New GUI and Controls

[ianlee74]

@Skewworks

What if I incorporated .NET Clix’s custom gestures that included “force” so the amount of scrolling done on a drag was something like:

Force = Tick / Distance / 40000 (min 0, max .98)
Scroll Amount = Max Scroll Area * Force

I could animate the scroll (Scroll Speed = Display Area * (Force / 2)) and a touch down could stop the scroll.

That seems to be the way most touch interfaces are working these days. It would be only natural to include this.

[Skewworks]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I’ve spend the last few hours implementing the force based scrolling.

On press a translucent scroller rect will appear to the right (like on smart phones)
Touch move scrolls with finger stylus
Touch up results on a force based scroll if 1) touch last less than .75 seconds and 2) force > 10%
Gesture based scroll is animated
Touching back down aborts any remaining animated scroll
Translucent bar remains while animated scroll is occurring or touch is down

[Architect]

I like that you have added translucent scroller rect. How can we test it?

[Skewworks]

I’ll email it along to you when I’ve a bit more done. Right now it’s all of 3 controls, forms, and 2 dialogs. Most of my time has been spent upgrading the backend and designing the look-and-feel.

Did I ever mention application launching is built into Tinkr? You can either use a set template for launching “apps” or launch a full NETMF app (the 2nd obviously gives you no control over launched code).

I plan on writing a sort of console interface at some point so I can load code straight into RAM over Bluetooth in the future to save write cycles; which actually becomes a concern at some point when you burn through as many as I do with design work.

[stevepresley]

@ianlee74

[quote=“Skewworks”]Note on some versions of Windows you’ll want to install this in your NETMF Tools directory or you’ll be asked to find it every time you launch the app.

Thanks for that tip! I was wondering if there was a way to stop that nag.
[/quote]

HA, I didn’t see the link before I replied. I may pick up the Mac version anyhow.

[Skewworks]

Here’s a little video of the scrolling w/ Listbox and a threaded progressbar

v_r0TgiSSjE

[ianlee74]

Looking good!

[HughB]

@ianlee74

@Skewworks

Yes actually. I’m not at my pc at the moment but google TinyFont GUI. It’s a great free tool that lets you convert TTFs. You can specify which characters to include and what antialias level to use (if any)

Excellent!!! Thanks! It took a little digging to find but that’s exactly what I needed. Linking here in case anyone else needs it.

.NET Micro Framework

@ Ianlee many thanks for linking this tool. Its just what ive been looking for

[Jay_Jay]

Hi Skewworks,
it loos very good, and may i suggest you do the selection on Touch UP event instead on Touch DOWN… this would make it look much much smoother… just like how the IPHONE is… other then that it is great…

Cheers
Jay.

[devhammer]

@Jay Jay

Hi Skewworks,
it loos very good, and may i suggest you do the selection on Touch UP event instead on Touch DOWN… this would make it look much much smoother… just like how the IPHONE is… other then that it is great…

Cheers
Jay.

Agree with Jay Jay…gestures and selections should be mutually exclusive. If I tap and release on an item, that should select the item, but if I tap and hold, then move up or down, that should be only the scroll gesture, not a selection as well.

That said, it looks extremely smooth. Nice work!

[Skewworks]

Absolutely.

Keep in mind this is extremely early work, the video was primarily to show off the auto-scrolling. I’m finding every control needs lots of work to fit into the new system. Especially stuff like the listbox that now supports 3 different render styles (text-only, text & radiobuttons, and text & large radiobuttons), I’ve easily got another 100+hrs of work to do.

That said, I’ll get the select fixed shortly. Thanks for the feedback guys!

[taylorza]

The scrolling looks really good. I am impressed with the responsiveness. If i may ask, are the list box times rendered to a background bitmap that is scrolled?

[Skewworks]

@taylorza

The scrolling looks really good. I am impressed with the responsiveness. If i may ask, are the list box times rendered to a background bitmap that is scrolled?

Nope, it’s rendered in real-time (mainly). The radiobuttons are antialised so when they’re used I keep a buffer of them on the 2 different backgrounds for quick drawing. Other than that the only trick I use is to check the bounds of an item before rendering so items outside the display area are skipped.

Oh…and I’m currently working on the new combobox. Sure it can do a pop-up selection like on smartphones and .NET Clix/Pyxis/Etc, but when’s the last time you saw it actually drop down on a mobile device? You can either double-tap or hit the down arrow again to confirm your selection.

[taylorza]

@ Skewworks - That is impressive, is that on a Hydra? If so, can you get similar performance from a spider or similar class device?

[Skewworks]

@taylorza

@ Skewworks - That is impressive, is that on a Hydra? If so, can you get similar performance from a spider or similar class device?

The demo video is indeed a Hydra, the picture from a modified emulator.

That in mind this is all based on previous works tested on the Cobra on every screen size (320x240, 480x272, 800x480) and Tinkr is the absolute fastest code in the line. Every single call is being optimized and streamlined. Touch interface is more than 10% more efficient across the board, rendering has been vastly improved with regional refreshes and focused items, etc.

It will definitely be slower on a Spider w/ the CP7 but still quite usable and should be right on par (if not faster) using the T35.

Right now CP7 is actually slower that it will be in production because of touches. CP7’s driver is still in beta and lacks proper touch-up events so I have a driver on top of the GHI one to get the data TInkr requires… Eventually I’ll probably replace the touch driver entirely for CP7.

[WouterH]

Seems to run very smooth. Nice job!

[Skewworks]

Textboxes, how I hate thee.

Input time

I’m working on the textbox (obviously) and VirtualKeys…welcome to the world of complicated. I know there are many instances where the current VirtualKeys falls short of what’s needed, like validation for example, so I’ve come up w the following solution. Please let me know if you think it’s enough or needs more/different features.

Textboxes now come with EditorFont and EditorTitle properties do you can label your input and use a different font (either for consistency or bc of a really large font).

Before the editor opens an event is raised with a ref variable that allows you to change the font, title and text value, prior to the editor displaying.

When it’s about to close another event fires with the value and the ability to cancel close. This way you can run validation and display and alert and cancel close if t doesn’t pass.

Thoughts?

[stevepresley]

@Skewworks

Before the editor opens an event is raised with a ref variable that allows you to change the font, title and text value, prior to the editor displaying.

When it’s about to close another event fires with the value and the ability to cancel close. This way you can run validation and display and alert and cancel close if t doesn’t pass.

Thoughts?

Spot on.

[Skewworks]

Based off the feedback I’ve gotten so far, I’m thinking of doing away with the new “alert” and sticking with "prompt"s only. I’ve also run through a quick redesign of the “prompt” that now allows for an icon as well.

Here’s the concept on a solid white and picture background.

You can also see the request Appbar at the bottom.

[ianlee74]

@Skewworks

Based off the feedback I’ve gotten so far, I’m thinking of doing away with the new “alert” and sticking with "prompt"s only. I’ve also run through a quick redesign of the “prompt” that now allows for an icon as well.

Here’s the concept on a solid white and picture background.

You can also see the request Appbar at the bottom.

I like that much better What kind of flexibility is there as far as button wording and number of buttons? Also, it would be nice if there was an option to have no buttons that would just close if you touched anywhere on the dialog.

AppBar looks good. Any pics of it popped up? Will it be like the WP AppBar so that you can put buttons on top and menus underneath?