How to Freeze up Your HP' and Other Secrets of the Wait(-1) Command

[Jsather]

Responding to Tim Wessmen’s Reply:

TW:
You seem to be under the impression that somehow we "decided" to modify wait or "slip in a change" when in reality what was modified was that kinetic scrolling was added to the system. This works by starting a timer which sends movement events until it stops. Yes, that will be out of the programmers hands and there is no way in *any* touch system I am aware of the manually stop receiving movement information from the screen. You can completely block it, you can completely ignore it, but you still get it. WAIT is just reporting what the system is receiving in a form that can be read/parsed in a program.

JFS:
My perspective is that of a user who looks at the HP’ primarily as a programmable calculator and the Wait(-1) as a command in a programming language. I have no way of knowing how it ties in with the “behind the face” system though there are strong hints it is tied in with kinetic scrolling. My perspective is that the functions of a command in the programming language were modified without notification. I am grumpy about it because the functional changes affect my software and I have to figure them out for myself.

TW:
The button areas aren't getting special treatment - rather the buttons are still there underneath any drawing you've done. You just are covering them up on the screen but they still exist.

JFS:
The button areas most emphatically do get special treatment, speaking strictly of returns from Wait(-1). A touch north of y=219 generates a sequence {0,x,y}, {2}, {3,x,,y} and a touch south of y=219 generates only {3,x,y}. Long touches south of y=219 will not generate the {7,x,y} indicator, and drags cannot be started with touches south of y=219. Anything you initiate south of y=219 generates {3,x,y} and nothing else is returned by Wait(-1).

TW:
"Ditto for those stupid spaces you added behind the commas..."
How would you be able to distinguish between {1,234,123,234} and {1,234,123,234}? That could be {1 234 123 234}, {1234 123 234}, {1 234123234}, and so on.

JFS:
Now I see why you put in the stupid spaces. I was peevish because the change seemed frivolous and I had to find a workaround because screen layouts I’d previously done had lists bumping into each other. There is no quandary if apostrophe delineators are used for large numbers verses commas, especially if the textout_p specifies font size 1. That’s what I’d prefer, but I know it is subjective. I retract my complaint now that you’ve explained the issue. As a workaround in case anyone else is paying attention, Textout_p(String(list),x,y) suppresses the spaces.

TW:
I would appreciate your elaboration on "We cannot pretend these gestures will not occur and Wait(-1) will not detect them." What exactly is the information you are wanting to ignore and for what purpose?

JFS:
I meant that Wait(-1) swipe detection will sometimes return x=65535 (rev 5447) or the timed out “AutoDrag” sequence with x,y values off the screen. As a programmer, that 65535 is coming sometimes and I must write code to deal with it, I just can’t ignore it, even if it is not documented.

TW:
I thank you for your detailed analysis and it should be helpful in tracking things down. I suspect you've isolated an issue that nobody seemed to have found before. I am not seeing the details you mention in "I checked and found the specific freeze up had not been repaired". Which is this? Details?

JFS:
Yeah I was rambling a bit. The specific issue that has not been repaired is that in either 5447 or 6030, take a long time between calls to Wait(-1), say half a second, in a continuous loop. Then press any key rapidly about 16 times so that key presses start building up as in a buffer. After you stop pressing the key, the key presses will continue to generate Wait(-1) returns for a second or so as the buffered key presses are processed. Now touch the screen for longer than a second and it will freeze up the Prime. While this may seem artificial, I discovered it under completely practical circumstances in the Virtual Calculator since my computer auto repeat key was generating rapid key presses.

TW:
The other lock ups seem to be the same issue that is being discussed that has to do with a kinetic scroll being activated.

JFS:
Thank you for your quick response. That truly is great customer service.