lcd4linux-devel — lcd4linux development team

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Martin H. <ma...@he...>]

Hi again,

> For example your patch breaks the ppdev init for 'generic' HD like mine
> ! I have to use old raw handling.
Sorry - I missed that you were using the "old raw handling".

Can you check if it's still broken (I just committed my changes to CVS)? 
  If it's still broken, I'll have to look into it - I'm not really sure 
how it could break things, unless if the "set_direction" call doesn't 
work with raw port access.

Martin

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Martin H. <ma...@he...>]

Hi Xavier,

> For example your patch breaks the ppdev init for 'generic' HD like mine
> ! I have to use old raw handling.
It doesn't really - it's just that my patch had a bug. I hope I'll get 
to fixing it today. The busyflag feature is meant (and tested) to work 
on e generic parallel port as well as my "GPIO parport emulation".

> As it's not a special feature, don't write a function, but keep it
> within if() statements.
Ok, I get it. Makes sense. And this way, one could nicely add some 
sanity checks based on the "Model". I like it.

>>But as I said - I like the idea a lot (even if I don't share your view 
>>that the user knows what [s]he's doing :-))
> 
> Martin, please remember we're not writing a KDE app ;) This is a daemon
> for 'advanced users' who know (especially for HD) what (and why) they
> are doing. I think the lcd4linux users population is more than half
> geeks (like me ;) and the others are embedded systems where people know
> exactly their job.
I don't really know the lcd4linux user-base - but I'm always weary when 
assuming that the user knows what he's doing. Maybe I'm overly paranoid 
(or I've been spending too much time doing support :-))

Martin

-- 
You think that's tough?  Try herding cats!

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hi list.

> In both functions, the code that differs is only a couple of lines (so 
> duplicating all the other code would not be desirable).
Maybe add a if - else statement in the init to switch between the two
 lines for 'generic' and the two ones for the special model.
We don't request there are different functions for it, but we must keep
it clear !

For example your patch breaks the ppdev init for 'generic' HD like mine
! I have to use old raw handling.

As it's not a special feature, don't write a function, but keep it
within if() statements.

> But as I said - I like the idea a lot (even if I don't share your view 
> that the user knows what [s]he's doing :-))
Martin, please remember we're not writing a KDE app ;) This is a daemon
for 'advanced users' who know (especially for HD) what (and why) they
are doing. I think the lcd4linux users population is more than half
geeks (like me ;) and the others are embedded systems where people know
exactly their job.

bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>

[Lcd4linux-devel] HD44780 stuff

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Bill, Hi List (especially Martin and Xavier),

I just commitet a new HD44780 driver, with some major changes:

- we now support a "Models" table with "Capabilities"

- I added a Model "Soekris" with the Capability "BUSY4BIT". Martin, 
please check the functiuonality, and rename the Model according to your 
wishes

- I integrated Bill's Noritake Brightness level patch; I added a Model 
"Noritake" with the Capability "BRIGHTNESS".

Bill, I didn't really understand your code here:

    snprintf (tmpbuffer, 2, "\%o", cu_vfd_brightness);
What the heck is "\%o"? Is it octal? Why the backslash? What does the 
resulting string look like?

It gets even more strange:
    HD_write (0x03, tmpbuffer, 1, T_WRCG);
If the abofe format string is correct, the brightness would be in the 
second character. But you're sending only one byte (the backslash).

I suppose the backslash was a typo. But please double-check the code in 
drv_HD44780.c Thanks!


> So, the 'NextGen' conf could go something like:
> 
> Display HD44780
> Model CU4002
> CUBrightness 2

it would be
   Model Noritake
   Brightness 2

>>I wondered about these three fine vertical lines
> Exactly, filament lines. Think audio valves. Same deal.
Great! Really Great!
Should we implement this in the X11 driver?

> BTW: Is anyone working on asserting SEL for backlight
> control of HD44780 modules like lcdproc and lcdmod?
> I guess it could be any of the available outputs pins.
> I was just doing it for SEL. AFAIK everyone wired the
> transistor to SEL.

