[mythtv] Improve MythTV usability
Xavier Hervy
xavier.hervy at bluebottle.com
Mon Jan 21 21:45:24 UTC 2008
Hi Guys,
The usability of MythTV have been discussed a lot of time, but some
issues haven't been solved.
As a new ui library is on the way, I thought it was the right time to
ask about it.
few things which need improvements:
-Input Device/
MythTV have been design to work with a keyboard when most of people use
a remote control or even a touch screen. It would be nice to have a UI
aware of it. If the user want to use a touch screen (mythrecipe in the
kitchen for example), he will need a back button in the menu or the Info
button, that should be theme independent (I should admit, I don't know
how it can be possible). For user with a remote control, It doesn't
really make sense to map the keys to a keyboard. I was thinking about
giving a friendly name to each button in the lirc config file, And use
the name (and a icon) as it is in myth. Have only few must-have-button
like up, down, select ( or other, it's just a suggestion) which would
allow us to do everything in myth (not very efficiently). And allow the
user to do some short key when ever he want. For example in the recorded
program menu, pressing select will display a submenu with watch,
delete... if a key is associated to an action, the key could be shown as
an icon next to the item (a bit like in pop-up menu or a contextual
menu). if a action-key have been defined, the user could use it without
showing the menu first (ex: play button to watch a recorded programs).
And a quick way to add key without going to the settings would be nice too.
- On screen documentation:
Some screen have an help menu, it may be time to spread this feature to
each screen/menu. the Help could describe the purpose of the screen,
describe the icons if needed (dependant of the theme) and display what
action can be performed with what key, according to the user settings.
May be those help menus can be standardised and self generated.
- 2 level of themes: one for the look and feel and one for the layout.
MythTV is shipped with 2 themes by default. there is a lot of other
themes available but there are not all complete. Some feature can be
unavailable because of this. If the themes where split in two parts, the
first part for how to display a button a default title ... it would
allow us to use a theme even if some part layout (second part) are
missing/incomplete and use the default one for it (but still have the
look of ...) . Am I wrong here ? (I am not an expert :( )
Any comment are welcome, feel free to disagree or add more usability
issues as I would like to code some stuff but I don't know what the best
things to do or what is the best way to achieve my goal.
BTW what is the status of the new ui library, I don't think it is ready
to use massively but I don't know neither what is missing. Any help is
needed ? Can we mix both library at the same time and start porting ?
where is the old ui library, where is the new one ? so I can compare...
Xavier
PS: I am not complaining and I am willing to provide patches.
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