newRPL: design of soft menus

[Han]

(11-14-2016 04:46 PM)Claudio L. Wrote:  I updated the rom with the new look for the menus. I think I captured the best ideas from everybody:

• Added the 3 pixels to give an even look
• Removed the vertical lines
• The top line didn't work very well on the 2nd menu, so I went with the light background. But only a couple of pixels to keep contrast
  

Looks better, hope you guys like it. Go ahead and download and flash the new ROM.

The gradient background keeps making me think that my screen has contrast issues. The more I think about the menu system, the more I prefer the old HP48 design. I have long forgotten why the 2nd menu needs to be of a different background. It seems to me that it being on a different row is sufficient differentiation from the 1st menu. So having black background for both menus (and tabs for directories) is in my opinion a "solid" way to do the menus.

Also, I believe the rows can be kept to 8 pixel height with a single empty pixel row between each of levels. Having solid black background means we can have 7 rows of pixels for the label (some letters like y and g will have to dip into the bottom-most row, but I don't think it would look that bad). The top (8th) row then is used for the directory tab.