DOCUMENTATION?

[kenj66]

Please help me out, even if it is to go somewhere else!

I guess I am old school. I started out in the vacuum tube era and have enjoyed electronics and then computers all my life. However, everywhere I went in those days I found extensive DOCUMENTATION! Even when I became a system administrator for an HP-UX mini-computer I had shelves full of binder-notebooks with all of the unix and related DOCUMENTATION. Whenever I had a question they always told me "RTFM" which us oldsters remember as Read The Freaking Documentation.

Searching for "android documentation" for me always returns developer docs. Today I cannot find the elementary DOCUMENTATION.

I find it puzzling that there seems to be no instructions for any of the apps I get beyond the description in the Google Play Store. This OS and apps are not nearly as "intuitive" as some might suppose. I come from a day when each and every module and app would have description and all features listed with instructions on how to use. In this Android world - practically nothing!

I have found the built-in apps in Android devices have ZERO documentation. What's up with that? For instance, what is the difference between the Email app that comes with GOOGLE ANDROID and the Gmail app downloadable from the GOOGLE Play Store? Same source, right?

In my crazy quest to somehow set the world right I have provided some documentation for the devices I am using and it will be found in my signature box. I hope this helps others. I see quite a few posts from other nubies who are clueless about the fundamentals. Thanks for listening.

Ken

[kenj66]

A Dummies Guide to Android Terminology & Lingo

Some very basic documentation: a glossary of Android terms.
http://www.incredibleforum.com/forum...ogy-lingo.html

Android Portal Documentation maintained by the Embedded Linux Wiki - pretty good; last updated 2012.

Google Now Voice Commands - a rather large list posted on DROIDFORUMS

Building Web Apps for Google TV I found a free ebook published by O'Reilly which goes to great lengths to introduce the TV interface design criteria. Interestingly, although published in 2011, Chapter 4 is titled 'Coding for the Leanback UI.' Apparently, the naming convention has been out there for awhile. On that page select ebook - download to get the pdf file.
+ Here is a hyper-document of the same book.

Ken

[trebor]

Welcome to the year 2014.
RTFM = google/wiki

It can be a challenge if it wasn't we wouldn't do it.

Cheers

Please help me out, even if it is to go somewhere else!
Ken

[kenj66]

Please help me out, even if it is to go somewhere else!

I guess I will camp out on this topic I started hoping to get some answers. I tried looking for an entry level Android users forum but had poor results:

PHANDROID Android TV forum = poor
androidcentral Google TV forum = poor
MINIX Mini HD PC forum = ZERO posts!
TABLETREPUBLIC Android mini PC forum = lots of hardware devices covered
VONDROID Android TV forum = mainly hardware
DROIDFORUMS - covers the Nexus Player but very little there yet
xda-developers - Android Development and Hacking forum = for developers
GTVHacker wiki and forum - wiki has a nice expose of the ADT-1 and a lightly used forum
Google TV - Android TV Forums - traffic seems kinda light
LG webOS forum - nice cousin to Android in use on LG TVs; forum is webOS specific

Have I missed any? Freaktab seems the best Android TV forum!

The resources on the web cater to either nubes with new boxes complaining and trying to make them work or developers. There does not seem to be anything about basic operations in Android. Maybe I'm too dumb. Coding drives me up the wall but I know good interface design and can call it out.

BTW, I have some attraction to the latest LG webOS interface. It looks a lot like the so-called Android 4.5 preview hinted at earlier this year and depicted below.



I was experimenting recently and noticed an icon on my Home screen named Google. It wasn't a typical Google icon however. Clicking on it I noticed that it contained four other apps! I learned this was a Home screen folder and I could make another one by long-pressing on an app and dragging it close to another app. This took some experimenting since it often DIDN'T want to work. It was somewhat frustrating to chase apps around the Home screen, often refusing to join with a neighboring app. I found that sometimes it was easier to join certain apps than others and it was easier to join an existing folder.

The Kitkat stock Launcher3 works OK with this but the Nova Launcher has a handy context menu which has an option to add apps from an app list and an option to change the folder name. When the folder icon is selected from the Home screen it looks just like ONE of the app collections with a white background in the photo above. Any operation following will close the folder - you can't leave them open as the photo might suggest.

I would like an app or widget just like the ones depicted above that would stay open if desired. Any suggestions?

Ken

BTW, I just found this thorough review of Android 5 Lollipop on Ars Technica. Lots of detail. Can't wait to see it on our TV boxes.

[kenj66]

HDMI - CEC Functions

Wow, you sure have to dig for information on these devices! My Beelink S82 (stock 108k4 rom) has a settings option for CEC - the Consumer Electronics Control. When selected it presents four options.

(Why is this displaying as a thumbnail?)

Scouring the 'net I found a useful doc, CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) for HDMI posted on the Embedded Linux Wiki. Here is a list of available command functions from that page:

Some of the available HDMI-CEC commands

• One Touch Play: the device will become active source when playback starts
• System Standby: switches all connected devices to standby
• Preset Transfer: transfers the tuner channel setup to another TV set
• One Touch Record: start recording immediately
• Timer Programming: allow one device (e.g. a TV set or HTPC) to set the timer programming of another (e.g. a PVR/DVR or DVD-recorder)
• System Information: checks all components for bus addresses and configuration
• Deck Control: playback control
• Tuner Control: control the tuner of another device
• OSD Display: use the OSD of the TV set to display text
• Device Menu Control: use the menus of another device
• Routing Control: control the switching of signal sources
• Remote Control Pass Through: pass through remote control commands
• Device OSD Name Transfer: transfer the preferred device names to the TV set

The Embedded Linux Wiki provides a link to a pdf document with the full CEC specifications in pdf format (up to version 1.3a). Section 3, 'Feature Overview' seems to be the most useful. It also has a section which describes how CEC allows XBMC/Kodi to turn your TV, receivers, and other attached equipment on and off (if they support HDMI CEC) adjust the volume or eject the disk from a drive. Start playback, etc. and much more.

The Beelink S82 has only four options. I selected three of the four as active. In HDTV HDMI equipment the HDTV is the primary device and, apparently, you have to tell the TV to find any CEC devices first. I went to my 2 year old Vizio HDTV Setup menu and set the unit to search and it found the S82 and the Chromecast on another HDMI port.

So far, turning on power on S82 will turn on the HDTV and switch the input to its output. Powering off the HDTV will put the S82 into Suspend mode. I have noticed no other "smart" functions. It would be nice to know what else can be done with this facility.

Ken