Re: [lcd4linux] T6963c support?

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

Hi Moe,

>>The display is used as a raster device, all the font rendering, bar
>>rendering and so on is done in lcd4linux. This way, you get "perfect" 
>>bars, because there's no limitation of user-defined characters as in 
>>other displays.
> 
> Got any screenshots of these? (just curious)

Look at the web page (http://lcd4linux.sourceforge.net). The pixmap 
device is a Meta-Driver, The Output is the same as e.g. the X11-Driver 
(both are pixmap-devices)

>>>how good is the text-mode support in l4l anyways?
>>
>>non-existant :-)
> 
> 
> Okay, I'll rephrase my question:
> How good is the graphics-mode support in l4l? ;)

again: non-existant :-)

Well, not really. The only widget which uses the graphic capabilities is 
the bar.

I had some thoughts in mind about "plots" ore something, but never 
implemented them.

> I mean; will I be limited to the chars and symbols offered by l4l, or can I
> actually dump small bitmaps to the display and/or control it pixelwise?

No, not at the moment. l4l does not support this, but the T6963-driver 
would. T6963.c uses pixmap.c, which provides sort of a "graphic 
framebuffer", where Textx and bars are rendered into. The flush() 
function within T6963.c sends this framebuffer to the display (using 
double-buffering to save bandwith).

> If that's not possible yet, it will definately be
> the first thing I'll try to hack up once I got my display.

You are very welcome to do so! BUT! Do it within the pixmap device, so 
every other graphic display would have these features, too (without any 
changes to the driver!). At the moment, all the pixmap-drivers (X11, 
PNM, PNG) would have icons!

> I took a quick glance at the code and all the scary parallel-port stuff seems
> to be nicely wrapped, so I might actually be able to do it even tho my C is,
> *ahem*, rusty. ;)

If you plan to change something, _PLEASE_ use the CVS code! (I recently 
implemented a new "parallel port abstraction layer", so the parport 
stuff looks even cleaner now.

Another thing: You don't have to wait for your display, use the X11 
driver for development and testing. Believe me, as soon as you get your 
display, it will work. (And I sooner get your code :-)

If you have any questions about the internal structure, feel free to ask me!

I think you'd best start with pixmap.c, implementing some new functions 
which draw things into the framebuffer.

Have fun!

-- 
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