This is on my ToDo-List (at least on the ony in my head)

> The question is, do they want to control it just at
> HD_init and HD_quit, or be able via codes or time
> of day or event trigger, etc?

Both. I finally decided how to handle all this Contrast, Backlight and 
so on features:

- a value will be read from the config at init time, if there is one, 
the function will be called

- the feature should register as a plugin, and there will be something 
like "events" or "timers" which you can individually define from the config

There's something special about these plugins: They do not just return a 
value, but actively change something: for example a Contrast() function 
would return the current contrast, but set it, too.

Finallly, sometime it will look like this:

Handler "Backlight" {
    Type Timer
    Update 1000
    Action 'backlight(2*loadavg(1))'
}

Which means that every 1 second the backlight will be set accordingly to 
the current load.


bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Bill P. <goa...@ya...>]

Hey again.

Excellent. This is why I asked in the first place.
RE: getting it into distro, no worries. I can always patch
my own. I just felt like sharing. Someone more lazy (gasp!)
might enjoy a dimmed display.

So, the 'NextGen' conf could go something like:

Display HD44780
Model CU4002
CUBrightness 2
...etc?

Then perhaps a switch (model); with case blocks for
each one? It would keep them separate and managable.
HD44780_toppings_and_flavorings.c ?

> I wondered about these three fine vertical lines

Exactly, filament lines. Think audio valves. Same deal.

BTW: Is anyone working on asserting SEL for backlight
control of HD44780 modules like lcdproc and lcdmod?
I guess it could be any of the available outputs pins.
I was just doing it for SEL. AFAIK everyone wired the
transistor to SEL.

The question is, do they want to control it just at
HD_init and HD_quit, or be able via codes or time
of day or event trigger, etc?

I was about to say just force them to go with a 4-bit
mode so there's free pins, but if you can get them to
solder at all, you can get them to add a $0.50 latch IC.

-BP

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Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Bill,

> http://www.noritake-elec.com/uversion.htm
They look cool!

> Sure thing. Already done. Easy as you say. I was asking because it does deviate
> from 'normal' HD44780 if you preferred having another driver or just sticking this
> function into the stock one. Here is snippet against v1.50 from yesterday:

I'll try to integrate it, but not into HD44780.c, but drv_HD44780.c 
(note the drv_ at the beginning). these are the "NextGeneration" 
drivers, but only in CVS

> PS: I edited your banner logo to emulate a character VFD.
> I've seen .sigs this big so I don't feel guilty. :-)
Looks cool, too!
I wondered about these three fine vertical lines, but I suppose this are 
the "heating" or "anode" (kathode?) wires, right?

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Martin H. <ma...@he...>]

Hi Michael,

Michael Reinelt wrote:
> (Martin, are you listening?)
I am :-)

> Martin's special gpio-parport-soekris-whatever-it-is-called-today 
> implementation that is capable of using 4 bits as input and 4 for output 
> can be handled exactly this way!
> 
> So the user has to specify a "Model" in the config, if he specifies 
> "gpio" (or however you want to call it, Martin), we suppose the user 
> knows what he's doing, and allow 4-bit-busyflag. With all other models, 
> we permit it.
> 
> Now that's what I call a clean solution!
Sounds like a good idea to me. Right now, I don't really have a clue 
about how that would be implemented cleanly (since everything would be 
shared except the init-function (where the driver doesn't bail out with 
an error message, if 4-bit-mode and busy-flag is requested) and the 
actual "query_busy_flag" function itself.

In both functions, the code that differs is only a couple of lines (so 
duplicating all the other code would not be desirable).

But as I said - I like the idea a lot (even if I don't share your view 
that the user knows what [s]he's doing :-))

Martin

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Xavier,

> I don't know either these displays, but my opinion slightly differ from
> yours. Other drivers like MatrixOrbital implement a sort of "models"
> while HD44780 just knows a "any" model. There should be different
> entries, like "genric" - "vfd" - "soft contrast", ... and then register
> relevant functions depending on the model specified on the conf. I
> don't think there's a sort of model autodetection with HD controller.

