Cross-device compatibility

[Ulrik Rasmusen]

On Monday 12 February 2007 16:31, Flemming Richter Mikkelsen wrote:
> On 2/10/07, Ulrik Rasmusen <openmoko at hwiz.dk> wrote:
> > Hey,
> >
> > I was wondering how much thought there's been put into making
> > applications for
> > OpenMoko compatible across different devices. Imagine in a couple of
> > years, when OpenMoko has been put on 10+ different types of phones, all
> > with different features. For instance, some will have GPS (like the NEO),
> > some will have a big screen, while others will have small screens. Some
> > will have touch-screens, while some will have a lot of buttons instead.
> >
> > Since we will be using GTK+, I can imagine that the composition of the
> > interface will be totally up to the developer. What will then happen when
> > we move these applications from a 480x640 screen to a much smaller one?
> > On devices that use J2ME, the rendering of the different controls and
> > menus are decided by the host device, which makes it possible for the
> > developer to target a big range of devices with different display
> > capabilities without putting much thought into the UI. Would it be
> > possible to do the same on the OpenMoko platform?
>
> I agree. But can't this be worked on later after we get a working device?

Well, I was thinking more about a totally device agnostic approach, so it's 
more a matter of development guidelines for fluid interfaces, and UI 
abstractions in the OpenMoko framework.

>
> > Also, since the applications for the Neo will use the touch-screen, there
> > should be some usability guidelines, so developers makes their
> > applications usable by keyboard-based phones too.
>
> I tried Trolltech's Greenphone (running Qtopia 4). The entry box
> recognizes hand writing and keyboard input so the programmer does not
> have to worry about that. (Also, you just need to make
> a button, and it will automatically work with touch screen. Makes
> porting between devices with and without touchscreen painless)

That's precisely what I'm talking about :). Similar features for OpenMoko 
would be great!

>
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