My Easy Mode GUI - Favorites Tab

In this 2nd post on the Easy Mode GUI, I will be showing my customised Favorites Tab (as of the date of this post). A backup of my simpleui.rc is available in the Resource Files section of this blog. There is also an EasyMode_icons.zip which contains the blank background templates and the icons I created. More on icon creation in the next post.


My Favorites Tab

I'll go thru the icons one by one, from the top left to the bottom right. I won't be pasting the code here as I would need to replace all the < and > tag brackets. You can download my simpleui.rc.zionbackup, scroll to the bottom and refer to it while reading the explanations below.

1. Menu Edit. This handy entry opens up the GUI config file, ie. simpleui.rc, for editing.


2. SD Card. Everytime I wanted to access my SD Card, I would need to go to File Manager, My Home, MMC-SD, and double-click on the folder with the SD card's name. I could have added a hard link with an absolute path to my current SD Card, but what if I put in another card with a different name? So I wrote a bash script that would search the contents of MMC-SD and go to the 1st folder (which would be the only folder) and open it in File Manager. Then I added an entry in my Favorites tab that would run this bash script. I will probably cover bash scripting in another post.


3. KWrite. This entry opens up KWrite, a GUI text editor that comes with the Eee PC. I modified the icon from the existing one hidden in /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher as the picture was in the middle and covered the words. The modified icon is in the EasyMode_icons.zip as well.


4. Timidity MIDI. This is a MIDI player. The actual program runs in console mode, so I had to create a bash file to run it in GUI mode. More on Timidity in another post.


5. Audacity. My MP3 recording software. Think enough has been said in earlier posts :P


6. JSword. This is a Bible software from The Sword Project (www.crosswire.org). There is a Debian distribution for BibleTime, but I opted for the Java Bible Desktop for the convenience of installation. To run it, I went to www.java.com to download the Linux RPM for the latest JRE. I don't really use this for my reading; it's more so for searching.


7. Eng/Chi Bible. This is an offline archive of the entire KJV English Bible and CUV Chinese Bible which I downloaded from www.ccim.org. The layout is easier to navigate and read as compared to JSword, save that there is no search engine.


8. RHC (Revival Hymns and Choruses). This is an offline MIDI compilation of all the hymns in my church worship hymnal. Anytime I need to find out the tune for a particular hymn, I can just click on it and listen. This was the main reason why I installed Timidity also.


9. TSMS (Then Sings My Soul). This is an offline MIDI compilation of all the songs in my church fellowship songbook (it is used only in the fellowship group, not during the worship service). As with RHC, it comes in handy when I need to play the tune for an unfamiliar song. I have the MIDI files on my Nokia E51 handphone as well.


10. Daily Readings. This is an Excel file which contains a schedule for reading the Bible through in one year. When the year is changed, all the dates will be updated to show the correct day of the week. The file is opened in read-only view to prevent accidental changes. It's available in the Resource Files section of this blog.


11. Timestamp Log. Earlier on, I had added startup and shutdown scripts on my Fujitsu T4010 to track the battery consumption rate. That was in Microsoft Windows. I decided to do the same for my Eee PC - it took me 2 days to get it right (will share on this in another post). This entry opens up the log file for viewing. The bash script, startup-shutdown-log.sh, is in the Resource Files section of this blog. I will cover more on adding startup and shutdown scripts later.


12. Eee PC Tips. Before this blog, I noted down all my work in a text file. The entries got more and more and I decided to share them on a blog instead. This entry is an offline copy of the text file and comes in handy when I need to refer to it in the absence of an Internet connection.


13. Music Theory. I have yet to find a simple MIDI composer software for my Eee PC. The ones I read about, like WINE, talks technically about setting up Timidity as a server and stuff, and I do not want to keep eating into the SSD disk space. My main reason for a MIDI composer software for my Eee PC was just to play certain notes for choral pitching or guitar tuning purposes. If I need to compose a full MIDI file, I would probably use Anvil Studio on my Windows desktop PC as I'm used to it. In view of all these, I created a simple webpage with MIDI files for 3 octaves of notes, plus some other info. So when I need to hear an 'A' note to tune my guitar, I would just need to click on the link to play it. This entry in my Favorites tab is an offline copy, which I've put in my Nokia E51 handphone as well, for convenient reference. The files are available in a zipped file in the Resource Files section of this blog.

(^ v ^)