yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Software Development] krook6023:
Everything looks really good...very promising app. Again it is better than I was expecting for a early alpha. Here is what I found;

Not sure the Login is working for me I can't see a way to see if a thread is read or not...I assume it would be bold font? (If that is the case then the login is not working for me). I enter my username and my PW and it appears to work but I am not seeing any bold threads/forums.

Scrolling could be better but...I like where it is going....but it seems pretty easy to click the wrong forum...it would be nice if the forum you click would turn a color and maybe require more pressure, longer or a double tap to open it.

Graphics look good on my VGA Touch Pro in both portrait and landscape.

Also I experience the top bar casing an error but that is the only way I can exit the app with out having to hard reset before it will work again. Said a different way if I exit the program with the task manager...it will not load the program if I try to reopen it. Nothings happens when I try to open it...I have to soft reset before it will open again.

How do you plan to incorporate the gestures?? there are a lot of great possibilities (i.e. swipe left to go back... etc)

Can't wait to see more...and really nice work!
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Okay, a lot more work has been done on the interface, and I'll be doing some more tomorrow. I've replaced the windows mobile hourglass with a bottom bar that displays a loading animation and relevant status messages. Much more informative.

As for whoever asked if I could do an opera-like hidden bar, that's already being implemented.

I've also created an all-new Rhodium-based theme for the application, done major work on the kinetic scrolling (mostly sensitivity and accuracy updates), and am looking into the problem that causes Microsoft WebRequest components to randomly fail.

Most of the problems I've heard have been fixed, and I should have an update to this feature preview out in a day or two. After that, I plan on having a feature preview to test gestures, toolbars, and menus.

Screenshots for you guys:

What do you think?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
OMG Kyle, that looks wonderful!!! Sooooo sorry that I can't test the app out yet. My ROM that I cooked doesn't have NetCF 3.5, apparently. Or, which version does your app require? I'm guessing 3.5.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] DaveTheTytnIIGuy:
When I went to check threads I had read on my laptop in the mobile client, I noticed exactly what krook6023 did, which is the absence of Bold to indicate unread threads.

Also, I had a question about a possible future feature; Do you think that there will be xda-wiki support eventually? It's not really a huge deal to me, but it would be kind of a nice feature to have eventually.

And BTW, the Rhodium theme looks amazing. Thanks,

Dave
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jmckeejr:
I like that theme. Should fit in good with a lot of other things.

I finally got logged in, it was having a hard time connecting. Scrolling is difficult as already mentioned. Loading Forum views is fine, but once it gets to a forum that has actual posts it seems to silently crash. The scrolling became unresponsive, and I was unable to exit. Killed the process with DotFred's Taskmanager(any reason it does not show on HTC taskmgr?). You have made good progress, cant wait to see more.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] Bijdehandje:
@Ktemkin

WOW... you know how to make me smile dude

I really like the "new" look. First i loved the blue-ish look but you convinced me with the new manilla/rodium look :D

If you keep on going to make this progress i might even raise my part of the bounty because i really think it's worth it!

Keep up the good work!

Cheers
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jor3l:
realy nice, awesome, fantabuloso! increible! espectaluraristico xD.. but im still waiting for my phone lol will test soon, also, please send me the pass :D thanks
[Windows Mobile Software Development] krook6023:
Theme looks great! Look forward to testing the next release.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] teorouge:
I'm in for Italian translation, let me know when I can do that! Love this app! ;)
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jor3l:
Spanish translation here :D
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
I finally tried the tech-preview...

Scrolling through the forums is REALLY slow and laggy on my under-powered Wing. Scrolling through the forum categories (the first screens) is fine, but then once I go into a forum category, like Developement and Hacking, scrolling becomes so slow it's unusable.

I guess my T-Mobile Wing phone just can't handle it?? Or is the final release going to be less graphically intense?

And the loading times are pretty decent over my Edge connection (about 10 seconds, I'd say). I'm not sure if the log-in's working, since I can't really scroll through the forums to see if they're read or not (due to slowness).
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
I wouldn't say the Wing is underpowered, as it runs just fine on my HTC Wizard testing device. There's not that much of a difference, processor-wise, in rendering one view from another.

I also haven't gotten a chance to optimize, as I'm not completely sure what's going to be in the release version.

I could increase efficiency by about 90% by utilizing CF's build in controls instead of rendering everything by hand, but then the behaviors of those controls would be what manifested to the end user. In layman's terms, this means that pre-6.5, there would be no kinetic scrolling without TouchFLO.

I could increase buffering, but that would inflate memory footprint by a good deal in exchange for the program using less CPU cycles.

I've done a bit more UI-wise, and I think I might spend a few hours trying to perfect the feel of the app.

