GUI for embedded systems

Hello,

Could someone point me to something that could help me
creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
"easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
system?

The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, ARM7
or ARM9).

I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
"lighter" alternatives.

Thank you! 	   
					
---------------------------------------		
Posted through http://www.EmbeddedRelated.com

msr wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Could someone point me to something that could help me
> creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
> "easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
> system?
> 
> The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, ARM7
> or ARM9).
> 
> I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
> "lighter" alternatives.

Search around for "PEG" (I think it stands for "Portable Embeddable 
Graphics").  I've seen it used to great advantage in a nice small 
system.  At the time (10 years ago) the licensing was reasonable, but it 
is $$ software.

Depending on the demands of your GUI you may just want to roll your own 
-- Qt is, AFAIK, a "big system" GUI-maker; I very much doubt that it'll 
be even remotely as light weight as PEG.

-- 
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

msr wrote:
  > Could someone point me to something that could help me
> creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
> "easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
> system?

That depends a lot on the nature of your application -- the
hardware you have available (for the display, "pointing device",
etc.) as well as the sophistication of that UI and the other
responsibilities of the system as a whole...

> The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, ARM7
> or ARM9).

And what are you planning on using for the display, etc.?
Are you looking at a QVGA panel?  Something *smaller*?
Larger?  Color/monochrome, etc.?

> I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
> "lighter" alternatives.

Qt is bloated.  What can you *afford* in your hardware budget
(processing power, CODE+DATA resources, etc.)?

I've enjoyed using Inferno for small/quick-turnaround projects.
The UI is Tk based (some folks find that wonderful; others
find it regrettable :> ).  Not as glitzy as some other approaches
but you can hammer out a UI in very little time (taking advantage
of the nature of Tk).

I haven't sorted out where it sits on the performance curve...
but, I imagine it is on a par with a Qt solution in terms of
processor burden.  (I have an app running on a 90MHz *486*
that yields "tolerable" response times!)

Of course, you're pretty much stuck with Inferno itself if you
go this route (which "some folks find that wonderful; others
find it regrettable"  ;-)

HTH

On Wed, 12 May 2010 16:27:06 -0500, "msr"
<mario.ribas@n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>Could someone point me to something that could help me
>creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
>"easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
>system?
>
>The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, ARM7
>or ARM9).
>
>I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
>"lighter" alternatives.

Scale? A one-off for your own learning/experimenting or thousands of
units per month in a life-critical application environment?

On the one-off, it's for fun end of things, look at the BlueScreen dev
board at Sparkfun
<http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8858>
The color touchscreen LCD is pretty easy to drive and it gives you a
chance to roll yer own primitives and build up from there.

-- 
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

"Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.now> wrote in message 
news:vLKdnU6MRaGTqHbWnZ2dnUVZ_tgAAAAA@web-ster.com...
> msr wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Could someone point me to something that could help me
>> creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
>> "easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
>> system?
>>
>> The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, 
>> ARM7
>> or ARM9).
>>
>> I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
>> "lighter" alternatives.
>
> Search around for "PEG" (I think it stands for "Portable Embeddable 
> Graphics").  I've seen it used to great advantage in a nice small system. 
> At the time (10 years ago) the licensing was reasonable, but it is $$ 
> software.
>
> Depending on the demands of your GUI you may just want to roll your own --  
> Qt is, AFAIK, a "big system" GUI-maker; I very much doubt that it'll be 
> even remotely as light weight as PEG.

Though PEG has some limitations.  (Unless it has changed since I looked at 
it) it doesn't provide built in menu/dialog creation.  If your GUI requires 
these features you have to build them yourself from the basis building 
blocks that PEG provides.

BTW PEG is a C++ class library.  If the OP wants to code in C he needs the 
C/PEG varient

tim

tim.... wrote:
> "Tim Wescott" <tim@seemywebsite.now> wrote in message 
> news:vLKdnU6MRaGTqHbWnZ2dnUVZ_tgAAAAA@web-ster.com...
>> msr wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Could someone point me to something that could help me
>>> creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
>>> "easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
>>> system?
>>>
>>> The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex M3, 
>>> ARM7
>>> or ARM9).
>>>
>>> I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
>>> "lighter" alternatives.
>> Search around for "PEG" (I think it stands for "Portable Embeddable 
>> Graphics").  I've seen it used to great advantage in a nice small system. 
>> At the time (10 years ago) the licensing was reasonable, but it is $$ 
>> software.
>>
>> Depending on the demands of your GUI you may just want to roll your own --  
>> Qt is, AFAIK, a "big system" GUI-maker; I very much doubt that it'll be 
>> even remotely as light weight as PEG.
> 
> Though PEG has some limitations.  (Unless it has changed since I looked at 
> it) it doesn't provide built in menu/dialog creation.  If your GUI requires 
> these features you have to build them yourself from the basis building 
> blocks that PEG provides.
> 
> BTW PEG is a C++ class library.  If the OP wants to code in C he needs the 
> C/PEG varient

Qt is also C++.

