[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Porting to very small devices

[Jordan Crouse <jordanc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> My iPAQ is 240 x 320, running X (Xfbdev), possibly with xinerama (runtime
> 90 degrees rotation of the screen), 12 bits LCD screen (16 bits X server).
 
> You'd have to split all big windows into pieces. A small overview-map
> on a 320x200 screen seems pretty useless, unless you look at the
> overview map only. City report will need a very small font, or needs
> to be done differently.

The Ipaq is the perfect device to discuss here(since it is the only
quality production PDA out there can handle Linux).
I would expect that the main screen would be the map, covering about 2/3
of the screen  The other screens would be accessable
through a row of icons at the top, as well as some of the more familiar
methods (click on a city - get the city report, etc...)

Each screen would come up full screen (much like WinCE does for
everything!).  This would maximize the real estate for each screen,
as well as provide a easy navigation system via "back" and "more"
buttons.

Navigation would typically be with the joystick, but since the Ipaq
can't detect simultanious button presses, diagonal movement
would not be possible.  In order to make movement easier, we may have to
implement a "point and click" movement method (ugh!).  If that happened,
I would use the joystick keys to pan the map.

The 4 other keys on the Ipaq would be for the most popular shortcuts
(end turn, wait, goto, fortify are the ones I use most often).
The other shortcuts would have to be accessable through a popup list on
the main screen.  Using a virtual keyboard is probably not
the solution, since it takes up too much space, and I don't want to
restrict people from playing because they don't know Grafitti (I know I
don't!).

This would be a ton of work, and only worth if if the community believed
that some good would come from it. 

Jordan