myKbd 1.40 / mySkin 2.40 released

[pruss]

Dear TX/T3/T5/LD owners:

My input area skin manager mySkin, and my input area skin manager and keyboard replacement myKbd have been updated.

- (myKbd only) Option to ignore spaces in the middle of strokes. This lets you do a lot more words with a single stroke.
- Load skins from macros (only at the end of a macro, since launching myKbd/mySkin terminates a macro, and a launch is currently needed to load a skin)
- Turn off hard key macros in selected apps (e.g., in games).

By the way, for anybody who doesn't know, you can use myKbd/mySkin as a free hard key macro utility.

Both apps:
http://www.zlthemes.com/Programs.php

myKbd
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=119441

myKbd registration code for mySkin users:
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=119442

mySkin:
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=72007

Keyboard Layout Generator:
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=119395

Best wishes,
Alex Pruss

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/pruss/kb-p.gif

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a327/pruss/mySkinPhoto.gif

[bh77a]

Thanks Alex.

[snark]

I second that! ;-)

[alt236]

Just a small thing, when I installed mySkin 2.40 over 2.31 it seized my left most hard button for the macros without asking (took me a bit to figure it out) :-)

Excellent app though!

[snark]

Same for me on my TX. How can I undo this?

[pruss]

Just a small thing, when I installed mySkin 2.40 over 2.31 it seized my left most hard button for the macros without asking (took me a bit to figure it out) :-)

Excellent app though!
Odd. What macro did it assign to it?

[snark]

Me, none, but the button was not responding. I cleared all macros but the button #1 (Home on my TX) still doesn't behave correctly.

[pruss]

Try x.41, now up.

[snark]

Looks fine for me, so far.

[Church Punk]

many thanks! :)

[bh77a]

An update already... you seem to be the most responsive Palm developer that I have ever encountered.

Thanks again!

[docholliday]

I ran into an interesting problem with mySkin the other day...I've never had a single problem with it until this...

I had set the keyboard macros for hard key 2 to rotate to landscape and hard key 3 to rotate to portrait. Then calibrated the screen using the screen calibration utility in mySkin. No problem.

Then, I had a fatal error and soft reset the T3. No problems yet...pressed 'Done' on the prefs page that comes up for date & time. Hit 'Home' and go to ZLauncher. Tap anything on the screen and instant Fatal error.

I disabled everything possible and soft-reset. Still, fatal error. Disabled ZLauncher and returned to the Palm Launcher. Same thing. I spent a while trying out every combination in an effort to figure out the cause. The problem doesn't occur in warm-reset (page-up). but returns as soon as I reset normally.

Finally, I deleted mySkin...and it stopped. I re-installed mySkin and it returned. Deleted again, and it stopped. Turned on everything...ZLauncher, hacks, etc. without mySkin. It was fine. Added mySkin back...Fatal Error.

Then, with mySkin and everything turned on (which still caused a fatal error). I calibrated using the Digitizer app from prefs during restart. The problem didn't occur. Until the next soft reset.

My conclusion seems to steer towards the calibration utility in mySkin. While it works great, and is dead-on accurate. It is somehow saving something that is causing my system digitizer settings to read bad values.

Anybody else seen this?

[pruss]

I doubt it's the calibration.

By "hit home" do you mean the on-screen home button or the hard button?

Experiment 1. Do a warm reset, run mySkin, exit mySkin, hit home.

Experiment 2. Clear all macros, then see if problem continues.

[docholliday]

I doubt it's the calibration.

By "hit home" do you mean the on-screen home button or the hard button?

Experiment 1. Do a warm reset, run mySkin, exit mySkin, hit home.

Experiment 2. Clear all macros, then see if problem continues.

(Note: I don't have a hard button for home...TT3)

Warm reset, run mySkin, exit...hit home (on-screen). Works fine. Soft reset...go through Prefs screen that comes up. Hit home, works fine. Launcher comes up...touch anything on screen and Fatal Errors. Soft reset, same sequence, same problem. Soft reset again, use Palm digitizer app and "calibrate". All is fine. Soft reset. Problem again.

Warm reset. Use Prefs-> Digitizer. Hit home. Works. Delete macros. Soft reset. Same problem.

Soft reset. Use Prefs -> Digitizer. Hit home. Works. Delete mySkin. Soft reset. All is fine.

Soft reset again. All is fine.

Re-install mySkin. Works fine. Soft reset, works fine (with digitizer drift). Soft reset again, works fine.

Use mySkin calibration. Soft reset. Same problems sequence starts again.

Soft reset. Use Prefs -> Digitizer. Hit home. Works again. Soft reset again. Same problem.

It seems that mySkin doesn't cause any problem until...I use the digitizer app in mySkin. Then it all starts up.

[Church Punk]

maybe you have other apps that recall digitizer settings you gave before?

say i have also HandyAid, and it gives the option to calibrate on every startup (just call settings not actually hit the screen to calibrate again). maybe that is the problem?

[docholliday]

maybe you have other apps that recall digitizer settings you gave before?

say i have also HandyAid, and it gives the option to calibrate on every startup (just call settings not actually hit the screen to calibrate again). maybe that is the problem?

Nope. Not one. I just hard reset the T3. Nothing. None. Trust me. I'm a developer. I try all things before I assume. :)

Also, it used to not do this. Not until recently. And, no, nothing has changed on my configuration. No new apps, etc.

