Starting Front End From Scratch

**TheLlama** · 02-02-2006, 12:09 PM

Originally Posted by spuzzdawg

So does that mean that its possible to have X running but not something like Gnome which means that i could program my own GUI without having a desktop and all that???

A little confused as to how it all works

Yes, and you can still use a toolkit such as Qt, gtk, or Xaw. Going by your experience I would recommend using X and Qt (or QtEmbedded without X). Three obvious advantages of using an existing toolkit with X are ease of use, support offered by these technologies, and the ability to run X applications (web browsers, etc..) Two disadvantages are startup speed and overall bulk.

**gnomad** · 02-02-2006, 01:03 PM

First thing to look at is PyGame, designed to build games in Python. PyGame is built on top of SDL, which in turn is built on top of Direct FB (and also, conveniently enough, Windows)

BTW, PyCar is built using PyGame, so that's a good place to see what the system is capable of, even it it doesn't do what you want.

-g.

**spuzzdawg** · 02-02-2006, 08:20 PM

TheLLama - I know i have a ton of learning to do - Time isn't a problem as I'm not allowed to modify the car until its paid off - So i was thinking of getting the hardware and programming the front end then doing the install as the very last step.

I posted the question so that i could hopefully get a place to start looking into different things - my own research was sorta going nowhere - you've given many different options to think about - thankyou

**TheLlama** · 02-02-2006, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by spuzzdawg

TheLLama - I know i have a ton of learning to do - Time isn't a problem as I'm not allowed to modify the car until its paid off - So i was thinking of getting the hardware and programming the front end then doing the install as the very last step.

I posted the question so that i could hopefully get a place to start looking into different things - my own research was sorta going nowhere - you've given many different options to think about - thankyou

I don't know how much C++ knowledge you have. If you are familiar with it, or if you are willing to learn how Object-oriented languages work then I would just say use Qt. Tutorial-style examples are available here: http://doc.trolltech.com/4.0/examples.html

If you want to stick with C then maybe you would like gtk. The tutorial is here: http://www.gtkmm.org/docs/gtkmm-2.4/...tml/index.html

Take a look at the examples, see what is more comfortable with you. BTW, you can get to those pages by clicking Documentation on the main site.

**spuzzdawg** · 02-02-2006, 11:47 PM

After loking briefly over each of the options pointed out to me - I'd have to say that using Python with Pygame seems to be easiest option. It would appear that Python can achieve the same thing as other languages with smaller amounts of code. As far as I understand it I'll have no issue getting Python to run GUI without X and I think python is fairly cross platform so i can program on my win32 machine. It seems at a glance that i would be able to use Pymedia for playing audio and that easily - just like pycar.

Please correct me if I'm wrong or you think you should make a suggestion. My decision to use python is by no means set in concrete. Thanks in the mean time for all your help

**TheLlama** · 02-03-2006, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by spuzzdawg

Please correct me if I'm wrong or you think you should make a suggestion. My decision to use python is by no means set in concrete. Thanks in the mean time for all your help

Sounds good. I'm not sure, but after briefly looking at PyGame it doesn't look like it has any gui functionality. Looks like you have to write it by drawing and handling the logic yourself.

Edit: Nevermind, I found them. They look pretty decent too.

**gnomad** · 02-03-2006, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by spuzzdawg

After loking briefly over each of the options pointed out to me - I'd have to say that using Python with Pygame seems to be easiest option. It would appear that Python can achieve the same thing as other languages with smaller amounts of code. As far as I understand it I'll have no issue getting Python to run GUI without X and I think python is fairly cross platform so i can program on my win32 machine. It seems at a glance that i would be able to use Pymedia for playing audio and that easily - just like pycar.

Please correct me if I'm wrong or you think you should make a suggestion. My decision to use python is by no means set in concrete. Thanks in the mean time for all your help

Yup, you've pretty much got all the high-points of of the PyGame toolchain covered. Don't forget that if you want to add CPU-intensive stuff like trippy visualizations, there is nothing stopping you from coding the algorithms in C as Python extensions.

-g.

**DeltaFX** · 02-03-2006, 05:19 PM

Try Gambas. Its almost VisualBasic translated to unixworld...

**unixxx** · 02-08-2006, 10:55 AM

Hey guys. I'm actually doing something very similar and have spent a little bit of time researching different implementations. I pretty certain that I'm going to use OpenGL without a window manager. At first I was going to use Mesa (opensource OpenGL implementation) with the Linux framebuffer and the DRI accelerated graphics drivers, only to find out that that project is being retired for something else. The people at mesa are now working on implementing OpenGL ES (embedded OpenGL); I'm hoping there is a way to implement this using a framebuffer. It just makes me wonder if with a AMD Athlon I really need embedded OpenGL. I'll tell you if I find anything interesting.

**thecommiser** · 02-08-2006, 11:56 AM

ive used C# through mono, means you can compile it on windows & linux, and theres pretty much complete interoprobility (sp?)

ive just used it command line though, and outputting to a VFD, but it does support the MS GUI creation more or less from what i understand