Most recent activity
-
That sounds like a fantastic idea! I don't have ADHD but I'd love to use that app, I could load it with all the things my wife asks me to do and which I almost instantly forget! Thank you for the example of reminding yourself to eat, you reminded me that we don't all think in the same way, personally I never forget to eat, quite the opposite I'm often thinking about my next meal!
The task queue with priority sounds great too, currently I might set an alarm to remind me of something, but that's not easy to add multiple things to, and the alarm by definition only goes off at a set time. An occasionally gentle reminder sounds like a better solution.
Brilliant use of tech to help you out, and nice to see the commercial option you linked, I'm sure you'll be able to make something that works better!
-
It's a fantastic ecosystem, Gordon has done a smashing job with it! And there is a lot of helpful things out there. When I made my first app I laboriously laid it out by hand, only afterwards did I discover the layout library which made it much easier!
If the keyboard you've made is your avatar, I also thought it looked similar to the multi-tap keyboard (you may see a familiar name listed under authors in the readme!)
Using the real device is quite different from the emulator, but please do a comparison when you get your hands on it. If your keyboard works better you can always make changes to the multi-tap keyboard so that everyone can benefit from your improvements, or as you say release a separate keyboard app that suits your needs better. That's one of the joys of open-source, it's up to you.
But that's only the keyboard section, do you mind if I'm nosy and ask what the rest of your app does?
-
Well done for solving your problem! Not sure if you're aware, but there's a whole selection of keyboards available for the JS2: https://banglejs.com/apps/?c=textinput
Details of how to use them in your own app here: https://github.com/espruino/BangleApps/tree/master/apps/kbtouch
You might want to repackage your keyboard as a separate app so others can use it, or give people a choice of which keyboard they use to interact with your app.
-
Great news that the font is available with a 'very permissive' license (having read the license I see why you didn't spell it out here!) Very glad to see that others also think Renaissance would be a suitable font.
I don't know enough about how Espruino works with fonts to comment on a new font renderer, or packaging. Since some of the Renaissance fonts are bold though it would be nice to be able to use that. Since they're already packaged up as PBF files could we use them directly? Would people be able to make new fonts in the same format?
In terms of how we use the fonts, I'd be happy specifying the font and size directly, especially if there was a wiki page or tutorial with examples of the different fonts and sizes. Alternatively listing them as
tiny,small,mediumandlargewould be quite user friendly, but I think having the size in the name is more useful.I really like Gordon's idea of working out the best size of font to fit the text in a space, I agree it would be great for messages. I'm actually less keen on letting the Bangle pick the 'best' font size in other situations though, I already find it slightly odd that menu items can have 2 sizes of font, I can imagine some very strange looking screens with multiple different sized bits of text looking very messy.
-
I just bodged something up
Fabulous, thanks Gordon! Your bodges look like finely honed works of art next to mine!
At first glance these look promising, some of the characters have gone a bit wonky, but very readable in the emulator and on a JS2.
Using an existing font has got to be easier than designing a new one (or multiple for different sizes) from scratch, question is are we happy to do that?
Also, is it possible to adjust the spacing between letters? When I made the mockup above I thought it was much more readable with just an extra pixel of space between each letter.
-
I like the sound of new fonts, particularly a nice range of sizes. typically I use the Vector font, it's easy to use for large sizes though not as good for small text. It would be nice to have the option for Bold text too.
Just for reference, here is the font that the Pebble watches used, and the reason they used it:Raster Gothic Condensed is the font used throughout the Pebble system, largely because it is optimized for monochromatic displays. Pebble selected this font because it allows a relatively large number of characters to be displayed on a single line, also because the font has an excellent readability vs. size ratio.
This is a paid for font, but the Rebble team has had a go at making a similar font and releasing it on Github: https://github.com/pebble-dev/renaissance
Unfortunately the fonts are only in pbf format, which I would try, but can't get to convert using the Espruino Font Converter. Does anyone know how I could get these fonts into the Bangle?
EDIT: Manually pasted the letters as Gordon did above, the bottom 2 rows are Renaissance 24 and Renaissance 18. -
Thanks for your suggestions Gordon, I tried them all, but in the end redrawing the entire screen was too slow to look good. Your
g.scrollandg.drawImagessolution was the best, but moved the widgets as well which wasn't ideal.
I've abandoned the idea of a general function to wipe to a different screen, and opened https://github.com/espruino/BangleApps/pull/2547 with the much simpler solution of just clearing the screen and redrawing the text for this clock. I'll have to come up with some more imaginative animations for my other clocks! -
I'm going to jump to the BangleJS2 defence :-)
It all depends what you want, and what you expect from a smartwatch. I've had several, and while the Pebble Time Steel was by far the best, the BangleJS2 comes a close second, and thanks to the efforts of Gordon and the community keeps improving.
I won't argue every point, but recent improvements, with fastloading, hiding widgets, speed improvements, etc. have made such a big difference it's now a very usable watch, for me.
One thing that's made a huge difference with the usability of the touchscreen, new in 2v16, is the touchscreen calibration in the settings menu. If you haven't done it yet I highly recommend it! No more stabbing around, it's now precise and reliable.
I nearly got a transition like this to work! Gordon helped me out with some suggestions, I'll see if I can dig out what I tried and make it work.
Edit: It was in this thread, I'll have another crack at it, it nearly worked: https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/383148