Mintoris on eInk Reader

[robw]

I am porting a camera controller program to an eInk device (inkBook Pro) in order to make use of the superb sunlight readability. 

A few immediate questions/problems.

Mintoris front end, being mostly white writing on a black background, is not suited to eInk.  Some things like file names are completely invisible.  Any way of changing the native color scheme?

Secondly, it would be nice to be able to make use of the four hardware buttons on the reader, being page forward and page back on left and right sides.  Is there any possibility to re-map them or capture their state in any other way?

[robw]

And I have another problem.  This one much more serious?

There is some underlying functionality on the reader which seems to suspend program execution when there is no user interaction.  It only happens when the unit is running on battery power.  If plugged into 5v or a USB port everything works fine.  Unplug it and the program freezes after a few seconds.  Tap the screen or press a button and off it goes again for a few more seconds.  Interestingly, it doesn't lose time when this happens. 

This symptom is peculiar to the ereader.  The same program on a normal cell phone works fine.

I have tried forcing screen redraws to emulate activity but it does not help.

Any suggestions?

[sraffens]

1) Mintoris front end, being mostly white writing on a black background, is not suited to eInk.  Some things like file names are completely invisible.  Any way of changing the native color scheme?

2) Secondly, it would be nice to be able to make use of the four hardware buttons on the reader, being page forward and page back on left and right sides.  Is there any possibility to re-map them or capture their state in any other way?

3) There is some underlying functionality on the reader which seems to suspend program execution when there is no user interaction.  It only happens when the unit

This symptom is peculiar to the ereader.  The same program on a normal cell phone works fine.

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BASIC calls Androids API's, the manufacturer integrates Android to the hardware. This should make BASIC hardware independent, but that is not always the case, there are changes made to work around different devices.


Check the reference manual:
  1) try the TextColor statement. There are different color statements for each screen modes, some will cross over to different screen modes.
  Look up Event Triggers:
  2) SetOnKeySub, this should work for hardware keys, this may work for you if the hardware buttons are mapped to keys. This does not work for me.
  3) SetOnPauseSub and SetOnResumeSub this should indicate state of BASIC. Take a look at WakeLock, this should keep Android from putting BASIC to sleep.

For what its worth, the onXXX subroutines are callbacks, as with any callback, if you do anything to "block" callbacks Android will do strange and unexpected things. To "block" is to not returning in a timely manner, long loops, pauses, polling loops. With callbacks you are on Android's clock.

Scott

[robw]

Thanks Scott.

1.  I think a small misunderstanding.  I don't have any problems with the code I am creating.  It is the actual Mintoris environment which has problematic visibility.  For example, choosing the application to run/compile/edit etc is a matter of taking a guess because the names are invisible.  It is not serious.  By reducing the number of files in the Mintoris.Basic directory one can get it right most of the time.

2.  SetOnKeySub does not work for me either.  Maybe I had better talk nicely to the manufacturer.

3.  WakeLock works like a charm.  Tucked away at the bottom of the manual like that, I never knew it was there.  Thanks very much.  Coming together nicely now with Bluetooth GPS and communicating with the cameras via USB.  Very nice to work with something that has absolutely no visibility issues whatsoever.

[Mintoris]

 As it happens, I've spent a good deal of time writing a new color control system for version 8 UI. Every color will be easily adjustable.

In version 8 all programs run on background threads. This will solve your problems unless your reader is doing something special to suspend programs.

I will keep the extra button idea in mind as I am working on version 8.

[NancyAnese]

Sorry to pull up this old thread, but I am looking for the same information.
Are there any other options for RSS than amRSS which I cannot get to work without crashing for 68k?
Thanks