barb3tta

Hi all,
forgot linuxICE a while, it's still under heavy development and needs to be tuned a lot. It's taken from ubuntu, and ubuntu is famous for his great compatibility, not for high speed and lightweight!
The main goal for now is to build an easy, light, versatile and robust frontend, that does all the common tasks performed in a car.
We have different needs, I know, but I think that a modular, plugin based frontend could be a perfect base for anything we need.
I prefer to have a single, good-looking application that does everything (music, gps, phone interfacing) rather than using a simple interface that launches other applications - it looks more OEM!
X or not X? programming in SDL lets you choose to run your app in X or via directFB, or even in fbdev, and, why not, in windows.
I thing nghost has a great potential, the only thing to do is help Kev to develop and test it out!!!

just my 2 cents,
barb3tta aka SanzoGhenzo

blk02si

nGhost needs more documentation, I could not get it to play media and I can usually make anything work. I like the plugin based idea, and I know windows software is taboo in the linux world, but RR is open source and I think a lot can be learned from it. The source is freely available and I've been browsing it in VB6 to get a feel for it.

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Build Things, it keeps your brain busy.

My carPC - www.shocknet.us

KaZeR

I join blk02si on this point. You guys already have a community of users for nGhost. You should maybe start a wiki. Most of your docs are either outdated or incomplete (that's not a blame, documentation is maybe the hardest thing to do when developing software). But it will greatly help. And, no, a post in a forum with a tutorial is not a documentation to me It's impossible to maintain, comments follow that may be outdated, etc. Forums are great to discuss, but documentation need organization and clarity.

Just my 2cents, too

barb3tta

wiki is already up and running...
http://www.nextabyte.com/wiki/index.php?title=NGhost
but documentation is poor, I agree with you!
bye
barb3tta aka SanzoGhenzo

KaZeR

Well, that's rather and ad and a developer status tool
The only doc i was able to found was the skinning howto.
A word about the -u option for example is usefull for new users (even if it doesn't work for me yet )

kev000

I've got a skeleton page up on the wiki: nGhost Starter's Kit. I'll add more later...

__________________
OpenICE - "The Car Entertainment Platform"
http://openice.org
LinuxICE IRC chatroom: #linuxice irc.freenode.com

strandtc

In relation to the original point... I think cooperation on a project like this is great. It sounds like you have a group of people already helping with nGhost. The difficulty is convincing people who already have significant code already developed (SW2, etc) to stop developing what they are working on, and focus on a new project that probably doesn't do exactly what they want, or exactly how they would like it to work.

In my case, my front end app is dominated by custom software used to control several vehicle functions via Phidgets. For example... the tire pressure is adjusted by the computer... the shock dampening is adjusted, the rear steering angle is adjusted, various vehicle temps are monitored, wheel slip is monitored... etc etc. I also have Mplayer for video/audio.. and a gps receiver that shows elevation/heading/speed.

Trying to get all that functionality into someone else's app would probably be an equal amount of work as me writing it myself.

Alot of people are making suggestions about that distro or how the frontend should be written (which is good).. but I think some goals should be laid out.

First... It should be compatible with different hardware platforms.
Second... it should be easily expanded
Third... it should be easily maintained/updated.

Now I'll throw in my 2 cents about a direction this might take. The frontend should be distro agnostic. At the end of the day, all I should need is a dependancy list.... because in 2 years from now there is going to be a new video card... new chipset... new network card.. etc. And if the custom distro thats developed specifically for the front end doesn't work... you will loose users.
I also think it should run on X.. because there are so many other graphical apps that run on X which could be integrated with the frontend.. and why bother writing a graphics library when so many already exist?
2 years from now.. when someone wants to add something to the app.. and they have been writing graphical apps for linux already... they are probably going to be able to do that faster if its written in GTK or QT.

I think people are primarily using windows in their carpc because 1) There are some good frontends.. and 2) It works with their hardware.

Sorry... long winded this morning.

-Chris

intuitionsys

Okay I'm back from a long weekend of no coding whatsoever I think what the developers absolutely need are people who can "pretty up" their work. There are some fantastic skins out there that I'd love to add to the Silverwolf2 library but I just don't have time to draw skins and code and do my regular job, etc., etc.

I've already started work on completing the rest of the Silverwolf2 modules and it would be nice to release a new skin with the next alpha or beta release (hint hint...)

