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ZXDS Diary concept...

Paddy ColemanPaddy Coleman
edited June 2011 in Development
Hi Folks,

I have been a fan and long time user of Psion PDAs - alas they are no more and my trusty 3mx is on its last legs. As I almost have my hands on a DSi XL and ZXDS emulator I thought about writing a Diary application to run on it.

Below is a mocked up screen:

ZXDS-Diary.jpg

What do you think?

Paddy
Post edited by Paddy Coleman on

Comments

  • Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
    edited June 2011
    This may be inappropriate for a ZX Spectrum forum, but... what advantage is there is writing this as a ZX Spectrum program over writing it as a native/web/Flash/etc app?
  • Paddy ColemanPaddy Coleman
    edited June 2011
    Philip Kendall wrote: »
    This may be inappropriate for a ZX Spectrum forum, but... what advantage is there is writing this as a ZX Spectrum program over writing it as a native/web/Flash/etc app?

    From a technical perspective there is none Philip. It is just a fun use of ZXDS, DSi XL and BASin. :smile:

    Paddy
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited June 2011
    Download devkitpro and write in in C.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • tstihtstih
    edited June 2011
    very nice usage of proportional font. here are some ideas/questions:
    how is it going to look like when there are more tasks at the same time?
    did you try invert (black on white) variant? how does it look?
    the numbers are not sequential - is there a reason for it?
    did you try making empty slots smaller to provide more space for populated slots?
    header cells (height 8 pixels) might look better with different background then the rest?
    if you make each cell height multiplier of 8 you can paint their background differently (for example - for work/non work hours).
  • Paddy ColemanPaddy Coleman
    edited June 2011
    tstih wrote: »
    very nice usage of proportional font. here are some ideas/questions:
    how is it going to look like when there are more tasks at the same time?
    did you try invert (black on white) variant? how does it look?
    the numbers are not sequential - is there a reason for it?
    did you try making empty slots smaller to provide more space for populated slots?
    header cells (height 8 pixels) might look better with different background then the rest?
    if you make each cell height multiplier of 8 you can paint their background differently (for example - for work/non work hours).

    Hi Tstih,

    Remember this is a diary not a task list. The mock-up assumes two entries per hour but I know what you mean - could be limiting.

    No, I have not tried inverting (I have tried other INK colours and green if my favourite so far). For some reason on a "Spectrum" I prefer a dark background.

    The numbers run from 6am to mid-night each day - hence why they are not sequential.

    The attribute issue is the thing that has been troubling me. I agree that it would be great to use colour coding and also have "icons" for different entries (meetings, holidays etc.). However, I also like the layout of the image above which as you can tell does not line up with 8x8 grid.

    Paddy

    [Edit] Just so you can see, here is the inverted version (rather good actually :-) ):

    ZXDS-Diary2.jpg
  • tstihtstih
    edited June 2011
    black on white looks good. paper-like. here are some more fine tuning proposals for you - entry no. 9 shows how to have more then two journal entries in "two line" space.

    improve1.jpg
  • rich_chandlerrich_chandler
    edited June 2011
    I want to know who Paula is.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • Paddy ColemanPaddy Coleman
    edited June 2011
    tstih wrote: »
    black on white looks good. paper-like. here are some more fine tuning proposals for you - entry no. 9 shows how to have more then two journal entries in "two line" space.

    improve1.jpg

    Looks nice Tstih - did you draw this on a Spectrum though? I suspect not as the cyan band at the top would not work as you will get attribute bleed. :-(

    But having said that, good step forward!

    Paddy
  • tstihtstih
    edited June 2011
    Paddy Coleman wrote: »
    Looks nice Tstih - did you draw this on a Spectrum though? I suspect not as the cyan band at the top would not work as you will get attribute bleed.

    the idea is that header is somehow fixed. its height is 8 bits. its width ends on a byte boundary (so that you don't bleed right). the cells are not coloured so they can be flexible.
  • Paddy ColemanPaddy Coleman
    edited June 2011
    OK, here is a version that is aligned to attribute boundaries. Not the diary entries - these still straddle so text would have to be black. Unfortunately this means you lose 6-7am and 11-12am.

    ZXDS-Diary3.jpg

    Looks rather good and somewhat Mac like. ;)

    [Edit] Paula is my long suffering wife who finds it hard to understand my obsesion with all things 1980s! :-)

    Paddy
  • tstihtstih
    edited June 2011
    Paddy Coleman wrote: »
    OK, here is a version that is aligned to attribute boundaries.

    looks cute. don't forget the CalDAV support. :smile:
  • ZnorXmanZnorXman
    edited June 2011
    I like it, might even use it.

    I have a suggestion ... I'll give you a hint, it's the next hour right after the noon hour.
    Spoiler:
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