Thoughts on the Interface and questions about an Idea

[bornagainpenguin]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not, so I apologize in advance if I'm posting in the wrong place and for asking (potentially) stupid questions because I am not a developer by any means.

I just got my Nook Color two days ago or so, and in that time I've loaded several different roms and tried various things to get a general feel for what works for me. I keep finding myself up against the wall between wanting the system tray at the bottom and buttons of Ice Cream Sandwich, and wanting the bar at the top like the default in Gingerbread and Froyo. Both have options that simply make sense to me and it seem that I am forced to choose between the one or the other.

My question is this:

Is it possible to have two bars (one on the top and one on the bottom) at all times and still allow for the launcher to be changed, so people can add what ever home replacement they prefer? I'm thinking of something like the Gnome 2.x desktop, with the top bar having the system tray to be dragged down, the clock and whatever icons would normally live there, then a bottom bar containing only the necessary buttons for menu and back at opposite sides of the bar.

Is this possible, or does Android have built in assumptions that there is only one bar which can be at the bottom or the top but you only get one?

Otherwise, what would it take to do this? Would it be possible to simply edit a few files as a novice and get this, or are we talking about such drastic changes it would break everything?

--bornagainpenguin

 

[bornagainpenguin]

Okay, now I'm really confused...

I was talking about this to a friend of mine who is also tech savvy, and he gave me a puzzled look, pulled out his new phone with Ice Cream sandwich and showed me that by default, ICS came exactly like I was asking about!

This is a randomly googled image of what I saw:

I went ahead and downloaded the latest version of the nightly CM9 builds and noticed that in the settings it talks about a "combined bar" which I assume is the default method is being used by all the current Nook Color CM9 roms. Is there a way to go back to the default split system bars method? Better yet, is there a way to get this on Gingerbread?

Hopefully by adding a screenshot of what I am looking for in general I am being more clear and someone can give me a response. If I am still not being clear, please let me know what information I need to add.

Thanks.

--bornagainpenguin

 

[mateorod]

That is Phone GUI, I believe, while the Nook uses the Tablet. I believe that you can have it switch to Phone GUI by increasing the resolution. The problem is that at this point, the Phone GUI overrides the soft keys, which you'll need since the Nook doesn't have the hardware buttons. Leapinlar made a patch, maybe you'll like it. Read the description, the soft keys are customized.

Leapinlar's Softkey Patch

If you want the ICS soft keys in Gingerbread, MRG666 added the ICS soft keys to his CM7.2 ROM awhile back. Install the latest build or search his thread for info. Might take a little play in the settings, but I think you can make the above happen with a little work.

MiRaGe CM7.2 KANG

 

[bornagainpenguin]

Thank you very much!

I'll definitely try out the patch, to see if that is what will work for me. I'll also give Kang another look. I remember one of the roms being what I wanted but I couldn't remember which one it was.

--bornagainpenguin

EDIT: Well I tested out the patch by Leapinlar, which seems to do pretty much what I'm looking for. The only thing is I'm not a hundred percent sure I think any of the ICS builds are really ready yet. I'm still planning to give that patch a try with the MIUI ICS and see if it makes an improvement or not.

I just spent the day reading through all 99 pages of the MiRaGe CM7.2 KANG thread (it was actually 98 pages when I started, lol) and I did not really see this addressed there. I am planning on asking directly in case I missed it somehow. The closest thing I saw was some discussion about the themes for the buttons and possibly being able to use older builds to get larger buttons. Not exactly what I'm looking for....