Re: [S1mp3-devel] Final list of (potential) features of SWAN

[Bluechip <csb...@gm...>]

At 23:10 11/05/2006, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>The deadline has passed, and these are the features we'd like to see 
>in SWAN which are also technically feasible:

ARGH! Sorry ...life happened ... quickly...

>Features of SWAN:
>Technical:
>- Easy and open SDK / IDE so programmers who are only used to C on a PC can
>   program apps for the player

Freely available SDK for Windows/Linux/Mac
Assembler optimised core
Open Source 'C' codebase

PC *Simulator* to speed up development

>- (Semi-)multitasking: the music will keep playing even when you switch to
>   another application

Background audio player.  Allowing any Application or Plugin to run 
simultaneously.

>- Hardware-independant API for programs: the core will handle hardware
>   differences between players

Hardware-independant API for Applications and Plugins

>- Extendible: when newer players come out with more hardware, only some core
>   modules will have to be written or modified to take care of the 
> hardware. The
>   core will stay backwards compatible with existing libs / apps.

Extendible design.  Consideration will be given to hardware 
enhancements that can be anticipated during development.  This may 
result in slightly more bulky code, but will ensure ease of future 
upgrade'ability.

>- Dynamic loader: by loading only the libraries needed for the currently
>   running apps, apps can have a size of over 60K.
>- User applications have access to the USB port: this means the mp3 player can
>   be turned into a LCD to display info from the PC, used as a sound card,
>   human interface device, ...

...within any limitations set by the hardware (obviously)

>- User apps can take over the DSP: that way, things like recognition of voice
>   commands, decoding of DTMF, using the DSP as a coprocessor for eg 
> 3d games, ... will be possible
>- Main menu is an app on it's own, so if the main menu doesn't suit 
>the user, it
>   can be interchanged just as any other app.

*UI is an Application (like any other)
The main difference between the UI Application and a.n.other 
Application is that UI_App will be loaded automatically when the 
player is switched on.

>User experience:
>- Plays a wide range of formats: ogg/mp3/wma/flac/wav/mod/xm/...

...hardware allowing

>- Skinnable UI, for the mp3-models as well as the mp4-models
>- New apps (games, utilities, ...) can be downloaded and just dropped in a
>   certain folder, and the player can make use of them
>- Mini OSD player applet: press MODE+PLAY and the current app freezes and a
>   tiny overlay window is displayed on screen, the play+stop+... 
> buttons can now be used to modify currently playing music

I would prefer to freeze the Plugin and return to the UI_App
speicifc key combinations are not relevant, due to supporting lots of 
different players

>- Lets the user decide what app to boot into on startup

config file - loads of user options

>- UI can be set to voice mode, in which the user gets the idea of what to do
>   by spoken word. Handy for player-in-jacket-must-watch-road 
> situations or for deaf users.

Speech guided menu and music navigation, for situations such as 
in-car or blind-user-friendly.

>- Autodetecting of hardware on install so the right set of core modules will
>   be installed without needing much input from the user: one distribution
>   package fits all players

...one day ...LOL

>- Main menu is an app on it's own, changing the main menu to something else is
>   only a matter of exchanging ap files

see above

>Applications that can be developed for SWAN:
>- Text reader
>- Picture viewer
>- Games (Pong/Tetris/Solitaire/Pacman/... clones, more for the mp4 players)
>- Voice recorder
>- Phone dialer
>- Offline mail reader (drop .eml-files in a dir and you can read them on the
>   road)
>- ...and many others.
>
>
>Jeroen

Excellent job - thank you :)

BC