Somehow today (I can't for the life of me figure out how) I ended up on Barenada's excellent web site which chronicles the development of his CCF. (Incidentally, Barenada, yes... it was cooincidence that our first CCF's shared similar home panels! {smile}) One of the things he mentions is that the Device menu can function as an ad-hoc "Back" button.

Here's how:
1 From the DEVICE side of ProntoEdit, a button jumps to another panel. That panel is located in the MACRO side.

2 After using the panel on the MACRO side, tap the DEVICE menu and you return to whatever panel you jumped from in step 1.

SO... that's nifty and all, but we all know darned well that if a button isn't clearly labeled, nobody will use it. And then it occurred to me:

Eigeny Oulianov's ImgRep utility lets you EDIT the built-in user interface.

So, after organizing your CCF so that the steps above apply, you can then edit the graphic for the DEVICE menu to be a "BACK" button. Then, to moderately idiot-proof the thing, replace the MACRO menu graphic with a blank white rectangle.

Now, when you jump to the MACRO side, your BACK button appears. Use it, the button vanishes, you're back at the panel you jumped from, and there's no visible sign of a button there to tempt people to touch it.

This concept could (at the expense of great effort) be extended much farther. If ALL the jumps in your CCF were designed to be interwoven between the MACRO and DEVICE sides, you could theoretically create a robust BACK button that worked from any panel.

Of course, it would always be limited to only one jump back, but with a cleverly designed CCF, it wouldn't matter. Here's why:

Use the "Back" button icon you created to replace the DEVICE menu as a Back button elsewhere in your CCF. Any CCF that uses a "Tree structure" can already simulate a Back button to about three layers of heirarchy (check out my first grayscale CCF to see this in action). If such a CCF uses the same BACK icon, but the location on the screen is slightly different, at least the visual familiarity of the icon will guide the user in what to do.

Yep, it would be tons of work. I'm considering adding the feature to my own CCF at home, but not to my new EasyTheater CCF. I love the idea, but I don't want to force someone to alter the firmware of their Pronto just to use my CCF.

Thanks,
Dale

Dale am I reading this correct that it would take two button presses for the back option to work? BTW I wanted to tell you design theory in your new CCF with the mid level (I forgot your exact name)alias is simply brilliant ;)

Dale,

I think I'm going to try this out as soon as I can, so I can see your idea in action! I can follow the logic and it seems like a terrific workaround.

Dale,

I'm a bit confused as well. I'm familiar with the "poor man's back function" using the device button to go to the last device page if you're on the macro side (and visa versa). If you replaced the device menu icon with a back button wouldn't it be visable as a back button even when you were on the device side??? In other words, can you replace the device menu icon with a back button ONLY on the macro side pages???

Jim L


This message was edited by bomberjim on 06/12/02 13:08.45.

Echo:

Nope, it would only take one button press for BACK to work.

Example:

There are two panels: TEST, on the Device side, and ADJUST LIGHTS, on the Macro side.

The Macro Menu graphic has been firmware-updated to contain only a blank rectangle, so no Macro Menu appears to the user. The Device Menu graphic has been firmware-updated to contain a BACK button.

ON DEVICE SIDE: On the TEST panel, the user taps the Adjust Lights button, which contains a Jump to the ADJUST LIGHTS panel, which is on the Macro side.

The Pronto now jumps to the "ADJUST LIGHTS" panel. At this point, the "blank macro menu" goes away, and the Back button appears.

ON MACRO SIDE: User taps Back.

The Pronto returns to the "TEST" panel. The Back button disappears and the "blank macro menu" hides the Macro menu from view.

BomberJim:

I haven't been able to test this yet, but it appears to me that the bitmaps are different for the Macro side and the Device side. They are without a doubt different on the ProntoPro. I don't know about the 1000, though.

Echo:

Thanks for the compliment on the Alias layer. To be honest, I can't take credit for using an abstraction layer. That's been a common software design techniqie for decades. And honestly, I can't even take credit for being the first to use it on the Pronto: Years ago, Andrea Whitlock created a superb implementation of it to make it easier to program multi-digit channel buttons. My innovation, if it is one, was to use the concept of an abstraction layer between the functional buttons and the IR codes. That layer of separation makes it possible to reprogram an entire CCF in one or two hours instead of ten or fifteen hours.

Actually, if you made a "basics only" EasyTheater CCF with just a TV, VCR, DVD, Receiver, and Cable (or other tuner) box, you could probably reduce customizing time down to an hour, and still have the full EasyTheater user interface intact. (I even implemented the delays in all macros through an abstraction layer, so you could adjust the timing of the macros without even opening their Action lists.)

Thanks again,
Dale

no I think the only problem will be on the home side (that is the only time when both show).

Dale: have you tried the utility? does it work like changing the home icon? i.e. on the B&W Pronto you could change the home icon but not the whole button. Or does it change the whole button

Dale and Anthony,

Right you guys are!!! Interesting, thought we had just about run out of "new" techniques - very creative. I'd be interested to see an implementation. I'm just too chicken to use the utility and mess with the firmware.

Jim L

You needn't worry about messing up your remote -- the utility also works on the emulator. So the worst you could do is mess up the emulator and have to reinstall ProntoEdit (or just copy a backup you made earlier back).

I'd jump right into trying this, but I'm really wanting to get EasyTheater finished for the Pronto 1000. I've spent all this time working on the thing, and I can't even use it! (I only own a Pronto 1000.)

Dale

Has anyone got any examples of playing with this new utitity.

I had a quick look at it but it seemed like a lot of hard work (but possibly worth the effort) One thing that I am confused about, is it possible to change the size of the buttons or just the graphics ?

One other thing, there are a whole load of graphics in order to create the animation of the Pronto spinning - and I have used that how many times . . . ?

I believe (from previous discussions), that you need to match the size of the graphic you're replacing.

Jim L