As always, you are very right! And this is a very very very good idea, 
as it solves another problem we are facing:

(Martin, are you listening?)

Martin's special gpio-parport-soekris-whatever-it-is-called-today 
implementation that is capable of using 4 bits as input and 4 for output 
can be handled exactly this way!

So the user has to specify a "Model" in the config, if he specifies 
"gpio" (or however you want to call it, Martin), we suppose the user 
knows what he's doing, and allow 4-bit-busyflag. With all other models, 
we permit it.

Now that's what I call a clean solution!

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hello list !

I don't know either these displays, but my opinion slightly differ from
yours. Other drivers like MatrixOrbital implement a sort of "models"
while HD44780 just knows a "any" model. There should be different
entries, like "genric" - "vfd" - "soft contrast", ... and then register
relevant functions depending on the model specified on the conf. I
don't think there's a sort of model autodetection with HD controller.

This would be proper, IMHO.


Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...

PS: for the guys who didn't manage to see the png Bill sent, lauch
uudecode and parse the text (with the "begin" line), and then newline,
control-D and the image is in the curent dir ;)

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Bill P. <goa...@ya...>]

Hi again,

Yes I much prefer them to LCDs but they are very expensive.
That is changing, though. These specific modules you can see at:

http://www.noritake-elec.com/uversion.htm

Sure thing. Already done. Easy as you say. I was asking because it does deviate
from 'normal' HD44780 if you preferred having another driver or just sticking this
function into the stock one. Here is snippet against v1.50 from yesterday:

--- HD44780.c.original
+++ HD44780.c
@@ -573,4 +573,16 @@

   HD_clear(1);
+
+// Change Noritake CU series VFD brightness level
+  char tmpbuffer[2];
+  int cu_vfd_brightness;
+  if (cfg_number("CU_VFD_Brightness", 0, 0, 3, &cu_vfd_brightness)<0) return -1;
+  if (cu_vfd_brightness) {
+    snprintf (tmpbuffer, 2, "\%o", cu_vfd_brightness);
+    HD_command (0x03, 0x38, T_EXEC);           // enable function
+    HD_write (0x03, tmpbuffer, 1, T_WRCG);     // set brightness
+    info ("HD44780: Noritake CU VFD detected. Brightness = %d (0-3)", cu_vfd_brightness);
+    info ("         Settings: 0=100\%, 1=75\%, 2=50\%, 3=25\%");
+  }

   return 0;

### snip ###

I just stuck it at the end of HD_init, feel free to do whatever.

Thanks,
-BP

PS: I edited your banner logo to emulate a character VFD.
I've seen .sigs this big so I don't feel guilty. :-)

begin-base64 640 vfdlcd4linuxlogo31.png
iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAN0AAAApBAMAAABD6TEmAAAAD1BMVEUAAAAA
/+EBPzVSIT9SRFywh+ewAAAA5ElEQVR4nO1W0QnFIAzUbpAVOkGLHaH7z/QI
R4haFS08nzzN/RzhSjgT0hizYkVTWNp2wJhtt8RgLgx5huR9PbKqKXNjnDvp
ugHnrvskBnNhyDMk7+uRVU2ZH939/bZ/wi0JhyewtL8WPkO9EfoXe4XPlD+d
YcxzqNF3Ap+h3oj982c1t19ynvy3ifdnip8kvLw/n3pwKPBtvD+/72/U/gne
+FPNDPVG6F/q/9A+n3iPeD7/vV7//uns1d1nOX24U+Aq/j/IncmovT9z+nBn
YmuG+aO7v/4h0/bm3mrlM9RbsaI6PsjBsvOqrlHaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC
====

--- Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...> wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> 
> > I have a question on how things that slightly deviate from standard should be done.
> > For example the CU series VFDs from Noritake/Itron. They are HD44780 compatible but
> > contrast doesn't exist - Pin 3 goes nowhere. It's a brightness setting in software.
> Never heard of these displays. Do you own such a thing?
> 
> > The relevant bits are R/W low, RS high, and put 0x00h-0x03h on the pins for 4 levels of
> > brightness. Add a cfg_number "VFDBrightness" (or whatever) entry, the sprintf and the
> > HD_write call and that's it. 
> Should be easy to implement, indeed.
> 
> > It seems redundant duplicating the HD44780 driver for a slight variant.
> Of course not, you are right. As things like "Contrast", "Brightness" 
> and so on are generally implemented as "plugins" and not hardcoded, we 
> can register any function we want to.
> 
> If you have access to such a display, would you be willing to implement 
> this feature?
> 
> bye, Michael
> 

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Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Bill,

> I have a question on how things that slightly deviate from standard should be done.
> For example the CU series VFDs from Noritake/Itron. They are HD44780 compatible but
> contrast doesn't exist - Pin 3 goes nowhere. It's a brightness setting in software.
Never heard of these displays. Do you own such a thing?

> The relevant bits are R/W low, RS high, and put 0x00h-0x03h on the pins for 4 levels of
> brightness. Add a cfg_number "VFDBrightness" (or whatever) entry, the sprintf and the
> HD_write call and that's it. 
Should be easy to implement, indeed.

> It seems redundant duplicating the HD44780 driver for a slight variant.
Of course not, you are right. As things like "Contrast", "Brightness" 
and so on are generally implemented as "plugins" and not hardcoded, we 
can register any function we want to.

If you have access to such a display, would you be willing to implement 
this feature?

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

[Lcd4linux-devel] progress report RE: HD44780 stuff

[Bill P. <goa...@ya...>]

Hi.

I have a question on how things that slightly deviate from standard should be done.
For example the CU series VFDs from Noritake/Itron. They are HD44780 compatible but
contrast doesn't exist - Pin 3 goes nowhere. It's a brightness setting in software.

The relevant bits are R/W low, RS high, and put 0x00h-0x03h on the pins for 4 levels of
brightness. Add a cfg_number "VFDBrightness" (or whatever) entry, the sprintf and the
HD_write call and that's it. 

It seems redundant duplicating the HD44780 driver for a slight variant.

Thoughts?

-BP


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[Lcd4linux-devel] Re: clear displays on quit ?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Xavier, Hi Martin, Hi List,

> Here's a little feature request : can you implement a "Clear" (or
> whatever you want it to be called) option for displays so that the
> driver make a display clear before quitting ? It's not very
> "professional" to let trash on the display.

Of course I will. This stuff is deactivated at the moment, same goes for 
the "Greet()" function (the one which prints the version number and 
waits for two seconds if not called with -q)

Martin, for the same reason I don't like your Clear() command in the 
HD_quit() function from the HD44780-busyflag-patch.

The problem is, that there are only "widgets" and no more direct "print" 
functions anymore, which I could use for the startup splash screen.

But I will solve this. Just accept the "unprofessional way" for the moment.

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

[Lcd4linux-devel] clear displays on quit ?

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hello Michael !

Here's a little feature request : can you implement a "Clear" (or
whatever you want it to be called) option for displays so that the
driver make a display clear before quitting ? It's not very
"professional" to let trash on the display.

I tried to implement it, but we must modify drv.c to call the close
fuction with the section arg. Maybe we can just make it compulsory (then
this would be easier to do).


Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] Comiling CVS under Debian SID

[Luk C. <luk...@ug...>]

> I have now Debian SID on my Maschine and want to comlile the CVS  Source,
> but i got following error:
> 
> gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.    -I/usr/X11R6/include -D_GNU_SOURCE - 
> Wall -g
> -O2 -c parport.c
> make: LIBTOOL@: Kommando nicht gefunden
> make: *** [lcd4linux] Fehler 127

Probably you don't have a file (generated by configure) named libtool in 
the source directory?

> Which packages must be installed?
> Can someone help me to solve this problem?
> I've seen a Directory named debian in the CVS tree. what is it and how  
> i use
> it?

Well I've just checked the build in a clean chroot with just 
build-essential, debhelper and xlibs-dev installed.