---

Currently, my method for accessing toolbars and menus uses both gestures and 'corner taps'. For example, right now, tapping the bottom right-hand corner of the screen shows the toolbar, which displays three icons appropriate for the current view, as well as a 'menu' button.

The disadvantage of this method is that it's unintuitive; the advantage is it doesn't take up any screen space.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Oh contrair! Windows Mobile 6.1 has scrolling built in! I can confirm that the 21051 builds of Windows Mobile 6.1 HAVE scrolling that MICROSOFT created. That's why when I cook ROM's, I don't ever cook in TouchFLO, since Microsoft's scrolling is far superior.

But I say, if it's not too tough, make two versions. One for people running the older versions of 6.1, and one for people running newer builds, sounds good?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jmckeejr:
Dont think this is device specific as I experienced the molasses effect when viewing Forums with posts. Categories is ok, except once I touch the screen it scrolls without end. But the developer saaid he was testing on emulator so had sensitivity on high.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
I am currently seriously considering switching my (managed) kinetic scrolling code (which uses System.Drawing.Drawing2D) to unsafe/DirectX/OpenGL-ES in order to increase code efficiency.

It'd take a lot of time, but I might be able to squeeze a lot more out of older devices, too.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Hmm, well it'll be usable at least! Remember that most WM6.1 builds have the same scrolling engine as WM6.5, so you could just let WinMo control the scrolling.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
I just made a few changes to the update rates, increased buffering just a little (should be a difference of ~10kb), and restructured the rendering order.

I'm just testing for smoothness on newer devices, and if it does not adversely affect smoothness on newer devices, I'll post it for you to test on older ones.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Ok, I'll test it. Tell me once you post it.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
http://www.ktemkin.com/xda/feature_preview/olddevice.zip

There are probably a bunch of glitches (especially related to dragging into the corner- I haven't finished the code for that yet.) as this is a live development 'snapshot'- i.e. I was right in the middle of coding when I zipped this up and posted it.

Same password as the last archive. I'd appreciate anyone with an older device (Wizard, Wing, etc.) test it to see if the 'molasses effect' is gone.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Still just as slow on my Wing for scrolling :(

Dude, I say that you just let Windows Mobile control the scrolling. Do you not like that idea?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
That reduces compatibility only to those with 6.5, or with a finger-scrolling 6.1 ROM. What about the other 70% of our users?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Well all new 6.1 ROM's have the exact same scrolling engine as 6.5. But yea, I guess there are lots of users that are on the Stock ROM's which never had TouchFLO. So, then you could do this...

But if it's easy to do, you could make two versions of the app. Is it easy just to strip out the scrolling and release that version too?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Which builds of 6.1 have 6.5's controls, anyways? That seems like a pretty radical change for Microsoft to build into 6.1.

I'll have to see how WM6.5's scrolling handles, anyway.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
21051 builds. I can confirm that. Previous builds might have it too, I guess. I don't have a drop of TouchFLO on my phone, and it scrolls by default.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Ace, I've built one more for you / (old 200mhz QVGA device users) to test before I give up on my personal method of kinetic scrolling. This one utilizes Controls instead of rendering the objects from a custom interface. Try it out.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Hah, ok, I'll try it out. Maybe you should just admit that your kinetic scrolling fails! Or maybe I should just get a better phone!
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Oh, hell, I forgot to tell you. In order to access these unique methods of scrolling, you should tap the XDA-Developers logo on the login screen. That will pop up the debug menu, which features the two different new scrolling methods. Duh >.<. Stupid me.

The newest one is 'Show Native Fakes', the last item on the list.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Oh. Was that true in the last (scrolling test) version, too? Cuz I didn't do that.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Yeah, it was, but it doesn't matter. Try the newer version and let me know if it's faster.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
It's scrolling better, but it's still rendering a little slow when scrolling. You can see the lines rendering across when it scrolls. It's more usable at least. I wanna try the WinMo scrolling one though, just to compare (if it's not too tough to do!)
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
I honestly don't think it's worth doing. On my original kinetic scrolling method, it's the rapid rendering of the items as they move that slows down older devices, not the scrolling itself.

Allowing windows to handle the scrolling wouldn't fix the issue- it would still have to re-render the entire panel each time. Utilizing controls/pre-rendering makes the application use about 3mb of RAM at once, which is ridiculous.

As long as I continue to use managed code to render fluid kinetic scrolling, I'm caught like a rock in a hard place between CPU usage and RAM. I'm going to cut down on that as much as I can- no matter what actual scrolling method I use.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Yea true. What code does PointUI use? C++, right? Not managed? So that's what makes it faster and smoother?

