Re: Widgets on low memory devices

Dear Alex,

Thanks for the input.

How does a minimized view help to conserve memory (add more resources: CPU,
bandwidth, and battery) compared to a maximized (normal) view?
- From my own experience, the majority of system resources goes on keeping
yet another Widget running in the browser engine,  the size of its visual
representation makes only a comparably small difference. A well written
Widget should put itself to idle state whenever it detects that it does not
have the user's attention.

- Experiments with multi-document support on the S60 browser tells that many
today's smart phones have resources for 2-3 open document. Devices with over
average amount of RAM can handle more. No more than one document should
perform intensive JavaScript / DOM stuff at the same time. This gives some
idea on how many Widgets can be running at the same time.
- The Widget 1.0 spec defines an icon to be supplied with each Widget
package that should be shown when the Widget is not running.
Are several index.html files needed for a widget to have multiple views ?
- I think it is not necessary. It can be worked quit well with some
branching in just one file.


Regards
- Guido

On 6/22/07 12:20 PM, "ext Alex Linde" <alex@joemoby.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've been reviewing the widget requirements with regard to implementation on
> low memory devices. Within our proposed implementation we would like to have
> widgets with one or more views - essentially a minimized view for the "widget
> dashboard" with an option for a widget to maximize to full screen.
> 
> This is possible within the framework you have proposed, however for a single
> "index.html" it still requires that all views are loaded by the browser or
> widget engine. 
> 
> My question is whether the ideal implementation of multiple views should be:
> 
> - Separate html files within the widget - essentially requiring that each view
> can save state to pass to the other.
> - Individual div sections in the index.html with style.display = "none" for
> views that should be removed from memory.
> - ..something else?
> 
> Would it be possible for the group to suggest a recommended method of
> supporting multiple views and include this in their documentation? This would
> help both widget runtime developers and widget authors.
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Alex.
> 


Kind Regards
- Guido

-----
Guido Grassel, Nokia Research Center, guido.grassel@nokia.com