[ECOS] Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[ECOS] Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Øyvind Harboe]

I'm thinking about using FLTK on top of Microwindows using nxlib.
http://www.microwindows.org/

Does anyone have any experiences to share?

Is this folly? :-)

I took the www.fltk.org library and its GUI builder  for a spin under
CygWin (created a Windows hello world app). Looks very nice. The fltk
project seems to be alive and well.


-- 

Øyvind Harboe
http://www.zylin.com




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Re: [ECOS] Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Gary Thomas]

On Mon, 2004-05-03 at 06:26, Øyvind Harboe wrote:
> I'm thinking about using FLTK on top of Microwindows using nxlib.
> http://www.microwindows.org/
> 
> Does anyone have any experiences to share?
> 
> Is this folly? :-)
> 
> I took the www.fltk.org library and its GUI builder  for a spin under
> CygWin (created a Windows hello world app). Looks very nice. The fltk
> project seems to be alive and well.

When I looked at this [years ago], eCos did not have adequate C++ 
support to handle it.  Perhaps it can now, with the recent work that 
you've done.  Except for the C++ "gotcha", FLTK did look like something
useful.

-- 
Gary Thomas <gary@mlbassoc.com>
MLB Associates


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Re: [ECOS] Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Øyvind Harboe]

> When I looked at this [years ago], eCos did not have adequate C++ 
> support to handle it.  Perhaps it can now, with the recent work that 
> you've done.  Except for the C++ "gotcha", FLTK did look like something
> useful.

Any efforts to port Microwindows 0.90 to eCos?

nxlib requires Microwindows 0.90.

ANAICT, eCos currently contains:

"Version 0.89pre8 - 15 Nov 2001 - greg@censoft.com"

from services/gfx/mw/current/src/ChangeLog.MW



-- 

Øyvind Harboe
http://www.zylin.com




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[ECOS] RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Philip Keller]

> I'm thinking about using FLTK on top of Microwindows using nxlib.
> http://www.microwindows.org/
> 
Have you looked at FLNX? (http://www.pixil.org/) It's a adaptation of FLTK
v. 1.0 to runs directly on top of Microwindows/Nano-X. This would avoid the
nxlib compatibility layer.

The FLNX widgets are simplified to be more "PDA-like." FLNX includes the
graphical UIF editor, Fluid, but I use the FLTK 1.2 version of Fluid, which
is much improved. Everything seems to be compatible as long as you avoid the
few additional widgets added with FLTK 1.0->1.2.

> Any efforts to port Microwindows 0.90 to eCos?
There is eCos support in MW 0.9. Of course it's an external library rather
than a configurable eCos package, and you still need to write an engine for
your platform. We have also made some patches to allow it to use INET
sockets on any platform (usually it uses UNIX sockets). There may have been
some other issues with the eCos port - I can find out if you want.

-- Philip



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[ECOS] Re: RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Øyvind Harboe]

On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 10:58, Philip Keller wrote:
> > I'm thinking about using FLTK on top of Microwindows using nxlib.
> > http://www.microwindows.org/
> > 
> Have you looked at FLNX? (http://www.pixil.org/) It's a adaptation of FLTK
> v. 1.0 to runs directly on top of Microwindows/Nano-X. This would avoid the
> nxlib compatibility layer.

I was under the impression that flnx was obsolete with nxlib.

> The FLNX widgets are simplified to be more "PDA-like." FLNX includes the
> graphical UIF editor, Fluid, but I use the FLTK 1.2 version of Fluid, which
> is much improved. Everything seems to be compatible as long as you avoid the
> few additional widgets added with FLTK 1.0->1.2.

If FLNX is compatible with the configureable Microwindows 0.89 package
in eCos(and it is not an obsolete deadend library), then that sounds
like the easiest option.

> > Any efforts to port Microwindows 0.90 to eCos?
>
> There is eCos support in MW 0.9. Of course it's an external library rather
> than a configurable eCos package, and you still need to write an engine for
> your platform. We have also made some patches to allow it to use INET
> sockets on any platform (usually it uses UNIX sockets). There may have been
> some other issues with the eCos port - I can find out if you want.
> 
> -- Philip

This is starting to sound like a rather daunting project for a humble
country engineer who just wants to throw up a GUI. :-)

For now I'm looking for a way to get the VNC server + FLxx up and
running(for some prototyping) and eventually I'll want MW to write to  a
framebuffer on our board.

(See upcoming post in ecos-patches w.r.t. some work I've done to update
the eCos MW package to 0.90)

-- 

Øyvind Harboe
http://www.zylin.com




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[ECOS] Re: RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Øyvind Harboe]

On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 10:58, Philip Keller wrote:
> > I'm thinking about using FLTK on top of Microwindows using nxlib.
> > http://www.microwindows.org/
> > 
> Have you looked at FLNX? (http://www.pixil.org/) It's a adaptation of FLTK
> v. 1.0 to runs directly on top of Microwindows/Nano-X. This would avoid the
> nxlib compatibility layer.
> 
> The FLNX widgets are simplified to be more "PDA-like." FLNX includes the
> graphical UIF editor, Fluid, but I use the FLTK 1.2 version of Fluid, which
> is much improved. Everything seems to be compatible as long as you avoid the
> few additional widgets added with FLTK 1.0->1.2.

Super! Thanks!

I got it up and running without too much hassle. 

- I've compiled it for the linux synthetic target using the vnc server
and eCos CVS HEAD
- Using the FLTK fluid GUI builder, I put together a test app. As you
point out, it works fine,  just stay away from unsupported stuff(e.g.
tooltips).

Is there a CVS server for FLNX out there?

-- 

Øyvind Harboe
http://www.zylin.com




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[ECOS] RE : RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Philip Keller]

> Is there a CVS server for FLNX out there?
> 
Not that I've run across. Too bad, eh? Seems like it would be worth keeping
alive.
-- Philip



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[ECOS] Re: RE : RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Øyvind Harboe]

On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 16:14, Philip Keller wrote:
> > Is there a CVS server for FLNX out there?
> > 
> Not that I've run across. Too bad, eh? Seems like it would be worth keeping
> alive.
> -- Philip

Its seems like nxlib has made flnx "obsolete", though I'd think that
flnx uses less resources than nxlib + fltk. 

Perhaps flnx could live out its days in the eCos repository?

It is "only" 800 files and ~600k gzipped.


Here is a "plan":

- add flnx to eCos as a module
- eventually upgrade MW to 0.90 (or newer)
- add nxlib to eCos (or scripts to simplify compilation anyway).
- add fltk to eCos (or scripts to ...)

But is there any interest in doing so?

The license agreement for flnx seems compatible with eCos on the surface
of it.

-- 

Øyvind Harboe
http://www.zylin.com




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[ECOS] RE : RE : RE : Microwindows, FLTK/FLNX and eCos

[Philip Keller]

> Here is a "plan":
> 
> - add flnx to eCos as a module
> - eventually upgrade MW to 0.90 (or newer)
> - add nxlib to eCos (or scripts to simplify compilation anyway).
> - add fltk to eCos (or scripts to ...)
> 
> But is there any interest in doing so?
> 
Yes, I'd definitely be interested. I was also considering nxlib+fltk before
deciding that flnx represented the path of least resistance. But
unfortunately I could start contributing time only in about six months or
so.

In order to fit nicely into eCos, I think MicroWindows 0.90 could use a
little re-architecting of its configuration options. Right now, target and
capabilities selections are mixed together in a very non-orthogonal fashion.

Also note that the stripped-down "PDA" widgets of FLNX would be worth
keeping for lightweight embedded apps.

-- Philip



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