Well just keep on working on it, you're doing well. I love the new theme color, and the status bar at the bottom is great. Can't wait till more versions come out!
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Okay, yet another testing version is available that should hopefully correct the molasses effect in the original kinetic scrolling. If this doesn't work (it really should) I'll convert this section to 'unsafe' (unmanaged) code.

Same password, you can tap the logo and 'view fake posts' so you can skip the loading process if you'd like.

I've reduced the rendering function from 50+ function calls (theme lookups, etc.) down to just 15.

I sure hope this works.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
I don't have to click on the "XDA Developers" icon on the login screen to go into a different scrolling mode on this one? I only get "Display Fake Posts" and "Show Stack Trace" when I go to that menu. I'll try it without doing anything special, and then report back.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Yea, I think there's supposed to be an option there, like I said. When launching into the app the normal way, scrolling is like the original version. Did you forget to add the option?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
No, you shouldn't need a special option- it's built in. And that version is so stripped down it runs flawlessly when under-clocked to 50mhz on my old Wizard.

I can only conclude that your device doesn't have the RAM to run this without constantly swapping pages (and it doesn't use that much RAM to begin with), or has another incompatibility. Perhaps I'll make a very watered-down version for you later. Unless you can figure out that it's otherwise, I'll have to conclude that the problem is your device/configuration and not the XDApp.

If you're running another ROM at any point in the near future, try it then.

Everyone else can expect the update to this feature preview by the weekend.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] Bijdehandje:
@ace10134

Just buy a new device dude. :rolleyes:

There allot of devices second hand for not that much :p

People buy faster pc's to spin newer software instead of claiming at the developer to build it lighter
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Hmmm. Well I only have about 20 MB free RAM, so not that much. I'll be testing the app again in different conditions, etc. But, I will also be getting the Wing II (Touch Pro 2) in 13 days!!! So then I'll be able to run it, thank god.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
More progress (see first post)! The toolbar/menu system is working great, as well as gestures and 'corner taps'. I'll discuss more on that when I get the updated feature preview out either tomorrow or this weekend.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] Bijdehandje:
@Ktemkin

Sounds great :D

I'd love to hear from you when we can take it for a test spin.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] lpsi2000:
Testing

I am interested on testing the app as well, if you can include me in the next round that would be great.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Just when I was about to have the updated Feature Preview ready, my computer decided to hibernate... and not wake up. Apparently, Visual Studio decided to trash my Project file (.csproj), which now apparently contains all zeroes.

None of the actual code was lost, just the file that tells Visual Studio where the code is, but this has irritated me enough that I think I might postpone tonight's work on this until tomorrow.

I might have another surprise for you guys in the works, though.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jamezelle:
sounds good i like suprises
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Okay, everyone. Here's the little surprise I have planned for you.

Go to: http://www.ktemkin.com/xda/

What you're looking at is actually the back-end to the new Windows Mobile 6.5 XDA Developers widget! It also happens to function as a web-based mobile solution for accessing the forum. It's not done, but it only requires a few more hours of work, and then it'll be fully operational!

Not sure if it'll look horribly huge on QVGA; I haven't tried it. I know it looks horribly huge on the PC, but horribly huge there converts to finger-friendly on a VGA device.

Why am I working on this instead of the actual XDApp, you ask? The answer is pretty simple: this will take only a short period to complete, and it'll fill the gap while I work on the tedious process of (efficiently) rendering selected pieces of HTML for the forum's post view.

I also am going on vacation starting on Wednesday, and I didn't want to leave you guys without some finished product.

This 'widget' should be done this weekend- and should greatly speed up accessing the XDA developers forums.

Everyone, check out how the first couple of page layouts look on your phone and let me know if I can make any improvements.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] dare2know:
http://www.ktemkin.com/xda/viewForum.php?id=240&title=General discussion..

i have tested on ELFIN.. it is nice..i liked the interference...

Resolution ; 240x320 . 6.5 rom, and EDGE connection

keep that good work going on..cheers
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Funny how you managed to make a good XDA mobile website within a week or so, while XDA hasn't had one since it was made! You're the boss man. I can't wait for my new phone so that I can use the app! I guess us Wing users can use the website until we all upgrade phones.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] hkultraman:
would be good if support pagination and login
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
That's cuz it's not finished. He's just asking us to tell him what we think of it.

Pagination = Pages. Had to look that one up.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Widget almost finished! Supports everything up to viewing posts. (http://ktemkin.com/xda/viewPost.php?id=540504)

All I need to add is a reply form (~30 min of work), finish up my script which prettyfies people's posts for mobile devices, and add the GUI 'chrome' javascript to the widget container. The GUI chrome will be what lets you navigate forward and backwards between pages easily, return home, reply, etc.

