Re: [E-devel] Pros and cons of various EFL ways of writing an embedded game.

[Carsten H. (T. R. <ra...@ra...>]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:54:47 +1000 David Seikel <on...@gm...> said:

> I'll be developing an embedded game, and I want to use EFL for it.
> Actually, already working on an older game developed by someone else,
> but this new one I can start from scratch for some aspects.  I'd like to
> see some discussion about the pro and cons of the various choices
> available to me when using EFL for this project.  So I can benefit from
> the experiences of others.
> 
> I do want to use edje for the graphics, with lua in the edje if it's
> ready enough.  The main development language is C though.
> 
> Probably most important is which type of display to use.  X is likely
> to be overkill.  The previous game used a combination of svgalib and
> ncurses.  The method used to build svgalib from scratch sent shivers of
> horror up my spine.  I don't want to use svgalib.  Mixing a graphics
> and text environments seemed wrong to me to, and has caused some
> problems.  So, what else other than X, svgalib, and ncurses, that does
> use EFL, and lets us use edje, do people suggest and why?

svgalib? then its moving far from embedded. you have a bios.. and a vga bios..
and vga... and .. why not just use fbcon? kernel has done vesa fb gfx for a
long time... but in reality if its x86 - x works and isnt bad in that it
provide u with a sane display env and even if all u do is open a window
fullscrene in x and dont even run a wm.. it's lean and wont really get in the
way much. it will create less pain - like input device support etc.

> At some point a version of linux I build from the ground up will be
> used.  Currently DSL that has been cut down is being used.  The problem
> with that is that it still carries too much crap we don't use.  Uses
> too much storage space.  It gets harder and harder to trim out the
> unused crap, so building a linux up to only have what we need is a
> better solution.

openembedded can make small targets... but what is your target? it's x86? where
is your os stored? how? i'm going to assume for now its something like a small
hdd or compact flash, sd-card etc... which means you have space to burn.

> The other good thing about building a specialized custom linux, it will
> boot a lot quicker, no need to spend lots of time probing the hardware
> to find drivers.  We control the hardware, and we will know what
> drivers are needed.  Quick booting is important for this project.
> 
> Just woke up, so probably more later when I think of it.  lol
> 


-- 
------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------
The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler)    ra...@ra...