Thread: New Linux Project (windows maybe)

Originally Posted by shocka

hey guys this sounds like a great idea.. if u need any help lemme know.. i am predominatly a java php vb programmer, but would love to help any way possible

Great! Feel free to chime in with any ideas or just stay tuned. Right now there seems to be a lot of discussion, brainstorming, and requirements analysis. So any experience is welcome.

P.S. As things ramp up I think there will be plenty of work that doesn't require you to be a C programmer, at least I hope so, because I am not very good with C myself.

Originally Posted by s003apr

Great! Feel free to chime in with any ideas or just stay tuned. Right now there seems to be a lot of discussion, brainstorming, and requirements analysis. So any experience is welcome.

P.S. As things ramp up I think there will be plenty of work that doesn't require you to be a C programmer, at least I hope so, because I am not very good with C myself.

The good thing about the way it looks like we're going to do this is anyone can do anything. You feel comfortable w/ php? perl? vb? this platform should work well for all of those. Or atleast that's how I am testing things.

My goals : To make an easy to use, HIGHLY configurable, extendable, skinnable, and USABLE interface. What people do with it, is all on them.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I am writting this in C++. (Though I am using extern C's for the plugins, due to nasty name mangling(those who know C++ know what I am talking about)).. For those that arean't C++ gurus, that's fine. There is still ALOT to do that doesn't require knowing it. Like you've seen here already, people finding GPS solutions, and ways to do things, that's AWESOME. Cuz as of right now, we have nothing. lol.

Anyone that wants to write a program to compile data on one of those above links, please feel free to give it a whirl in whatever language your good at. (see the beginning of this post for languages that I know).

Keep in mind, any programs that are written to work with this will work BEST if they can handle an external window. (or on Mplayer a -Wid type command).. This will allow our software to load yours, and place it on the screen where it's meant to be. This also keeps you from having to worry about "fullscreen mode" on various platforms. We'll handle all that. Also OSD. We got that covered as well.

I've been "writting" this for a week or so now, though everytime I come here, I get new ideas, and change things around. (how I'm going to handle specific variables, how I'm going to do OSD, how I'm going to handle "such and such" situation, etc.. )

Things I have successfully done :
Got MPlayer to work w/ OSD of my own making.
Ran VB applications in a Widget.
Skinnable(somewhat, still working on) interface
Loaded external plugins.
Passed "control" data to the main app via an telnet type interface
Used Parallel, and serial controls to do various things(parallel for LCD's, also for a relay card, and serial for my powerup module in my car(I have not put this software in my car yet))

Things I have not done completely :
Commented my code so people can understand it. (about 70% done)
Worked out a good GPS solution (You guys seem to be kickin this one)
Installed this in my car to see if it actually works in the "real world"
Completed a "default" skin.. (any graphics guys out there?? )
Married a rich women? lol..

There is alot to be done, but well, I am going to do my best to keep it going. Keep in mind, this will be an OPEN SOURCE project. If you want to write code, and are not willing to release it to the public, please don't bother. I feel personally that being open source will open us up to ALOT of people willing to do what they can to make this work. Not even just "car" guys... Set-Top box guys, etc.. They could possibly use this as well..

Please keep the ideas rolling.. They are good to hear, and always thought about when I'm sitting here staring at things.. lol..

Why not use the skin-format of mediacar or media engine? Then we'll instantly have a lot of really good-looking skins.

Originally Posted by hijinks21

the problem with using one of those skins is they are somewhat static. I'd almost like somewhere where you can put the time of the track on the bottom and the playlist up top or to the left.

I have since added the following to my above skin format :

<Text>
<tFont>Arial</tFont>
<tLocation>X:200,Y:460</tLocation>
<tColor>#FFFFFF</tColor>
<tVariable>%MP3_CurrentTrack</tVariable>
<tStatic>NULL</tStatic>
</Text>

Variables may be registered when a plugin is loaded, and it will be polled at a set time(by the plugin) to update. Statis text is just that, static..

and

<WorkArea>
<wTop>X:200,Y:100</wTop>
<wBottom>X:200,Y:460</wBottom>
</WorkArea>

This is the area that is left on the screen for "workable" space. This is automatically scaled based on the "<GUI>" DesignedAt tag.

As far as listboxes, and directory selection, etc... it's up to the plugin to extend those values to the main app. Right now, I have them as static, but they find their position by the WorkArea.. That'll change though..

Originally Posted by god_of_cpu

Just a thought, if your already integrating windows media player for the backend playing of files, why don't you use it's skinning engine for the front end?

In an embeded control, you can capture all the events from the skin, even events that are user defined. If your main app is in C++, or any language that supports COM for that matter, you can pass or recieve COM objects from your C++ app to and from the WMP skin engine simply by using IWMPRemoteMediaServices and its GetScriptableObject, this means that you can have a line in the skin file for a label such as caption="JScript:GetRadioStation();" which is a javascript function that calls a method from the C++ COM object that you passed in with GetScriptableObject. This results in the label having the text of the current radio station that is generated by the C++ backend. If you need to display something that isn't supported by WMP such as a GPS map or something, you can have all the buttons controlling it be on the skin, but cut out a hole in the WMP skin window with SetWindowRgn and display your map behind it where the hole is.

I'm sure there will be a fair share of problems that must be overcome with this method, but it would seem far easier and result in a much more feature complete program then rewriting a complete skinning engine from scratch. With this method all you should have to write is the backend for things that arent already supported in WMP like GPS support etc. and create COM objects for them that can be called from the skin and javascript to create the main app.

You MAY wanna read the topic. " New Linux Project " No windows media here man.

Originally Posted by hijinks21

an issue to skinning. if you place the images at a set pixil then you run into the problem that Media car faces. You have to design a skin for a certain resulution. My python app did skinning at a percentage. Like you placed the playlist at 21% over and 35% down. If you wrote the skin in 800x600 and someone used in in widescreen it would find the percent it needed to scale the background image then scale all images according to the and also to the placing according to that.. if that made any sense whatso ever

I'm currently using "DesignedAt" to specify what size the original skin was designed for. I do all the "percent" conversion when the skin is applied.

I have tried various screen sizes to test it, seems to work basically the same way. I take designed at, and get a point percent to the actual screen size. Items(images, buttons, video, etc) are then scaled by that ammount. X, and Y are treated seperately.