But yes, if he wants C he needs something different.

-- 
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

msr wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Could someone point me to something that could help me
> creating/understanding GUI for embedded systems in general? What's the
> "easier" (I know "easy" could be relative) to get GUI on an embedded
> system?
>
> The hardware I'm looking for is ARM-based microcontrollers (Cortex
> M3, ARM7
> or ARM9).
>
> I think Qt could be a solution right? However I would like to know
> "lighter" alternatives.
>
> Thank you!
>
Also look at uC/GUI from Micrium/Segger.  It should do what you want.

-- 
Scott
Validated Software
Lafayette, CO 



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Thank you all for the responses and suggestions!

English is not my mother tongue, so I have some difficulty in express
myself clearly, but if you dont mind I will try to explain my doubts
better.

I would like to understand how GUIs are made in general (ie, depending on
the requirements, from the most demanding to the less demandig). From a
simple mp3 player GUI (monochromatic) to industrial displays
controlling/monitoring machines (color, few buttons on the screen, dialogs,
menus, etc).

For the most demanding systems, maybe Qt+Linux+WinCE were some (which
more?) of the keywords. But what about "smaller" systems?

Say, I have a board (pcb) which controls a robotic arm and I want a small
user-interface (a "specialized" LCD, not a desktop or laptop) to interact
with that (move up, move down, etc). How can I acomplish that?

What frameworks/libraries/toolsuites are there to create small embedded
GUI?

(note that Im looking at ARM, so 32 bit microcontrollers)

Thanks again! 	   
					
---------------------------------------		
Posted through http://www.EmbeddedRelated.com

msr wrote:
> Thank you all for the responses and suggestions!
> 
> English is not my mother tongue, so I have some difficulty in express
> myself clearly, but if you dont mind I will try to explain my doubts
> better.
> 
> I would like to understand how GUIs are made in general (ie, depending on
> the requirements, from the most demanding to the less demandig). From a
> simple mp3 player GUI (monochromatic) to industrial displays
> controlling/monitoring machines (color, few buttons on the screen, dialogs,
> menus, etc).
> 
> For the most demanding systems, maybe Qt+Linux+WinCE were some (which
> more?) of the keywords. But what about "smaller" systems?
> 
> Say, I have a board (pcb) which controls a robotic arm and I want a small
> user-interface (a "specialized" LCD, not a desktop or laptop) to interact
> with that (move up, move down, etc). How can I acomplish that?
> 
> What frameworks/libraries/toolsuites are there to create small embedded
> GUI?

I think the first thing you may be missing is that many smaller GUIs are 
hand-rolled for the purpose at hand.  A really basic graphics framework 
(like PEG), is mostly there to manage frames, keep track of which frames 
are 'above' others, and make sure that the 'top' frame doesn't get 
painted over by a 'lower' one.

But when you get right down to it, someone still has to think through 
what a typical user is going to be comfortable with, and program an 
interface that works -- there are guidelines that you can follow for 
that, but I know of no frameworks* for such systems.

* Commercial ones.  Every place I've ever worked at but one that had a 
GUI with menus has ended up with at least a rudimentary menuing system 
that captures menu behavior in some object-oriented way.

-- 
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com

"msr" <mario.ribas@n_o_s_p_a_m.gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:3YKdndKtObsJ9HDWnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d@giganews.com...
> Thank you all for the responses and suggestions!
>
> Say, I have a board (pcb) which controls a robotic arm and I want a small
> user-interface (a "specialized" LCD, not a desktop or laptop) to interact
> with that (move up, move down, etc). How can I acomplish that?

I still don't see that you need a complex GUI to control this.

Unless perhaps you are wanting to draw a "map" of the arm's location, on the 
screen.

Or are you using a touch screen?

> What frameworks/libraries/toolsuites are there to create small embedded
> GUI?

The BSP that comes with development boards should be sufficient for a basic 
textual GUI.

Do you need anything more complicated than this?

tim