#1310 HIGH Future : Handheld mode: rotation, activity switching, and key-map

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#1310: Handheld mode:  rotation, activity switching, and key-map
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  Reporter:  gnu               |       Owner:  Eben          
      Type:  task              |      Status:  assigned      
  Priority:  high              |   Milestone:  Future Release
 Component:  interface-design  |     Version:                
Resolution:                    |    Keywords:  relnote       
  Verified:  0                 |    Blocking:                
 Blockedby:                    |  
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Comment(by bemasc):

 I have several independent points to make.

 Virtual Cursor:
 Ideally, each activity will have optimized tablet-mode key bindings.
 However, I feel we should still provide a virtual cursor, controlled by
 the D-pad.  This virtual cursor would be considered an advanced feature,
 for those not satisfied with the limitations of keybindings, so its
 presence need not be extremely discoverable.  To switch into virtual
 cursor mode, there might be a virtual cursor item in the rotate key's
 menu.  For a few activities such as Paint, this may even be a sensible
 default.

 Once in virtual cursor mode, two of the game buttons should be bound to
 the mouse buttons (perhaps the X and O buttons, for consistency with the
 mouse-button labels).  Screen rotation should automatically alter the
 directions of the D-pad for consistency.*

 Virtual cursor mode would also make the rest of the Sugar "available",
 because the frame can be brought up and navigated by pushing the pointer
 into one corner.  For the randomized Mesh and Neighborhood views, there is
 really no better way.

 *: this should probably happen regardless of virtual cursor mode.

 Home Screen Bindings:
 I see no reason why the home screen should not be accessible in Ebook
 mode.  The interface suggests very obvious keybindings: up/down to switch
 between the activity list, the ring, the clipboard, and the friendslist.
 Left/right to choose within each of these.  Check to "click". If
 necessary, North/South may be used to navigate within dropdown menus.
 This would enable starting activities after moving into Ebook mode, which
 seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to support. Switching to and from
 the home screen should be an option in the rotate button's menu.

 Activity Rotation preferences:
 Not all activities make sense to rotate.  Many activities are designed
 around a fixed aspect ratio (e.g. Connect), and the user does not benefit
 from forcing these activities to support rotation.  Each activity should
 be able to list which rotations it supports. Also, there is no need for
 Sugar to support rotation, if future UI designs make rotation difficult.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/1310#comment:9>
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