Re: [lcd4linux] Layout transitions

[Scott F. <sc...@st...>]

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 10:24 AM, Michael Reinelt <mi...@re...> wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
>> Ok, sorry for sending this twice. I don't know if the first one went
>> through or not. It's all garbled on the archive.
>
> Well, as far as I can see, your first mail did make it perfectly to the list.
Ok then. It's ugly on the archive at any rate.

>
>> This also adds temperature and fan plugins for the Crystalfontz driver
>> (most of the work was already there).
> I'd like to add this as a seperate patch.
>
> I hope you did create the diff against current trunk of svn, otherwise applying will be a hard job...

Yes, I pulled a fresh copy before the diff.

>
>> And here's how to index your layouts. There should always be a Layout0.
> This one I do not like. your patch would break every existing configuration out there.

Ok, the change I made simply looks for a Layout first, and Layout0
only if that is not found. So if someone has Layout0-Layout10 but also
has a Layout, no matter what they won't transition.

>
>> One last thing. In order to get things so your screen is cleared
>> entirely between transitions, you'll have to add a clear callback to
>> your driver. I only added it to the Crystalfontz driver.
> This is the second point I don't like: I often thought about a clear() call in the display driver, but in fact it should
> be not necessary. If you clear the framebuffer, this should be sufficient. And it should speed up things a lot
> (especially on graphic displays).

Ok, good point. I went the route you suggested by clearing the FB, and
it brought up another intrusive point about the patch. It defaulted
all layouts to a timeout. That causes the framebuffer to be cleared,
interrupting the timing, and causing a noticeable change in the
display. I defaulted the timeout to 0 (no timeout), but that can be
overridden in the Display section.

Display CF635 {
    Icons 2
    Driver 'Crystalfontz'
    Model '635'
    Port '/dev/ttyUSB1'
    Speed 115200
    Contrast 120
    Backlight 100
    DefaultTimeout 5000
}

>
> anyway, I think we should apply your patch, BUT: I'd really like to release 0.11 before. Well, I planned to do the
> release between cristmas and new year's day 2008 :-( Unfortunately I've been too busy
>
> But maybe this could be the right motivation to do the release.
>
> @all, especially michu: what do you think? Is the current svn code stable enough?
>
> If yes, I would apply the temp and fan extensions, and release 0.11, and afterwards apply your patch. but you should
> really find a way so lcd4linux runs without a Layout0 (but with a single "Layout")
>
>
> One last point: I have been thinking about a similar solution to this problem. Maybe you patch will be integrated into
> this concept: I will call it "screens"
>
> The trick is that there will be several widgets (buttons, gpo's and stuff) that may be shared by more than one layout,
> and other widgets (text, bars, timers, buttons) that will be different for each layout.
>
> the structure will be like the following:
>
> Layout 'Default' {
>   screen 1 {
>      row1.col1 'CPU'
>      row2.col1 'Disk'
>   }
>   screen 2 {
>      row1.col1 'LAN'
>      row2.col1 'WAN'
>   }
>   GPO1 'Test_GPO'
> }
>
> So there will be only one active layout, probably containing more than one screen, and there will be a plugin which
> allows you to change screens (scroll or directly access one screen), and you can bind this call to a timer, a button, or
> any other event.
>

Sounds great. Being able to make use out of my LCD's buttons would
make me happy.

There's a new diff attached.