[mythtv] OSD timeout settings

[Michael T. Dean]

On 06/15/2010 11:21 AM, David Engel wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 01:32:41PM +1000, Jean-Yves Avenard wrote:
>    
>> Following http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/changeset/25102
>>
>> Is the plan to have something equivalent with the new OSD theme, that
>> is the user can easily change the timeout settings and how long one
>> has to read text displayed on the screen.
>>
>> If it will require to fiddle with the theme XML to adjust how long you
>> have to read things , that's a big drawback usability-wise IMO.
>>      
> I agree completely.  I understand the desire, even need, for the
> themes to control all visual aspects such as fonts so things look
> right.  OSD timeouts don't affect the visual appearance of the themes
> and should be easily configurable without having to edit XML.
>
>    

There is absolutely no code in MythTV that allows the OSD timeouts to 
change.  This was true before I removed the widgets.  If someone wants 
the ability to change them, they need to write some code.

If they write the code, it needs to be done right--unlike the code we 
had in the pre-libmythui-osd branch.  AIUI, Mark removed that code 
because it was unusable--it was inconsistent and haphazard, it wasn't 
applied in all locations (so a large number of OSD screens weren't 
affected by the settings).  Whatever new solution we use has to be a 
complete solution designed for the new OSD UI.  See 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/724 and 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/3023 (among others).

I really don't care where we put the controls, but the point is that 
there were no controls before this commit.  I only removed the widgets 
that flipped switches that were completely unconnected.  Leaving them in 
place had 2 serious down sides:  a) users who flip the switches are 
likely to report bugs (that are actually feature requests) when they 
don't work and b) leaving them in place means that whoever writes the 
code will most likely constrain the solution to the (broken) one one we 
had before (removing them completely gives the coder the ability to 
completely rethink how they're done and make it better).

He who codes it gets an automatic majority vote.

> FWIW, I'm also not thrilled with the change (unless I've misunderstood
> it) that removes the ability to independently choose the OSD theme.  I
> have no problem with a setting that defaults to using the OSD theme
> provided by the main theme, but why not let the user choose a
> different OSD theme if they want to?
>    

I'm sure that could be changed, too--after all, why make a 
consistently-designed UI mandatory if the user wants things to look 
different in different places.  ;)  Again, someone just needs to write 
some code.  Mark had plenty of other stuff to do when he completely did 
the libmythui-osd changes all by himself, and, AIUI, allowing the user 
to independently change OSD theme was just one of those things that 
could be done later.

Besides, Mark is getting stuck with virtually any ticket that's even 
remotely related to the OSD, so he hardly has time to start adding a 
bunch of new features/enhancements to the new code.  Now, if all of us 
were to help him...  :)

Mike