It'll do it 20 out of 20 times. But, as soon as I uninstall mySkin. It happens 0 out of 20. Then, reinstall, and 20 out of 20. (yes, I tried 60 repetitions).

[Demonstar]

Alex, thanks for the update on this one. Downloaded it and it's running fine on my T5.

[pruss]

(Note: I don't have a hard button for home...TT3)

Warm reset, run mySkin, exit...hit home (on-screen). Works fine. Soft reset...go through Prefs screen that comes up. Hit home, works fine. Launcher comes up...touch anything on screen and Fatal Errors. Soft reset, same sequence, same problem. Soft reset again, use Palm digitizer app and "calibrate". All is fine. Soft reset. Problem again.

Warm reset. Use Prefs-> Digitizer. Hit home. Works. Delete macros. Soft reset. Same problem.

Soft reset. Use Prefs -> Digitizer. Hit home. Works. Delete mySkin. Soft reset. All is fine.

Soft reset again. All is fine.

Re-install mySkin. Works fine. Soft reset, works fine (with digitizer drift). Soft reset again, works fine.

Use mySkin calibration. Soft reset. Same problems sequence starts again.

Soft reset. Use Prefs -> Digitizer. Hit home. Works again. Soft reset again. Same problem.

It seems that mySkin doesn't cause any problem until...I use the digitizer app in mySkin. Then it all starts up.

This is really odd, since the only thing the calibration code does is call the standard calibration API, and it doesn't do anything on system reset. Since you're a developer, you might try to extract the calibration code (it's in the partial source release at handypalmstuff.sf.net) and see how it works on its own, with the rest of mySkin deleted. Or I could do that when I have time.

[ntoo]

with the new version 2.41, I've lost the device icon showing
free space in the menu you have when you click on the clock
whatever skin I choose I don't have the icon

anyone encouter this problem?
I have a palm TX

[pruss]

with the new version 2.41, I've lost the device icon showing
free space in the menu you have when you click on the clock
whatever skin I choose I don't have the icon

anyone encouter this problem?
I have a palm TX

Check your options and enable RAM icons.

[ntoo]

works like a charm thanks

[shsmith]

Is there a tutorial somewhere on using myKbd macros? I thought I understood how they work, but I can't seem to make it work right.

I would like to define two hard-key macros.

The first will switch to landscape mode (left handed), launch an application, wait for a title, and press a button. I planned to use this to launch TomTom in landscape and dismiss the "I agree" disclaimer message.

The second macro will exit the current application, switch to portait mode and power off. I planned to use this to exit TomTom gracefully. (If you power off while TomTom is running, the bluetooth stops working until a soft reset).

Here is my first macro:
<rotate90><run start><waittitle Legal><tap I agree>

When I press the hard key, the screen briefly flips to landscape, but TomTom launches in portrait mode and the key tap doesn't happen.

Here is my second macro:
<launcher><rotate0><off>

When I press the hard key for this macro, the screen briefly goes to portait, but immediately flips back to landscape, just before powering off.

Any suggestions on how I can make all this work? Is there another thread somewhere where macros are discussed in more detail?

Thanks!

[pruss]

The rotation doesn't work that well. Calling the APIs directly as I do seems problematic...

The <waittitle...> should work, unless there is something odd about the window (maybe it has a space in front of "Legal" or something like that)?

[shsmith]

The rotation doesn't work that well. Calling the APIs directly as I do seems problematic...

The <waittitle...> should work, unless there is something odd about the window (maybe it has a space in front of "Legal" or something like that)?
After some trial and error I finally got both macros working.

I found that the rotation has to be done after the app launches, and lasts only until the app exits. Actually, I kind of like that, as it allows me to launch individual apps in landscape without having to toggle back and forth for the others. TomTom has an unusual GUI, so it is probably not using normal title or button resources. I was able to dismiss the disclaimer screen with a "nav push" command. The working macro ended up <run start><rotate90><wait 100><navpush>

For the "exit" macro, I used ExitDA instead of Launcher. Now that I understand how rotation works, I realized I don't need to set portrait when exiting. The final working macro is <run ExitDA><off>.

Thanks a million for such a powerful enhancement. I feel like I'm just touching the surface of what this is capable of doing for me.

[Zxanphorian]

As a registered user, I love mySkin, because not only is it a DIA skinner, it does other things such as setting a home key in place of a relatively worthless search button on the TX, adding favorites to the press and hold home key, hard key macros, and calibrating the touchscreen better than the built-in calibrator.
One thing that would be a great addition to it would be functionalities such as the EasyLaunch (http://mujweb.atlas.cz/www/hysy/EasyLaunch.htm) hack for PalmOS4 and below. It would make it much more powerful, and save people money from having to buy a separate PalmOS5 hack, EasyLaunch5 ( http://palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=112582). Functionalities would include:

Support for short and long holds, power button and 5-way support, and DIA area swipes (Swiping from bluetooth to abc, lower left programmable button to rotate screen, minimize graffiti area to home, etc).
GUI modifications such as making separate dropdown lists for launching applications and separate dropdown lists for launching DA’s, and allowing the current macro settings be displayed in a neat list.
Many “special” functions that are not currently available in the macro options.


With these functionalities added to the macros function, I believe that mySkin will become much greater than it is right now (which, needless to say, is already great to begin with)!

[FerdFerd]

Long list, which I haven't thought that much about, but I do note here that mySkin currently does have support for short and long holds.

I agree that it is a great application, even better than I knew when I happily paid for it for its skinning ability alone.