You can build by running make -f debian/rules

Cheers

Luk

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] Comiling CVS under Debian SID

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

> Hi List!
Hi Markus !

> I have now Debian SID on my Maschine and want to comlile the CVS  
> Source,
> but i got following error:
> gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.    -I/usr/X11R6/include -D_GNU_SOURCE - 
> Wall -g
> -O2 -c parport.c
> make: LIBTOOL@: Kommando nicht gefunden
> make: *** [lcd4linux] Fehler 127
There's a problem in your Makefile. Try to delete Makefile and
 configure and type 'autoconf', then reconfigure !
If it doesn't work again, blame Michael, or try to do a new checkout ;)

> I've seen a Directory named debian in the CVS tree. what is it and how  
> i use
The faster way to use it is :
- make sure it compiles with the normal ./configure && make command
- deinstall the old hand-installed one (make uninstall)
- in the lcd4linux directory, type 'fakeroot debian/rules binary', and
wait (maybe you'll have to apt-get install fakeroot)
- cd .. and you'll have a file named 'lcd4linux_0.9.11-1_i386.deb', it's
the pacakge: type 'dpkg -i lcd4linux_0.9.11-1_i386.deb', and that's all
!

Maybe the postinstall will fail, but don't matter, it'll work (and make
a backup of your /etc/lcd4linux.conf before !) There's even a
/etc/init.d/lcd4linux automatically activated for runlevel 2, delete
your old init script of there's one.


Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>

PS: there's no way to have a 'reply-to' header on SF MLs, so to reply to
a post, choose 'reply to list' in your mail client, or the mail will go
to the poster, not the list.

[Lcd4linux-devel] Graphics support for Cwlinux

[Xavier V. <xav...@fr...>]

Hello Michael, hello list.

I feched the datasheet of the CW12232 display, and you're right, Michael
:/ It's impossible to have a 122x32 graphic zone with a decent
framerate.
As the command to put one pixel is at least 5bytes long and the
transfert rate is 19200, it takes about 30seconds to write all the
display :/ But there are some interesting features :
- The display can handle text, bars (without user characters) and
graphics togethed, so we can have some text, draw bars and display some
pixmap with the rest of the bandwith.

- It support also 'inverted text', that's a good thing, for example if a
temperature hits a predefined maximum value, you should add such and
option to the text widget (and use it if the display supports it)

- Time based graphs will be somewhat easy to do, as we can draw
rectangle of 2 or 5px width and programable height, so the graph is made
of a combinaison of 2px large rectangles

- The new version has 2 GPOs (to put a relay) and a relay ! The relay
may be used, according to Cwlinux to emulate a pulse button (like the
'sleep button' never avaible on PC cases or even the reset button {but
it's not very useful to linux users ;) } ).

- There's also 2 GPIs, I don't know if I will use them (maybe with a
light sensor to activate backlight when there's not enough light).

- And MOST important of all, a keypad ;)

Do you think it's possible to implement a time-based graph widget, and a
sort of 'fixed pixmap' widget (but which format to use for images ?) ?
Moreover, GPIs are read on demand, so should we write a
plugin_cwlinux_gpi or add the function within the drv_cwlinux ? I don't
know your position on this point.

There's still the problem of keypad handling, as the display sends the
keys directly, the driver should always be able to read this values.
Where can we implement this read ? directly drv ? plugin ? keypad.c ?

Bye !
-- 
Xavier VELLO <xav...@fr...>

PS: I didn't have any answer from the cwlinux staff :/

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Markus,

>>> Display HD44780-20x4 {
>>>     Driver 'HD44780'
>>> #    Port '/dev/par0'   
>>>    Port '0x378'
>>
>> you should really try to get parport up and running. "Raw" port I/O  
>> (by specifiying 0x378 as a port) will be dropped someday.
> 
> I've try it, but i've got errors:
> 
> drv_generic_parport.c: using ppdev /dev/par0
> HD44780: ioctl(/dev/par0, PPCLAIM) failed: 22 Invalid argument
> HD44780: could not initialize parallel port!
> 
> the modules for par0 access are loaded (ppdev, parport, parport_pc).
> I try to run lcd4linux as root.

