Re: Arm questions

On 2021-10-13 09:48, Roland Hughes via Foxgui-users wrote:
> All,
> 
> Please forgive the Noob sounding questions, but the information on the
> Web site seems a bit dated. Searching the message archive pops up
> various messages stating people have been building FOX-Toolkit on
> various Arm platforms since around 2002 or 2006. I didn't read each
> and every message, but the ones I did read only had snippets of
> information. Mostly just some compiler switches. I didn't find any
> "This is how I cross compiled from an x86_64 development machine
> running os-name-here to embedded system or Raspberry Pi running Arm
> vN". If I missed that please accept my apologies and point me to it.
> 
> I've been in software over 30 years and I write an award winning
> technical book series. I've even written books on the Zinc Application
> Framework back when it was the rage during OS/2 days. For the past
> decade I've been developing mostly with Qt in the embedded
> systems/medical device world. Having said all of that, I've never
> written one line of code using FOX-Toolkit but that is about to change
> . . . assuming it can be built for the target environment. I'm hoping
> one of the previous Arm
> 
> Processor will be of the Verdin Arm Family.
> 
> https://www.toradex.com/computer-on-modules/verdin-arm-family
> 
> I don't think the exact SOM has been chosen, but this family all have
> the same processor. It/we will be using TorizonCore
> 
> https://www.toradex.com/operating-systems/torizon-core
> 
> which is an industrial embedded Linux. They have a Visual Studio Code
> (possibly VSCodium compatible) plug-in which does the ugly stuff of
> finding the device on a serial port or your network, "cross
> compiling", loading the binary, and remote debugging.
> 
> I put "cross compiling" in quotes because it isn't the kind of cross
> compiling anyone from the medical device world is used to. They are
> building containers of some kind. Sorry if that is vague, but I won't
> start playing with the development environment and plug-in until some
> time late this afternoon when the dev board arrives.
> 
> So, odds of anyone having done exactly what I'm doing with a nice
> write-up are most likely lower than my ability to hit the grand prize
> in a multi-state lottery three drawings in a row.
> 
> Does anyone have a link to a good write-up on cross compiling Fox GUI
> for a 64-bit Arm? I think that would be a good starting point.
> 
> Yes, I'm also bumping Toradex about this but don't yet know their
> level of assistance.
> 
> As of right now this device has a very simple UI with one animation
> (and I don't care if Fox has animations because that one is so simple
> all I need is the dozen or so images and a reliable timer to stuff
> into a class.) FOX is a good candidate for this project.
> 
> --
> Roland Hughes, President
> Logikal Solutions
> (630)-205-1593

I compile FOX on Raspberry Pi (4); both 64-bit and 32-bit work out of 
the
box; I have tried Raspbian, Kali, and a few others.

So, in terms of CPU architecture, we're good.  Most is just plain C++ 
code
but there are a few sprinkled inline-assembly/built-ins which are arch-
specific.

Your biggest issue is therefore not going to be the CPU, but the O.S.

We assume Linux, possibly *BSD, with various libraries for X11, Image 
I/O,
etc.

I am very interested in other platforms but [obviously] I don't have all 
of
them: that would be too much.

RPi4 with 64-bit is about 20% faster than 32-bit.  It is fast enough to 
be
a comfortable development environment or most people, I'd think [esp. if 
you
have fast disk like USB-3 attached SSD or something like that.

New RPi4 f/w can boot off USB3 drive, this is what I do [kingston M.2 
SATA
SSD inside Argon One with M.2 and full-size HDMI!].

       -- JVZ