I do understand that everyone has their personal life to live. Even the top celebrities have their personal lives too. A lot of people think celebrities only live their celebrity kind of life. Also, Developers who develop tools for people to use are also humans. No special life attached.😁 Upon living their normal lives, the developers still find time to work on their project to make it better for its users. They ought to be well appreciated IMHO. Especially open-source developers that do it for the love of open source projects. This is something we the users needs to appreciate.
If I'm anticipating an update from a project I have used, I don't get too worried if it takes too long. Especially when I know that the upcoming update is going to be extensive. This is why I have been patiently waiting for several projects with their updates. Well, I'm glad one of them just released an update.
Sometime last two weeks, I reviewed HgLauncher v1.4.1.3 exactly 11 days after it was released. And, 24 days after, V.1.4.2 got released. In its release note, the developer made a comment which made me appreciate him the more. He included the following line of text "I don't know why I decided to put this on hold for so long, but here it is."
I smiled and said to my self, 24 days after the initial release isn't long TBH. Anyways, as I have expected, He came up with awesome updates.
What are the Changes In V1.4.2?
A. WidgetSpace height adjustment
The first noticeable change in this update is the WidgetSpace height adjustment. If you don't know what WidgetSpace is, I'd recommend you to check out my review on the project. I talked about it there.
Trying to add a widget to a WidgetSpace in older versions of the project was a bit stressful. Because, the button to add a widget, or close the WidgetSpace was always at the middle of the screen. Strecting my thumbs to click on the buttons has always been a war. Especially if I was handling my device with one hand.
In V1.4.2, the developer has increased the height of buttons. The buttons have are now located at the bottom of the screen. Very close to the thumbs of the user. Check the images below for how it was in older versions, and how it is in the latest version.
As it is, the buttons are easily reached, regardless of how I handle my device.
B. Fixed Swipe Up Bug
Hglauncher gives its users the opportunity to define different swipes to access different apps. Which is awesome, as most launchers lack the feature. unfortunately, swiping up to access a defined app doesn't seem to work at all time. That was an issue a user reported. But, the project owner replied to the user with;
"Try swiping from the center of the desktop. It's a tad finicky due to the launcher components competing for the swipe up motion, but in my side, it works out well if you swipe in the middle."
The swipe up gesture had a bug, but I am happy he fixed it in V.1.4.2. Swiping from any part of the screen now opens the defined app.
C. Fixed Applist cancellation bug
V.1.4.1.3 doesn't respond to the back button after the user scrolls slowly to the end of the app list. The only alternative to this was to use the Home button even when I don't want to. The project owner has fixed it by moving the toggling of favorites panel state to an animation listener. So as to appropriately respond to the cancellation and end the animation.
D. Credit text selection disabled
Every project that uses other people's work needs to credit the original owners. HgLauncher isn't left out as it has a Credit button that displays the list of users that had contributed to the success of the project, or their work was used in the project. The is the last option in the settings page. Older versions of HgLauncher lets users copy the texts in that page which is indeed unnecessary. This issue has been fixed in the latest version, Although it's a minor update.
E. Strings Updated
This is also another minor change. But, since it's part of the update, then, it's wort to be talked about. The string folder is the location where each of the texts used in the project is saved. For example, the successful or failed toast messages you get when you perform an action are called from the strings folder.
Hglauncher received several strings cleanup, as unused strings were removed. Also, the most noticeable changes in this section of the update are the toast messages that display when the user restores a backup. In the older version, after the user successfully restore a backup, this message Restore Complete! is displayed. But, the latest versions now displays Backup has been restored.
F. Added Swipe down and tap gestures
I can't believe I didn't notice the absence of these gestures in other versions of the project. The latest made me realized that users weren't able to define an app to down gesture and tap gesture. But, it's awesome to know that they are now available to be used. Below are the screenshots displaying the differences in the gesture section of the settings page.
V1.4.2
v1.4.1.3
G. Allow the launcher to set its own orientation
The older versions of the Launcher suffered crashes when a user rotates his or her device. This issue has been fixed in the latest update. That's good news. Furthermore, The developer implemented an additional option for screen rotation in the app. Although, it was originally suggested by a user. Below is a screenshot displaying the differences in the Desktop section of the app settings page. You'd notice the newly added option. This options simply means a user can set the Launcher to rotate or not irrespective of the system's orientation settings.
H. Transformation of the settings page
This update is similar to what the developer behind ScreenStream did to his project. In the latest version of ScreenStream, The extra long settings page has been reduced to a very short page. I loved the update as it's now easy to scroll through the page.
I am even more excited to see another project I love the most adopt the same style. Check below to see two different GIFs displaying how I used to, and how I now scroll through the settings page in HgLauncher.
The first Gif displays the old way to scroll. As you can see, it takes a longer time to scroll through the settings page. But, the second Gif shows how easy and fast it is to get to the last option on the settings page.
Hglauncher Vs Slim launcher
These launchers are very similar in their appearance but have different features. I have been waiting to see an update from SlimLaucher's Dev. It's been more than 2 months since the last update. So I guess because of that, most of the latest features explained in this post aren't present in SlimLaucher. For example, the ability for a Launcher to have its orientation option is missing in SlimLaucher.
Conclusion
"This is more than a bug fix". That's what the project owner said. I appreciate the project owner for these awesome updates. I'm so sure everyone would love it.
posted from my steemit blog post
