Ideal screen rotation

[Neil Jerram]

Having just written an automatic screen rotation program (like
omnewrotate), I'm now wondering about the best way of using it, so
that everything Just Works the way that it should.

In particular, I've realized now that

- for many apps there is a preferred orientation (e.g. zhone and
hex-a-hop), and the best thing is to rotate the screen to what is best
for each app, regardless of how the phone is being held

- for some apps you definitely don't want the screen to be rotated
underneath them, e.g. mokomaze

- for the apps where autorotation makes sense, you want the control to
be easily accessible - certainly a lot easier than switching back to
the launcher or an xterm and doing something there :-)

Have others already thought about this and devised solutions?

I think a good solution might involve the window manager - since the
window manager knows which app is at the front of the screen and so
could rotate the screen correctly for it (including enabling
autorotation for the apps where that makes sense).  Alternatively - at
least for e17 - an easily accessible gadget in the top shelf could
make it very simple to choose a specific orientation and to enable and
disable autorotation.

Regards,
         Neil