alex wallis wrote:
Having the beep rather than the speech is more efficient than waiting for
two or three letters to be read in a file name.
You don't need to wait for two or three letters to be read. The voice
won't stop unless it's the last item in the list.
A beep is not as intrusive as speech
The beep you hear it and then its over but the speech will begin reading
the hole file name which I would find annoying.
The filename will still be read *after* the beep anyway, so I don't
understand this point at all.
That is not entirely correct, the file name is read after the beep if you
are just going up or down with the joystick with single movements, however
if you hold the joystick down in a given direction you just hear the beep.
Admittedly it gets played continuously until you release the joystick,
however this is an issue I guess that could be corrected.
Why not give people this patch, but also a setting to enable it so that
pondlifes speech option of having the first and last items read can be used
as an alternative.
After all, some people like beeps such as me, other people would probably
prefer pondlifes solution if they are holding down the joystick or wheel to
go up or down.
Plus, imagine for whatever reason your finger slips from the joystick or
wheel before you reach what you have been looking for. You will hear the
speech starting to read, so some people if they were impatient might
think they had reached what they were looking for.
No, they won't, unless they're not thinking at all.
There is such a thing as a mistake, and as I said what happens if you have
multiple names that are nearly identical, the beep will flag instantly if
they are on the beginning name or the second or third name as if they don't
hear it they know they are at the second or third one.
If they're looking
for the end of the list, they'll simply press up once at the beginning of
the list. If they're looking for anything other than the end of the list,
they'll need to listen to what the list entry's name is anyway, to
determine whether it's the item they're seeking or not.
I don't agree with that argument, assume they know there item is three from
the bottom, they scroll to the end of the list, knowing instantly they
reached it when they hear the beep, they can then just go up rapidly a few
times and bang they know they are on there item. Admittedly I guess the same
would be true if pondlifes solution was used though.
Seriously, half of your reasons for it seem to assume the person wants to
get to the end of the list. If this is the case, it's significantly easier
to just go up at the top than wait for a beep while scrolling.
That assumes they are not down in the middle of a huge folder the beep
indicates when either top or bottom is reached.
The other half of your cases seem to assume the user is looking for
something, in which case the end of the list is mostly irrelevant since
that's not what they're looking for, and since scrolling will stop at the
end of the list anyway, when they reach it, they'll hear that it's an item
that's after the one they're looking for and start scrolling backward,
which is something they'd have to do anyway.
Instead of stating reasons why you think it's good, why not describe a
normal use where you need the beep for the player to be usable - what
would you be doing that requires knowing when you've specifically reached
the end of the list (rather than any item that is after the one you're
seeking), but where the end of the list is not your destination?
The beep simply helps me keep track of my location in terms of where I am in
a given list of files or folders. I did not know till now that holding the
joystick in a given direction would allow me to stop at the end or beginning
of the list.
So I have been scrolling by rapidly moving up or down, and listening for
that beep which told me instantly I had gone to the top or bottom of a list.
But I don't really use it as a reference point when looking for a particular
item.