This means that the parallel port is occupied by some other driver or 
program, most probably the printing subsystem.

- try 'fuser /dev/par0'
- Try to unload the "lp" module

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[<Mar...@t-...>]

Am 27.01.2004 05:47:40 schrieb(en) Michael Reinelt:
> Hi Markus,
> 
> Here are some comments on your config file:
> 
>> Display HD44780-20x4 {
>>     Driver 'HD44780'
>> #    Port '/dev/par0'	
>>    Port '0x378'
> you should really try to get parport up and running. "Raw" port I/O  
> (by specifiying 0x378 as a port) will be dropped someday.

I've try it, but i've got errors:

HD44780: controlling 0 GPO's
HD44780: using display with 1 controllers
HD44780: using 8 bit mode
udelay.c: CPU supports Time Stamp Counter
udelay.c: CPU runs at 1400.054000 MHz
udelay.c: using TSC delay loop, 1401 ticks per microsecond
drv_generic_parport.c: using ppdev /dev/par0
HD44780: ioctl(/dev/par0, PPCLAIM) failed: 22 Invalid argument
HD44780: could not initialize parallel port!

the modules for par0 access are loaded (ppdev, parport, parport_pc).
I try to run lcd4linux as root.

Markus

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[<Mar...@t-...>]

Am 27.01.2004 22:08:58 schrieb(en) Michael Reinelt:
> Hmmm... basically a good idea, if you solve the timing/ 
> synchronisation issues:
> 
> - don't start a new wget process unless the old one has been finished  
> (how to detect that?)
> 
> - when is the local temporary file "finished" and ready for parsing?  
> (maybe wget supports some atomic "rename after complete download".
>
Maybe, i can solve this with a small bash-script, which would
create a "lock"-file, start the download and rename the file.

I'll find a way!
> 
> anyway, such a plugin would be very cool!
>
This is because i write it! :-)
And it's the perfekt datasource for your Marquee-Scrolling Feature. *g*

Markus

[Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[<Mar...@t-...>]

Hi List!

I think there is a Problem in the xmms-plugin, but i cant find them.
It's a timing bug.
When i call a complex XMMS-Screen on my display, like:
______________
|Artist - Song   | <- scrolling
|Playing             |
|1:00-3:17        |
|=====           |  <- timebar
---------------------

the screen will only refresh complete after ~6sec.
I think that lcd4linux is rehasing the informatiion file for each  
value.
So i've played with the hash-age value in the plugin_xmms.c file.
when i set "if (age>0 && age<=20000)" the screnn will do all right for  
20 seconds, but dont refresh becaus of the long age of the hash.

so i think after 20 seconds he must do a rehash of the file, allright?
so lcd4linux is rehashing the file after 20sec.
and now i think he had again 20 seconds, where he dont have to rehash,  
but it seems that he now rehash the values every time when they were  
called. so i think the age wouldn't be reset corretly.

Maybe that it's fixed allready, but the CVS Service on sourceforge  
isn't reachable.


Greets Markus
--------
Markus Keil

Chemnitz,Saxony
Germany

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[<Mar...@t-...>]

Am 27.01.2004 05:47:40 schrieb(en) Michael Reinelt:
> Hi Markus,
> 
> Here are some comments on your config file:
> 
>> Display HD44780-20x4 {
>>     Driver 'HD44780'
>> #    Port '/dev/par0'	
>>    Port '0x378'
> you should really try to get parport up and running. "Raw" port I/O  
> (by specifiying 0x378 as a port) will be dropped someday.
> 
>>     asc255bug 1
> does your display really have this bug? double-check it...
>
I've just overtaken the Driversection from the Sampleconfig.

