Rotating icons on desktop without rotating layout

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have Motorola Milestone 2 which have long, but quite narrow screen. So in 
portrait orientation I can easily fit 4 columns and 6 rows and even 5 columns 
and 6 rows and everything is looking nice. However, rotating desktop to 
landscape is a disaster in such case.

I am rotating desktop due to - for example - sliding a hardware keyboard, when 
I am then operating in landscape mode.

The layout is rotated, so I have 4 columns with large gap between them and 
tightly fitted 6 rows with shrunk icons - ugly and unseful.

So, the my idea is that layout should not rotate with the screen, only the 
icons/widgets to display its data to me normally. That should be an option is 
settings to "Freeze the layout on rotate".

In implementation details it may require two different layouts master and 
slave, the slave landscape would be build from master portrait on the fly and 
these two would be switched on rotation. However, I am only speculating here as 
I do not have occasion to look into source code as I cannot clearly identify 
which repository belongs directly to ADW Launcher.

Example layout in portrait:
+----+----+----+----+
|  clock  |    | co |
+----+----+----+ nt +
| calen-  |    | ac |
+         +----+----+
|   dar   |    |    |
+----+----+----+----+
| mess-   |    |    |
+         +----+----+    
| agges   |    | Lo |
+----+----+----+----+
|    |    | Wi | Ba |
+----+----+----+----+

Example layout in landscape after phone rotation:
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| contact |    |    | Lo | Ba |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    |    |    |    |    | Wi |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| cl |         |         |    |
+ oc + calendar+ messages+----+
| k  |         |         |    |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

Or additionally mirrored (second option):
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| cl |         |         |    |
+ oc + calendar+ messages+----+
| k  |         |         |    |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|    |    |    |    |    | Wi |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
| contact |    |    | Lo | Ba |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+

The mirrored option might be useful, as puts icons/widgets closer to its 
original positions on the portrait screen.

Certainly changes on landscape orientation should be reflected in portrait - I 
do not expect two different set of widgets on desktop in portrait and in 
landscape.

Thanks in advance!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by michal.f...@gmail.com on 9 Mar 2011 at 9:54

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who think about this kind of layout in Android 
Launcher!
But maybe someone allready see this kind of layout implemented in other 
launcher?
Anyone?

Original comment by alex.per...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2011 at 4:23

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What would happen to wide multi-space widgets that don't scale well when going 
from something like 1x4 to 4x1.

Original comment by infogu...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2011 at 12:38

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Why not let the user decide instead of letting the launcher guess. The user 
could design a layout for portrait and landscape independent of each other. 
Giving more freedom and customizability and even new functionality. One could 
have up to four homescreens for different orientations. Just brainstorming here 
;)

Original comment by pjanssen...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2011 at 1:22

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I know the widgets can be a problem, but they are without that feature, so I 
personally prefer widgets that scale well - it is user choice.

Letting the user design both layouts portrait and landscape could be a feature 
as well, however I personally do not want to design the layout separately for 
these two, I just want it to not be rotated... and that become more important 
in the era of tablets. I am minimalist, I use two screens max for my widgets.

It would be nice if this idea could be taken by Google itself and put to native 
Android. Then if API miss the events for rotating only widgets, this could be 
added to new versions of Android, authors of them would be responsible for 
rotating content (some icon only widgets do not need to be rotated, just texts).

But I see from the number of stars, that this idea is not very popular, so if 
you like it propagate and ask for more stars - thank you!

Original comment by michal.f...@gmail.com on 9 Dec 2011 at 2:53