so they can be scaled up with no layout issues but having the option there would've gained some more app numbers for webOS.

[geeksquadkid]

Originally Posted by rmausser

In the luna-platform.conf file, there are these values:

ModalWindowWidth=320
ModalWindowHeight=480

Which leads me to believe that these are settings for how big the emulator mode window is.

I've doubled the value, hopefully making the emulator window double in size.

Anyone brave enough to try this patch?

I dont have a Touchpad.

Let me know what happens :P

This may bork webos and you will have to doctor. So use only if you want to possibly further webOS. Take one for the team!

I LOVE YOU. I had a theory about this but it was never pursued until now! <3 <3


http://forums.precentral.net/3079823-post203.html

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by geeksquadkid

I LOVE YOU. I had a theory about this but it was never pursued until now! <3 <3


http://forums.precentral.net/3079823-post203.html

Does it work?

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

[rmausser]

Originally Posted by sketch42

Does it work?

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

The one by GyroJoe does, sorta.

This is a WIP.

[un_designer]

Originally Posted by rmausser

as a web developer I find it abhorrent that the Palm guys didnt have the foresight for the SDK to CENTER certain aspects and do css scaling on different images so that they would scale nicely on different screen sizes.

Oh well, I guess its better than nothing.

I guess theres no way to zoom into the apps now as its web languages, the apps would have to be rewritten.

I think that they probably thought (even after 2 years of seeing all the things that the homebrew community can do. ha! joke's on them...) that no one would ever get into the code and try to resize it. So there's no need to center and do css scaling.

If the stories we've heard about how webOS 3.x was basically being worked on until the very last minute, then it's likely that it was one of those "cut corners all all costs" scenario. I hate the thought, but I can see it being the case.

[rmausser]

Originally Posted by un_designer

I think that they probably thought (even after 2 years of seeing all the things that the homebrew community can do. ha! joke's on them...) that no one would ever get into the code and try to resize it. So there's no need to center and do css scaling.

If the stories we've heard about how webOS 3.x was basically being worked on until the very last minute, then it's likely that it was one of those "cut corners all all costs" scenario. I hate the thought, but I can see it being the case.

Ruby: "Guys, the touchpad goes out in a month and we arent even done webos 3.0 yet!!! We gotta leave some things out!"

webOS engineer: "why dont we just put all the 7000 apps we have into a tiny hard to use emulator window rather than getting them to work in fullscreen either by zooming in or proper scaling"

Ruby: "great! Its not like having no apps is the number one reason people slag webOS! Who needs apps anyways!"

[geeksquadkid]

works great on the engadget app btw... not perfect but MUCH better

[GyroJoe]

Originally Posted by rmausser

Can we try something with a different aspect?

Howabout pushing the limits of both the width so that it completely fills to the sides of the Touchpad, and the height so that it is JUST small enough to leave the gesture area and keyboard visible.

Theres no need to keep the aspect the same considering how web languages scale.

Unfortunately images and other elements are pre-rendered and do not, but at least if we are going to mess up the layout of the apps, we should push the size to the absolute limit.

Thanks.

Yea - initially I tried doubling it. The problem is it uses this value to render the minimized card too. You end up with giant cards that overlap and look silly

Originally Posted by rmausser

You cannot patch third party apps as their code is closed source and property of their creators.

I think our only option is to see if we can somehow trick the apps into thinking they are in a 320x480 window when the emulator size is 1.5x as big, and thus zoom in on the app rather than rescale it.

There must be a way to change the pixel density or something of a window in HTML or CSS.

For example, when you zoom in with Firefox, it resizes all elements rather than just moving them further apart on the screen.

Well, they aren't really closed, at least the JavaScript/CSS/HTML parts. For example, here's some code from the Pandora app:

root@TouchPad:/# head /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.palm.pandor
a/app/core/ad_service.js 
var AdService = Class.create({

	initialize: function() {
		this.splashScreenCallback =  this.showSplashScreenCallback.bind(this);
	},

	showSplashScreenAd: function() {
		if (AppGlobals.splashScreenAdUrl != null) {
			var url = AppGlobals.splashScreenAdUrl;
			url = url.replace(AdService.CACHEBUST, new Date().getTime());

That's why I was asking if they were signed in some way and would refuse to start if modified.

I do have an idea, but I'm not sure where to start looking. Basically apply a css scale transform to the whole body. In theory that should scale everything.

[BoRn]

Just did 640/960 ie 2X and it looks IMHO. Tried some diffirent ratios but that messed up all the taps. Of course just tested with few apps that I have on my profile from my pre-. Some work some need to be patched with different method.
I'm really happy that Slide RSS+ is working just fine.
The virtual gesture zone is right at the edge in the doubled up emulator screen.
The only thing that have to be changed is to change the kb size to at least S from M so some of the fields that are on top are completely viewable.

And just noticed GyroJoe comment about the silly looking minimized cards.

[GyroJoe]

Settled on 480x640 for now as it looks least silly minimized.

Looking into the scaling thing - kind of got it working. WebKit's scaler on WebOS is pretty poor - the result is ugly. Apps seems to depend on the screen size a lot too. Menus and buttons appear off screen. Modify Mojo's default.css if you want to see this.

[BoRn]

I noticed the same thing - very few apps are written in way that they don't depend on the screen size:-(. So even if there is a way to scale the app correctly unfortunately the app will have to be fixed and most likely to add the back buttons unless you figure out a way to patch that in the apps the same way you did the browser power swipe. I rather use gestures... For some reason it's not working for me. I was thinking maybe the increase sensitivity patch is messing it up. Tried to uninstall it but got some errors. I guess I'll have to post that in the correct thread anyway.