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Silverwolf 2.0 Progress: 100% (alpha)
Alpha Release Date: June 28, 2007

barb3tta

Let me disagree with this point.
My point of view starts from thinkin' of a carpc not like a desktop computer, but a system easy to control by touchscreen or other non-standard inpud device.
This way, managing to control an external application via menu entries should be really hard and extremely dangerous if done while driving.
So I prefer an application that integrates well in the frontend, without the need of change window/virtual desktop or minimize and maximize an app.
I think a good linux application (not a frontend) is written dividing the core from the interface, so one could use commandline or any type of frontend...
Just my 2 cents!

intuitionsys

Absolutely. Silverwolf up to v1.3 was so hardware specific it didn't get much attention.

Absolutely again; mind you I think most frontends are expandable - to what degree and how easy that is is another question altogether.

Silverwolf2 will be able to automate updating itself (next release), its skins, libraries, etc. but updating anything else is outside its scope.

No arguement! I would also add that alot of people are using Windows on their car PC because that's what they know. Here is where car-specific distros like linuxICE or slax might ease the pain of transition.

__________________
Silverwolf 2.0 Progress: 100% (alpha)
Alpha Release Date: June 28, 2007

reece146

X Window can be set up to look like anything you want.

Does this look like X?

http://moose.ca/content/projects/davis/DAVIS_v03a.png


If you really want to dump X I suggest doing something that is compatible with X or SDL or fbdev or whatever. Development of X apps via the network connection is invaluable - just export your display and you can work on the box anywhere. Also, when troubleshooting hook up the RJ45 and work from your desk instead of sitting in the driver's seat with some excuse of a keyboard.

When it's time to run on the dedicated hardware move your interface over and you are off to the races.


Collaboration is a tough nut to crack. If the "outsiders" don't have interest then they aren't going to pony up.

barb3tta

Hey, very nice!
I forgot the high flexibility of FVWM! But I remeber it's a bit hard to customize...
After seeing the blog I wonder why to create a dedicated frontend, if we can just use a wm and existing applications! :P

But, let me put a log in the fire : using external application you have to theme the frontend, the window manager and the library toolkit, instead of create a single frontend theme... less code or easy themeing? this is the question....

bye
SanzoGhenzo

reece146

IMO creating a "proper" front end is the correct methodology to take. In my case I don't have the necessary skill set to write something from scratch in C/C++ and I don't have the time (or more truthfully, interest) to learn C/C++ to make an application of that scale.

The biggest problem with taking the window manager approach is that it can be difficult to find a suite of applications that provide the functionality desired and that can be themed to suit your purposes.

With my example above there are four things being themed:

1.) Application (gqmpeg in this instance)
2.) Window Manager (fvwm above)
3.) GTK (all my chosen apps use GTK and/or Xlib directly)
4.) X itself (.Xdefaults file)

It gets tricky getting the apps to have the same look and feel also because some apps do not like to play nice with window manager hints and also some applications were written with a very rough idea of what a dialog box should look like, how to present items to the users, etc.

kev000

I don't know how comfortable you would feel about opening up your code, but in my mind at least people will be able to look at your code and doing the work of combining functionality.


You are probably right that by using QT or GTK makes it easier for others to contribute. I am doing 98% of the SDL coding in nGhost because it isn't an easy known "toolkit". However the flexibility SDL provides makes it all worth while. SDL runs natively in GNOME and KDE, with X or without X, and has great hardware driver support. It all comes down to preference really.

__________________
OpenICE - "The Car Entertainment Platform"
http://openice.org
LinuxICE IRC chatroom: #linuxice irc.freenode.com

s003apr

I could not agree with you more, strandtc. In fact, I had tried steering some people in this direction a couple of years ago. They of course opted for the tightly integrated app, and today it is another piece of vaporware. Give me a few hours with a linux desktop and I can customize it to make it as touchscreen freindly as any of these simply by choosing the right combination of window-manager, toolbars, docking applications, etc...

Look at OPIE and GPE for handhelds as an example. They look nothing like KDE and GTK, yet they are able to run many of the same apps with only a few modifications to make them suitable for PDA use.

Going this route does not mean that your system has to look like a desktop either. Using X11 and a window manager does not mean that you have to have a "start menu" in the bottom left hand corner. If you want your application menu to be a full screen app that looks exactly like the one for nghost, you can do this.

OpenMoko is a good example of something that runs on X11, yet looks nothing like a desktop. http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page