I have been porting Maemo robotfindskitten to Qt.  It's been quite impressively easy.  You can find the repo here and the annotated docs here.

In Maemo robotfindskitten, you can control robot either by using the hardware keys, or by tapping on the screen.  However, there are three things you can do with the hardware keys you can't do with the screen:

• move in a random direction (R)
• move towards something interesting (demo mode, D)
• run (Shift)

In addition, there are three elements of the user interface other than hardware keys that are currently unused:

• the centre of the screen
• the two positions of the rocker switch

I think the centre of the screen should continue to do nothing, but I am considering pressing the rocker switch one way to mean "move towards something interesting", and tapping the screen while the rocker switch is pressed the other way to mean "run".  What do you think?

Also, in demo mode, dialogue boxes currently self-cancel after a few seconds.  Maybe this should be the rule in ordinary mode as well.  What do you think?

If anyone would like to test Maemo robotfindskitten 1.40, please let me know.

Changes in v1.40 will include:

1) (done:) kitten is on the front page as well as robot

2) (done:) portrait mode!!


3) (done:) rather than taps on the screen being interpreted with respect to robot's position, the screen is divided into parts as with the iPhone port (which I haven't played). This idea is from Will Thompson.

4) (done:) optification (doesn't affect most users except that they will have slightly more free disk space)

5) (still to be done:) help will be in-process using gtkhtml, rather than launching the browser.

I need to know whether the new controls are usable, and whether portrait mode is easily playable. I also want to know whether it's less disorienting for the board to turn 90° in portrait mode, or to stay as it is but be stretched.

v1.40 will not include the ability to edit non-kitten items, unless someone says they really want this feature.

The current known bug, which will be fixed by release time, is that the front screen is too cramped in portrait mode.