BeagleBox: Stripping themes, new bugdb project, updated Design 2


I've updated the Design page to reflect the knowledge I've acquired about the omap sgx and dsp.  There's still some work to be done in understanding exactly how Clutter fits into that picture but I'll get there eventually.

In the meantime I've completed stripping out the theme support from the window manager.  What's left is the standalone theme which is very basic window decorations.  I've also made xft required, which in turn makes Freetype required.  It seems plausible to me that future requirements for the window manager may include some osd so keeping Xft seems a wise idea for the time being.

But the goal of stripping themes is to remove all window decorations.  A set top box doesn't need them.  So eventually the standalone theme has to be removed to, or at least removed from top level windows.  We still need some form of window decoration for transient windows that pop up – something that separates them from the background of the main window.  And we need the option to move them around the screen.  Think about what you would want to do with a Picture-in-Picture window.  The window remains open for a time but you may want to move it to the upper right corner or lower left corner of the display.  Users should have that option, and that means transient windows need to have window decorations that allow that kind of interaction.

I've checked in the updated window manager changes that stripped most of the theme support.  While doing this I realized it made sense to track bui progress separate from beaglebox so I created a new project in Flyspray for BUI and moved existing tasks related to BUI out of the BeagleBox project and into the new project.  I also created a set of tasks that I know need to be done for BUI.  Staying organized is important in projects like this.  At least it is to me.  Every now and then you gotta go back through your resources and clean them up and make sure they reflect the current state of the project.


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2 thoughts on “BeagleBox: Stripping themes, new bugdb project, updated Design

  • mjhammel Post author

    No, Qt isn’t typically my first choice – for an embarrassingly simply reason: I never learned C++ (Java, yes. C++ – never had a task that required it). That and I was around when GTK+ was born from GIMP, so I just stuck with that. Clutter is written in C and uses GObject which reduces any additional ramp up time I might have to put in. Then again, I haven’t done much GTK+ programming in a while either.

    Plus, I’m not really looking at Clutter for 3D glitz. My understanding was it was my interface to OpenGL/ES because X doesn’t play well with it and I need OpenGL/ES hardware acceleration to playback flash with Gnash. At least I think that’s what I need. Still working that bit out in my head.