Re: maintenance of PicoGUI

Micah wrote:

>Hmm.
>This shoudln't be too hard-PicoGUI's operating system requirements at
>runtime are pretty small, and don't include TCP/IP when you're using
>pgserver as a library rather than a separate process.
>  
>
To get the code to actually compile+link without Unixish headers and 
libs is a different story. For me it was beyond my possibilities, and 
I'm sure the situation is similar for most embedded developers seeking 
for a GUI. And even if I managed to port it for a specific snapshot, I 
couldn't stay up to date with the development.

>The build system, though, I'd always felt was too simple rather than
>too complex. It doesn't keep track of dependencies, so it's easy to
>enable a video driver but not realize it also needs input driver X,
>VBL Y, and a few other assorted doodads.
>
>Fundamentally all the build system has to do is generate a config.h and
>figure out what files need to be compiled. I think the current system,
>or something like it, needs to stay in place for picogui to be easy
>to configure on most systems. Manually editable config files would be
>doable too- maybe something like what busybox uses.
>
>There are also certain cases when the build system has to do more than
>what's mentioned above. When you use compiled-in .BDF fonts, there's a
>perl script that converts the .BDF fonts to source code which then gets
>compiled in. Perl is cross-platform enough, but there would need to be
>a good way to invoke that.
>
>A more portable build system would be great, but it really needs to also
>be good enough people would want to use it on linux in place of the
>current build system. 
>Having multiple build systems would surely just lead to headaches in testing later.
>  
>
Linux folks will always find a better solution when they exploit their 
possibilities :-) Consequently, PicoGUI will never build on a system 
with minimal tools.

IMO the build system restriction is not as important as the target 
restriction, but both come together. The effect is a Unix-only show. A 
pity, since I'm sure PicoGUI would have much more active developers if 
architecture independence was a design goal, just like lwIP in the 
networking area.

All the best
Peter

>On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 11:02:03AM +0100, Peter Graf wrote:
>  
>
>>Micah wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Well, it's not the bugs that disappoint me, it's the lack of forethought
>>>I had when putting together PicoGUI's architecture. The biggest thing that
>>>bothers me still is how it does clipping of 2D primitives. PicoGUI was a 
>>>great
>>>learning experience for me, but I'm a little surprised people still use it.
>>>
>>>Still, if other developers are finding things PicoGUI does for their 
>>>project
>>>that TinyX or Qt/E can't, that's a good thing :)
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>PicoGUI can do things that TinyX or Qt/E can't. I'm sure it would be 
>>used in a lot of projects, and have a good number of developers, if it 
>>targets the embedded market without the Unixish requirements on both the 
>>build tools and the target side.
>>
>>Embedded targets have lots of diverging tools and operating systems, or 
>>even lack any OS and only use custom specific software. But very often 
>>the requirement for _networking_ or _GUI_ comes up sooner or later.
>>
>>For networking there is a very nice solution that supports the whole 
>>range of the embedded world: lwIP. All it requires is a simple C 
>>Compiler, Make, manually editable configuration files, and specified 
>>architecture specific functions. For a nice GUI there is no such 
>>software. This is the area where PicoGUI could become famous!
>>
>>I'm sure I sound naive to you, and I know I'm oversimplifying, but my 
>>plea is: Remove the Unixish build tool and target requirements, and 
>>PicoGUI will become an active project! Target the whole range of 
>>embedded! I'm not talking theory. I needed a network stack and a GUI. 
>>I've been able to port lwIP, but I'm not able to port PicoGUI. I'm sure 
>>a similar decision process will happen throughout the (non-Unixish) 
>>embedded range.
>>
>>All the best
>>Peter
>>    
>>



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