Re: [Gnash-dev] framebuffer gui

[Udo Giacomozzi]

Hello strk,

Monday, October 9, 2006, 8:36:54 PM, you wrote:
s> ... thinking about a real fb GUI, here's an interesting link
s> with references to UI engines for framebuffer:

s> URL: http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9202043619.html
s> Title: Embedded Linux Graphics Quick Reference Guide

Interesting link!


s> We'd need some input handling, what do you think ?

I think that the plain framebuffer GUI will probably be used only in
embedded devices. I currently have no idea what other real use it
could have.

In the embedded world, each kbyte of RAM is precious and startup time
is very important. So, if another layer can be avoided it's better.

What the FBGui is missing is a input device, of course. AFAIK Linux
does not provide any support for input devices outside the X11,
DirectFB (and alike) world. This means that the low level driver must
be implemented inside the GUI. That's not so bad as it sounds. Mostly
touch screens will be used in embedded devices and these need special
interfacing anyway because they use a special protocol or because they
are connected directly to the system bus. The implementation differs
greatly but is generally not complex.

It would be nice if there is already a common, abstract way to receive
events from external input device drivers, so it can be avoided to
patch the FBGui for a particular input device. But I don't know of any
such interface.

Anyway, it would not be bad to have a AGG-DirectFB GUI (at least for
testing).

BTW, for our projects that use DirectFB-GTK we had to patch DirectFB to
support our touch panel... ;)

Udo