Pal Szasz’s blog… or something like that…

I didn’t had too much time for Pixy, so there is no big update. The changes are:

• renamed it to Pixy from Pixie (by mistake the uiq3 rewrite I named pixie)
• added png import/export functionality (emulator build only)

Some notes about emulator build only: I don’t use the emulator from the SDK, but rather an abstraction layer, which has implementations both in Symbian and in FLTK. In short I work in linux, and I made some extra code so I can compile the app for linux, using FLTK. It makes debugging much easier…. but it will have some effects on the app as well: the look and ui of the app will be rather strange. But I don’t care

And some more note about png import: it supports only indexed color images (color type #3), so it cannot import truecolor, or grayscale images. It doesn’t support interlacing or filters. But most of the programs doesn’t use these… actually sometimes they does, but in very rare cases. I successfully opened two images (4bpp and 8bpp) which were saved from gimp.

The program disregards transparency information, but I’ll fix that later. Although it will be limited: if there will be a transparent color, it will use the first color as transparent always… but who knows, if I’ll have enough time, I’ll make a proper implementation

The export method simply saves 8bpp indexed files. Doesn’t save the transarency yet and adds a text chunk as well (to indentify the software )

There are still a few features i want to finish before releasing it:

• add commands/menus
• add possibility to edit colors (add, change)
• add possibility to change tool icons
• settings for changing the number of toolbar and palettebar lines
• add pan tool (right now the image view cannot be scrolled). I rather not use scrollbars, since they just waste a lot of time, it’s hard to draw near them, since you migth click on them accindently. So instead I will add a simple pan tool.

I think that’s all. Maybe I will wait till the UNDO functionality will be there too, but not sure in that.
Well, that’s it for today.

Just some minor updates:

• no need to press ALT, * and # is enough

• you can activate the screensaver immediately from the app

• I also changed some code which decides when to unlock the phone… might be better… or worse, still need to test it

Program has it’s own page now here.

Update: Important: “total lock” is buggy, DONT USE IT IN V0.3!

Here is a minor update for StickIt. I wanted to add possibility to edit the text on the standby screen, … but I couldn’t. Anyway, there are some usefull changes:

• moving the note and resizing it should be easier now
• you can change the font size in the note

I created a webpage on the main website for the project, you can download it from there: stickit page

I moved the blog to a new place… actually installed wordpress on our server, and imported the posts in it… Unfortunately I couldn’t import the comments (any ideas how it should be done?)

The reason of moving is: keep everything in one place.

I will be changing the theme also to fit more in the website.

Separate pages will be created for each app as well, the blog will be mainly used for news. Screenshots, download links will be on separate pages.

I found the missing piece in the puzzle, and now TOSC (aka The Open Screen Capture) is working even if the app is in the background. I mean you can now start the capture by clicking on the floating window (let’s call it radar?).

You can download the new binary here:  theopenscreencapture_0_3.sis

I havent uploaded the new source code yet (lack of time), but there is only one line changed (added actually): in the AppUi the following method is called:

IgnorePointerEventsWhenInBackground(EFalse)

Well, another little usefull UIQ3 app: StickIt. It allows you to post a note on the standby screen. That’s it

Download: stickit_0_1.sis

Screenshots:

 

Changes:

• Added 3 more clock types (binary led, binary, analog)
• Added “Total lock” mode
• Some minor changes

Download:

• UIQ3 binary: clockss_0_2.sis
• Source: clockss_0_2_src.tar.gz

The “Total lock” means, when turned on, is more agressive in locking: ie if you press the ‘@’ (or internet) button, or long press the back button, it will detect that it is sent to background, and forces the phone to bring it in the foreground. Thus reducing the chance of doing something by mistake.

Here are the screenshots of the new clock types:

… or something like it…

Well, a lot of people miss the clock screen saver in their shiny new UIQ3 phone… so here is a sort of replacement.

It’s not a real screensaver, but looks like a screensaver, behaves like a screensaver, so it’s a pretty good estimate

Ok, and now the serious text

The program should start automatically, when the phone starts. And it also should go to the background. To controll it, just locate it in the task manager, and when you switch to it, you should see:

You can choose the timeout value from 10seconds, 1 minute (the default), 2 mintues or 10 minutes. You can also de/activate it temporary.

After the given amount of inactivity, it switches to screen saver mode:

You can switch back to normal mode (ie. “unlock the keypad”) with ‘*’ and then ‘#’ (note: you should probably need to press ALT as well, to get in numeric mode)

You can switch to a different app with the BACK key (only when you press it longer) or the internet (or hardware) key. Unfortunately I cannot change this behaviour But fortunately, these keys are not easy to press by mistake.

You should turn off automatic keyguard in controll panel (otherwise you will reseave the standard unlock message).

Well, that’s it for now, awaiting opinions

Oh, and next version probably will have binary mode as well (ie. shows the clock in binary instead of decimal… just for the geeks )

Almost forgot the downoad links:

• UIQ3 binary: clockss_0_1.sis
• Source code: clockss_0_1_src.tar.gz (btw, is anybody interested in the surce code, or I just keep posting source codes for no reason ?-)

Well, in the weekend I was working on Pixie, and there is significant progress: the pen tool is working But no loading/saving yet.

The most interesting part is the development process: I created a stub application in FLTK and worked on it in FLTK using some simple abstract interface. The just implemented the interface in Symbian, and recompiled it. Of course it didn’t work at first…neither the second time… abut after a few hours it worked:-)

For the main view I created my own Widget class (the screen components are pretty simple anyway). I also created a simple Graphics class, which has implementation for FLTK and for Symbian as well. Using those it was pretty easy to make a first version of the game (of course some other classes were needed as well, like Event, etc).

But I’m afraid I have to think of a new solution for dialogs, since the program will need some extra views/dialogs as well.

One of the possibility is to use some new classes, with dual implementation.

The other is to use the same Widgets as I use in the main screen.

I think the second option will be easier (and faster and easier to debug), but won’t have the native look and feel…

Btw, it would be really interesting to implement the control framework using FLTK

Well, I found out how to make an app start automatically at boot, hence TABU 0.4 is released:

• now it  starts at boot
• now it starts animation automatically (ie. no need to select More->Start)
• now it automatically hides himself on start (you can still see it in the task list, hence you can bring it forward or kill it)

So it’s ready to be installed (secretely) on your friend’s phone and just wait his reactions (photos are welcome )

Oh, I almost forgot the download link: tabu_0_4_uiq3.sis