questions

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

The point is that I don't know how to see whether the DR is in sleep-mode.

I think the whole idea with the 1.6 update to the sleep mode is that it's supposed to be invisible to the user. You don't need to worry about whether or not it's in sleep mode. The only thing that's important is that it's extending your battery life.

What kind of life are you getting from a full charge?

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by yingwu

I think it will be great if the time can display on the status bar. Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, I need to put down my DR and look for my watch. O, God, I don't know where my watch is again!!!

Do you want to know the time or that it is 'time to stop reading' ... (and do something else that you planned to do.)

[yingwu]

Hehe, thanks Mackx. I want to know the time like a watch on the screen. The DR is unlucky to have not such a function.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

Hehe, thanks Mackx. I want to know the time like a watch on the screen. The DR is unlucky to have not such a function.

I think it's impractical though, for an eInk device to have such a feature.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by yingwu

Hehe, thanks Mackx. I want to know the time like a watch on the screen. The DR is unlucky to have not such a function.

Hi yingwu,

It should be possible to make a small clock-application, that displays time (maybe also some kind of calender). You can start it, (keep it running) then start reading and if you want to know the time, switch to the clock-application via its icon in the Task Manager.
I am not sure if it is possible to also add the time in the toolbar (from a 3rd party app), I will have to look deeper into the code for that. Although I agree with Shaggy, e-Ink is not the correct type of display to run an application that does a lot of (power draining) screen updates.

[yingwu]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Hi yingwu,

It should be possible to make a small clock-application, that displays time (maybe also some kind of calender). You can start it, (keep it running) then start reading and if you want to know the time, switch to the clock-application via its icon in the Task Manager.
I am not sure if it is possible to also add the time in the toolbar (from a 3rd party app), I will have to look deeper into the code for that. Although I agree with Shaggy, e-Ink is not the correct type of display to run an application that does a lot of (power draining) screen updates.

Thanks Mackx first of all. It is a absolutely personal demand anyway, so I originally just want to check 'the current time' when the screen is refreshed, instead of refreshing the screen every minute to update the watch.

But I more like your first idea to make a small clock-application. How about this? If the time function can be called from the menu and I can create a shortcut in the toolbox space in the left bottom, then I when I click the tool button, I can check the time. Again, personal thinking. I mean I dont care whether it is possible.

[lastgasp]

FBreader for DR1000 has an onscreen clock that doesn't refresh until you turn a page. So it doesn't use any extra battery power. It has too be added from the settings icon and appears at the bottom right at the end of the screen. The only sad thing is FBreader doesn't support dictionary look-up.

[yingwu]

Originally Posted by lastgasp

FBreader for DR1000 has an onscreen clock that doesn't refresh until you turn a page. So it doesn't use any extra battery power. It has too be added from the settings icon and appears at the bottom right at the end of the screen. The only sad thing is FBreader doesn't support dictionary look-up.

Yes, the onscreen clock is what I want originally. It is OK to refresh the screen to check to the time. I just want to know a general time instead of a timer.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

But I more like your first idea to make a small clock-application. How about this? If the time function can be called from the menu and I can create a shortcut in the toolbox space in the left bottom, then I when I click the tool button, I can check the time. Again, personal thinking. I mean I dont care whether it is possible.

That should actually be pretty simple to do. The Linux system under the covers probably already has a built in clock command (even just using 'date' would work). You just need a script that you click on which prints out the local time.

I've got something kind of similar on my iLiad. I wanted to be able to look at the filesystem usage and see how much free space I had on the internal memory and any cards. I put a simple script on that I can click on which just executes a 'du' command and dumps the output. It would be trivial to do the same thing with a 'date' command as well on the iLiad. I assume similar functionality is possible on the DR.

I thought you were originally talking about a "real time" clock function that would continually update. Just being able to click on something to give you back the current time should be pretty straight forward.

[yingwu]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I thought you were originally talking about a "real time" clock function that would continually update. Just being able to click on something to give you back the current time should be pretty straight forward.

Thanks, Shaggy. Yes, I don't need a 'real clock'.

I've got something kind of similar on my iLiad. I wanted to be able to look at the filesystem usage and see how much free space I had on the internal memory and any cards. I put a simple script on that I can click on which just executes a 'du' command and dumps the output. It would be trivial to do the same thing with a 'date' command as well on the iLiad. I assume similar functionality is possible on the DR.

Could you tell how to executes a 'du' command and dumps the output? I mean how to run a linux command in DR? I even don't know where to input the command.

Then, sorry. I am not family with the Linux system. I don't know how to write the script.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by yingwu

Could you tell how to executes a 'du' command and dumps the output? I mean how to run a linux command in DR?

The one I did was on an iLiad. I'd have to defer to some of the developers on here who are more familiar with the DR than I am with regards to doing the same thing on a DR.

I assume it's possible, but I don't know the specific details.

[Mackx]

Hi yingwu,

I modified hello-world to print the time. So you start the clock program and then start reading. When you want to know the time, start the menu and switch to the clock application. Then switch back again (if it is not yet time to go to sleep ). Since it is a modified-copy of hello-world it still contains the menu-items from hello-world. Please only use Close, the rest might crash the app. (I might do a clean-up in a future version.)

The clock is only updated when the application gets 'activated', i.e. when it is brought to the front using the menu, so no unneeded drawing/refreshing. Basically a very boring program once started ...

Please let me know what you think of it?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installation: Just unzip to your SD-card.
De-Install: remove /Programs/_mxClock -directory and the /Programs/mxClock.desktop -file.

PS: This will not work with FBReader. I am not able to build FBReader myself, so I am not able to add an icon for it in the Task Manager row of the menu. So once you selected the clock application you can not switch back anymore to FBReader. If anyone has some tips on how to build it myself(Adam still around?) I could also add the icon to that program.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Mackx

I modified hello-world to print the time.

That was quick.

[yingwu]

Mackx, it is so kind of you. Thanks so much. I just got a problem here.

[yingwu]

Mackx, just give a feedback that the application is very good. Now, I can see the time with the DR, which is helpful. Just I nned to switch to the application everytime, so if you have any improvement, let me know. Thanks very much.