ubuntu-tablet team mailing list archive

[Henri Sundelin <henri.sundelin@xxxxxx>]

A couple of comments:

I'm not sure if the right approach is to copy _everything from other tablet platforms. Fullscreen interface is one of those features I'm not so sure about.

This is because I see Ubuntu tablet as a device somewhere between a full-blown tablet and a desktop. I myself like the possibility to use the same device on road (or on sofa), and take it to work next morning - put it to a dock and do work with keyboard & stuff. Is this case, the multitouch screen gives some new ui possibilities - funnily I have lately found myself poking the desktop's screen also...:)

I think there could be approach to do both:
- Make sure all apps behave nice fullscreen
- Have option to auto full screen apps when using as tablet
- Unity multitouch gestures should in any case make it easy to work with many windows. In addition to that I'd really like to see gestures work switching through virtual desktops (ie one app/screen line Meego/Harmattan has)

//HS


On 26 Mar 2012, at 00:41, Николай Шатохин wrote:

> I hope Ubuntu Tablet will have a better interface. Multiwindow interface is inconvinient on Tablets. Better is signlewindow interface with convinient switcher between windows.
> 
> 2012/3/23 Henri Sundelin <henri.sundelin@xxxxxx>
> Hi,
> 
> As I begun using my new tablet, I became more and more frustrated with the on screen keyboards currently available. The main issue is that keyboard “floats” on the screen, and typically bounces around the screen depending where you’re writing (unless you actually fix it to the screen, which IMHO sucks even more).
> 
> This is something that Apple, Android, Nokia et al really do way better – the existing Linux solutions are just conceptual copies of similarly poor Windows solutions.
> 
> One of the things I like in the iPad is that the keyboard pops always up from the bottom to the same full-width place – this enables you to lay your hands on the table and type. Good luck trying that on a “floating” keyboard. So, I thought I had to come up with something, at least in my opinion, better.
> 
> In short, this is what I did:
> 
> - I modified Onboard so that it always keeps at bottom at the same place, as wide as possible.
> - Auto-hide works as originally, utilizing at-spi
> - If editable field would be behind keyboard, we signal Compiz to move that window up so we can see what we edit.
> - After editing – or moving to different field, we restore previous window positions
> 
> Here is a video file on how it works:
> 
> http://users.tkk.fi/u/hsundeli/onboard_compiz.webm
> 
> (framerate really sucks, but thats all the tablet can give.. key point here is that I’m not moving any windows, just changing the focus.)
> 
> Technically, Onboard sends dbus messages to Compiz’s dbus & put plugins. Onboard stores state for what has been moved.
> 
> I guess this solution is bit more “integrated” that what Linux community is used to, but that is how it has to be if a better user experience is to be desired. I have no idea if this is even possible in say Unity 2D.
> 
> Code-wise I’m pondering what to do next – depends on what people think. Either make this a Onboard fork or merge to Onboard capabilities if there is sufficient interest..
> 
> Cheers,
> //HS
> 
> 
> 
> 
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