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If you're a button, you have one job

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Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#11

Post by kevindamm »

Joker_vD wrote: post #10
kazinator wrote: post #5

If you're a button, you have one job: to transmit Morse code from the finger to the machine, Morse code representing a complicated POSIX shell command. And also to power down this entire one-button terminal with a 3 second press, power it up on any button press, with a firmware reset if powered up by a 30 second press.

Now I am imagining a typewriter with just two huge round buttons, next to each other horizontally, and a spacebar bellow them: *-----* *-----* | | | | | ● | | Ω | | | | | *-----* *-----* [================] A press of each round button rotates the typing ball accordingly, pressing the space prints the chosen letter and resets the ball to the neutral state. This whole thing should probably be electric lest you'd have t…

Now remove the spacebar, combine the two buttons into a single one for "tone" and adapt it to morse code. All the buttons still do only one thing and now there's only one button!

And, you don't have to worry about what to do in the case that someone hits the "rotate ball" button while it's still rotating.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#13

Post by Joker_vD »

kevindamm wrote: post #11
Joker_vD wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I am imagining a typewriter with just two huge round buttons, next to each other horizontally, and a spacebar bellow them: *-----* *-----* | | | | | ● | | Ω | | | | | *-----* *-----* [================] A press of each round button rotates the typing ball accordingly, pressing the space prints the chosen letter and resets the ball to the neutral state. This whole thing should probably be electric lest you'd have t…

Now remove the spacebar, combine the two buttons into a single one for "tone" and adapt it to morse code. All the buttons still do only one thing and now there's only one button! And, you don't have to worry about what to do in the case that someone hits the "rotate ball" button while it's still rotating.

> And, you don't have to worry about what to do in the case that someone hits the "rotate ball" button while it's still rotating.

Eh, it's a pretty trivial problem, comptometers have it figured out more than a hundred years ago.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#14

Post by notpushkin »

The author says: “Now, I’m going to exaggerate the problem a bit and tap 90-degree rotation quickly eight times.” I was wondering why the Nothing one stuck upside down after that, and expected a rant about Android not registering all taps or something. But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. Huh?

The iPhone was eight taps. The Nothing was six. (Yeah, I could have noticed it while watching, but I was situationally incapacitated; namely, I’ve just waken up.)

---

Edit: I’ve rewatched it at 0.5× and the Nothing was eight taps after all, too. Author’s point was, indeed, that all taps should register regardless of what animation state is, and Nothing doesn’t do that. Sorry for the confusion!

---

Regardless! I still find the iPhone one more pleasant to look at, because the animation doesn’t stop. But if you press quickly enough, I guess what they could do is animate until the taps stop, then:

• if the image will arrive to the desired state: finish up the current 90°;

• if it’ll still be 90° away: finish up then show one more 90°;

• if it’ll be 180° away: flip it upside down, then finish up the current 90°;

• if it’ll be 270° away: flip it upside down, finish up, and show one more 90°.

But that’s not a very practical thing to implement I suppose.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#15

Post by Retr0id »

notpushkin wrote: post #14

The author says: “Now, I’m going to exaggerate the problem a bit and tap 90-degree rotation quickly eight times.” I was wondering why the Nothing one stuck upside down after that, and expected a rant about Android not registering all taps or something. But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. Huh? The iPhone was eight taps. The Nothing was six . (Yeah, I could have noticed it w…

> But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better.

No? It makes the opposite argument.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#16

Post by doginasuit »

projektfu wrote: post #9

In the Google photos app (Pixel 10) there is no animation, the rotation just happens immediately and there's no button press to buffer.

My rule of thumb is that animations need a purpose, otherwise you are just showing off and it gets tedious. This animation carries more purpose than most, conceptually you might understand which orientation will be next but it takes your brain a second to validate, and it is much simpler if you can see the path that it took.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#17

Post by notpushkin »

Retr0id wrote: post #15
notpushkin wrote: post #14

The author says: “Now, I’m going to exaggerate the problem a bit and tap 90-degree rotation quickly eight times.” I was wondering why the Nothing one stuck upside down after that, and expected a rant about Android not registering all taps or something. But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. Huh? The iPhone was eight taps. The Nothing was six . (Yeah, I could have noticed it w…

> But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. No? It makes the opposite argument.

Then I definitely need to get some caffeine I guess *yawns*

> And it would be so much more predictable and pleasant if you could just tap the button three times at any pace you wanted without thinking, without paying attention, without getting your UI blocked by an animation that no longer helps you.

Am I misreading this?

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#18

Post by Retr0id »

notpushkin wrote: post #17
Retr0id wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. No? It makes the opposite argument.

Then I definitely need to get some caffeine I guess *yawns* > And it would be so much more predictable and pleasant if you could just tap the button three times at any pace you wanted without thinking, without paying attention, without getting your UI blocked by an animation that no longer helps you. Am I misreading this?

Both animate, but Nothing blocks further inputs while it's animating (even though the haptics still fire).

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#19

Post by furyofantares »

notpushkin wrote: post #17
Retr0id wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the article got ahead with explaining how the Nothing’s solution was better. No? It makes the opposite argument.

Then I definitely need to get some caffeine I guess *yawns* > And it would be so much more predictable and pleasant if you could just tap the button three times at any pace you wanted without thinking, without paying attention, without getting your UI blocked by an animation that no longer helps you. Am I misreading this?

I'm not sure exactly how you're misreading it, but you are.

The Nothing isn't executing all the taps, some are blocked by the animation. It is responding visually and haptically to all of the taps, but some are blocked from doing any work by the animation.

You also said the Nothing was 6 taps but I'm not seeing anywhere the article says that. I believe it was 8 taps on both.

Re: If you're a button, you have one job

#20

Post by sph »

kazinator wrote: post #8

We like buffering of keystrokes or gestures when the system is completely reliable, exhibits reasonable latency and low jitter in its latency.

Even in unstable or high latency I like the buffering. I’m thinking of a remote shell, where you want to type a command blindly, and see it appear seconds later, because keys got buffered in the Internet pipes. Without buffering it would feel awful, having to wait a full roundtrip per keystroke
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