Then I can add a few embellishments (user CP, private messages); but I'm not going to add too many to the widget, as that's what the real application is for.

To whomever said it would be better if it supported login- it already does.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Sounds sweeeeet!!

We'll miss you while you're on vacation, but it'll be fun to play around with the web version.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Incidentally, if any of the admins read this, I'd like to talk to you about this mobile 'widget':

1) Obviously, it'd run a lot better on your servers than mine. Once it's tried and true, I'll be happy to give you the sourcecode; it shouldn't require any modification of vbulletin if you want to mess around with it. (It just establishes a socket to the server and uses regex to parse the data it receives- so naturally it'd work fine pointed at 'localhost'. Bit more complicated if you have virtual hosts on the same IP, but same principle.)

But, more importantly:

2) By parsing your data and displaying it in mobile format, the scripts essentially filter out your advertisements. As advertisements provide a lot of support for a website like XDA, I'd like to incorporate ads for you guys in there somewhere. I'm not sure if that'll really work while the scripts are on my servers- but if you want, you guys can send me some (preferably mobile-formatted) ad code to display on widget pages, or something to that effect.

I just want to make sure you guys don't lose out on anything.

3) There are some issues while the script is running on my server. Any abuse (spamming, etc.) would be logged on my server instead of yours- and the requests would come from my server's IP address. Having requests from many users bottlenecked through a single IP address is absolutely unideal. If you have any suggestions, let me know.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Ah man, it sounds so nice without advertisements!!

But yea, you should really be working with the admins. I'm suprised they haven't done anything.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jmckeejr:
I'm surprised none of the admins have anything to say about this app which in essence is an app for them(or their site anyway). Feel like there shopuld be more interest in this as it would make communications easier among developers in return increasing productivity.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] knytphal:
Excellent job on the mobile app (and the website widget)!

I'm looking forward to following more progress on this.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] MikeKnoop:
Any chance you could parse whether there are new posts in the forum and bold the text if so? Mobile site looks good!

-Mike
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
It should be doing that already, if you log in. It does for me, anyway. Log in and then try going to http://www.ktemkin.com/xda/session.php - it'll show you what the server sees when it views this thread. See if it shows you as logged in in the top right hand corner.

Cheers,

Kyle
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jor3l:
hehe the widget looks nice.. just hope the traffic on your site can support that php/html parse.. also add a onClick="window.location='newurl.php'" for each row so you dont have to click the text to get the page (or click the image with the aref) and you should contact an admin and see if you can work with the DB, less data and traffic for your site and XDA :D
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Yea, Kyle, I'll have to try out the Widget on my Wing. I bet it can handle that since it's just a web app.

And yes, our Wing does run WM6.5, lol. It can at least do that!
[Windows Mobile Software Development] jor3l:
lol :O im still waiting for my Kaiser :D:D:D (10 working days tomorrow :S)
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Wait, Kyle, did you even release the Widget for 6.5?? People are saying that it looks nice, but I think they're meaning to talk about the web page.

I didn't see you release it anywhere. But It'll be sweet once you do release it.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] JohnQ:
would be a great app!

stitched
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
Well, WM 6.5 widgets are just Internet Explorer windows without the UI, and with some scripting extensions, so I guess it's fairly safe to say 'the widget looks nice' even if you don't have it.

So does my Wizard- slowly.

Whenever DNS propagates, my xda-developers mobile site will be available at the more appropriate "xda-developers.mobi". ^_^
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Well, for some reason, when I try to visit your mobile XDA website from my WinMo6.5 phone, the page doesn't load! I even clicked on the direct link, but nothing. Strange thing is that I'm typing this from my phone's browser, and its working fine. Really weird.

Oh, and, release the Widget!! That'll be pretty cool.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
What browser are you using? IE6-on-6? Or 'Pocket IE' (i.e. IE4)? Or another?

Any what URI are you using?
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
Using the Internet Explorer from WM6.5, so I think that's IE8.

And used the link that you said. I typed it in, I clicked on it directly, but the page just doesn't load. It's weird.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] greeneyemonstruo:
So I assume the the widget web version is only IE? I loaded it with opera but had a few issues. Certain posts were missing and I had to select forums by zooming in and selecting the word.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ace10134:
There is no web widget version yet. That's just a mobile website.

And you should be having problems, since he hasn't finished the mobile site yet. He just wanted feedback on the look and feel of it.

And Opera just renders it differently, I guess.
[Windows Mobile Software Development] ktemkin:
If you find any missing threads, it's possible there's a hole in my regexp. Please post the specific thread ID. (Name/location is okay, too.)