[APP] - version 1.16.x

superscout03 · January 14, 2012, 19:33:41

i just would lik to have the ability to turn the labels off for the tracks only, just like the feature for waypoints. (never, on hover, always) I like having the ability to have my manually created points to show all the time, or off if I want, but the track names is a little overkill for me. and it seems the only way to get them off the screen is to have all of the lables turned off.

Menion · January 14, 2012, 19:39:54

hmm finally understand, I'll think about it ...

superscout03 · January 14, 2012, 19:50:02

thank you! =)

Menion · January 15, 2012, 14:19:52

oki, what about this ... is this new screen clear?

joeloc · January 15, 2012, 16:04:03

Just something general for all settings: negative options (ie "Disable/Hide/Etc whatever") are mostly a bad idea. It requires users to ENable a checkmark to DISable a feature, which is counter intuitive. I would always use a positive option unless there's a really good reason not to. That means...

* Show extra labels

instead of

* Hide extra labels

The positive options can of course default to on or off, depending on what makes more sense.

superscout03 · January 15, 2012, 18:04:30

Menion, that screen looks beautiful. Options are always a good thing in my opinion. This gives the users the ability to show all labels, and or only waypoint or tracks. Bravo. And (joeloc) options are truthfully a good thing and not negative or a bad idea, thats the whole point of a user interface. Just like Traction control in my corvette, I leave it OFF almost every time i drive it. Because sometimes the option to be in control of my car is better than the car being in control of me. In better words "Freedom"
Thanks Menion that option screen looks awesome.

Menion · January 15, 2012, 19:16:48

Quote from: "joeloc"Just something general for all settings ...

damn Joe, you're right. I was never thinking about it from this point of view ... damn, big problem is here only fact, that every text I change have to be translated by all people again ...

and scout, you're welcome. What you by the way, think about question marks? I want to have possibility to display hint to every settings and feels like disturbing to have this hint visible all the time ...

joeloc · January 15, 2012, 19:51:35

Questionmarks... well... to be honest, i would much rather see a standard android settings interface for everything. You might consider it boring now, but in fact it's simple, easy to grasp, beautiful, battery-saving. It doesnt need complicated things like extra help texts hidden behind question marks because there is plenty explaining text already, way more than with your one-word-labels. Almost all other apps do it that way, it will look pretty in ics and below, etcpp. It's just standard and people expect it.

Custom ms-windows desktop emulation things on the other hand (subwindows, close gadgets, ok/cancel buttons) are not androidish and confusing. And the more work you put into your own ui (like the question mark thingies?!), the harder it will be to "get back on the proper path" later. Of course you are in love with your own button inventions right now... but maybe that will change with time.

I think Locus can have a really fancy main screen (the map view) with loads of custom things all around, but should stick to android standards everywhere else.

Android standard. Simple, Easy to use, Beautiful.
[attachment=0:33kxc3xz]SC20120115-192729.jpg[/attachment:33kxc3xz]
Just my opinion obviously, yours may differ

.

Menion · January 15, 2012, 20:07:49

that's how all setting in locus looks like ... right, almost all, not all looks like this now.

problem and change comes with some more complicated settings. What about these? (on screenshots) ... they're too complicated to basic system that allow android.

joeloc · January 15, 2012, 20:33:23

Hm... you are right. Locus has perfectly standardized settings almost all the way already. I somehow forgot that when seeing those subwindow screenshots, sorry.

Anyway... why is that too complex for android? Because of Beep and Choose Sound? Could it not just go to the normal GPS settings page? Its quite messy right now with its "Enable notification" thing anyway. What good is that for? If I want to globally mute my phone, I just mute my phone. If I want to mute a specific gps alert, I can set it to "Mute" in the ring tone dialog.

Why would I need TWO EXTRA ways to enable/disable that specifically in Locus? Right now you have this "enable notification" checkmark thing in the main GPS settings page and then another set of checkmarks in the popup window. And then you can enable an alert but set it to MUTE in the ring tone dialog, which effectively disables it. Thats a complete triple mess :-).

The ring tone dialog comes from Android I presume? Can you add your simple "Beep" there somehow? Or maybe just the contents of locus/alerts as well as the system ringtones? Then you would not need any extra freaky gadgets but could simply offer

* GPS fix acquired alert
"Beep"
* GPS fix lost alert
"Andromeda"
* GPS fix lost repeat timer
10 seconds <- defaults to 0 = no repeat.

in your main gps settings page. Thats it. No subwindow at all, no triple-checkmark crazyness.

Menion · January 15, 2012, 20:39:24

with gps notification

.. it's quite simple. I use one main checkbox for this settings (enable/disable) because this allow to use one switch in Quick switch panel, that's all. Also thanks to this, you may simply disable whole notification stuff.

joeloc · January 15, 2012, 20:40:36

The same is true for the Guiding Sounds window. I cant see any reason for that at all, it could just sit happily inside the normal android settings list on the Guiding prefs page.

joeloc · January 15, 2012, 20:48:10

So seriously... is it that important to enable/disable gps fix sounds with a single click, but for example leave guiding sounds unchanged? Does this warrant a preferences mess where i have in fact three different ways to enable/disable an alert? I think not.

Maybe one single global option to mute/unmute Locus would do. That would affect all your sounds and alerts at once, independently from the rest of the phone, and still not clutter all your preferences pages with extra windows and triple-checkmarking.

If I want finer granularity, I can enable/disable every single alert with its ringtone dialog.

But to add an extra layer of enabling/disabling here is a bit over the top really.

Menion · January 15, 2012, 20:56:55

hmm I'm not sure about it ... from my live ...

sometimes, I just go to trip and use track recording. In this case, I want to have enabled GPS notification for cases when I lost GPS connection. Other case is hunting for geocaches. You see for whole time compass and screen, so you don't need notification for GPS but you need notification for Guiding ... it's question what is best.

with smile on face, I have to say that I don't know. I just think that current Locus design isn't too much against android concept (at least not too much), I also think that due to lot of functions, it quite easy to understand and that's main for now. What do better? There is a lot of things ...

superscout03 · January 15, 2012, 21:35:55

i like the way the menu system is set up now, but adding a ? hint tab to the settings sounds ok also. I love Locus and have been using it for a long time. I use it every day. But my only issue that I personally see from after updating locus yesterday is the over crowded screen and not being able to turn off the tags and labels and start and stop "dots" for tracks. And the background for the labels is always white, should have the same feature for the font color or the ability to make the label backgroud transparent. You have a great program, and the best part about it is the ability to control so many settings and that allows the user to set up the program exactly as he needs it. Unlike garmin with its limited features and settings, I think from when I first started using this program I got about 50-70 guys I work with to ditch their garmin GPS's and they now run Locus on tablets.