>> Widget XMMS_Title {
>>     class 'Text'
>>     expression xmms('Title')
>>     width 16
>>     align 'L'
> ever tried 'M' (marquee scroller)?
> 
>> Widget XMMS_Bar {
>>     class 'Bar'
>>     expression xmms('uSecPosition')
>>     max 1000000
> 
> so your bar is at 100% after 10 Minutes? That's bad... Is there a way  
> to get the length of the current track in uSecs? If so, you could  
> specify
>    max xmms('uSecLength')
> and get the bar scaled to the real track length...
>
This is the configuration for my debugging. your "changes" are already  
in my config, but i've send the wrong one. *g*

Markus

[Lcd4linux-devel] Hash-Age problem?

[<Mar...@t-...>]

Hi List!

I think there is a Problem in the xmms-plugin, but i cant find them.
It's a timing bug.
When i call a complex XMMS-Screen on my display, like:
______________
|Artist - Song   | <- scrolling
|Playing             |
|1:00-3:17        |
|=====           |  <- timebar
---------------------

the screen will only refresh complete after ~6sec.
I think that lcd4linux is rehasing the informatiion file for each  
value.
So i've played with the hash-age value in the plugin_xmms.c file.
when i set "if (age>0 && age<=20000)" the screnn will do all right for  
20 seconds, but dont refresh becaus of the long age of the hash.

so i think after 20 seconds he must do a rehash of the file, allright?
so lcd4linux is rehashing the file after 20sec.
and now i think he had again 20 seconds, where he dont have to rehash,  
but it seems that he now rehash the values every time when they were  
called. so i think the age wouldn't be reset corretly.

Maybe that it's fixed allready, but the CVS Service on sourceforge  
isn't reachable.


Greets Markus
--------
Markus Keil

Chemnitz,Saxony
Germany

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Markus,

> When the Timer hits the 10000sec he begins the reread everytime the  
> value is called.

Fixed. Thanks for debugging this one! I reset the age of a specific 
element, but not the hash itself. Should work now.


> PS: My next Plugin is waiting in my development-directory. It will be  
> able to read RDF-Newstickers from the web. but we should first fix the  
> Xmms/hash-problem.

Sounds very interesting!

BUT! There's a big BUT!
We had some very big problems with the old mail client, which checks 
POP3 mailboxes and displayed the number of new/unread mails. The problem 
was that it took some time to parse the mailbox over an internet 
connection, there have been delays up to several seconds. This is very 
bad for the lcd4linux internal timing mechanisms. The display got 
"stuck" in this moments, which looked quite ugly.

That's why I don't want to port the mail plugin to the "next 
Generation", because I'd have to solve this issue.

The only solutzion that comes to my mind is an "asynchronous parsing": 
The plugin should do a fork() upon initialization, and the forked extra 
thread should parse the mailbox (or the ticker in your case), and 
deliver the results over a shared memory buffer. The "real" plugin just 
reads this memory buffer. There have to be some synchronisation 
mechanisms with mutexes and stuff...

Take a look at the (old) X11 driver, it already is asynchronous, you 
will find all the forking and shared memory stuff in there.

Anyone with better ideas?


bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...

Re: [Lcd4linux-devel] How get i the verbose output? / Hash-Age problem

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi Markus,

Here are some comments on your config file:

> Display HD44780-20x4 {
>     Driver 'HD44780'
> #    Port '/dev/par0'	
>    Port '0x378'
you should really try to get parport up and running. "Raw" port I/O (by 
specifiying 0x378 as a port) will be dropped someday.

>     asc255bug 1
does your display really have this bug? double-check it...

> Widget XMMS_Title {
>     class 'Text'
>     expression xmms('Title')
>     width 16
>     align 'L'
ever tried 'M' (marquee scroller)?

> Widget XMMS_Bar {
>     class 'Bar'
>     expression xmms('uSecPosition')
>     max 1000000

so your bar is at 100% after 10 Minutes? That's bad... Is there a way to 
get the length of the current track in uSecs? If so, you could specify
    max xmms('uSecLength')
and get the bar scaled to the real track length...

bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt                                   Tel: +43 676 3079941
Geisslergasse 4                                   Fax: +43 316  692343
A-8045 Graz, Austria                          e-mail: re...@eu...