202 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
202 lines
7.3 KiB
Plaintext
Nano-X port
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===========
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What is it?
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===========
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The Nano-X port is based on the wxX11 code, and therefore shares
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almost all of wxX11's code, including the use of the wxUniversal
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widget set. Nano-X is the X-like API of the overall Microwindows
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project, which also has a WIN32 API.
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The Microwindows web site is at
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http://microwindows.org/
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Nano-X is intended to work on devices with very small amounts
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of memory. wxWidgets is quite a large library, so if your
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memory is measured in KB instead of MB you will need to use
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an alternative library, such as FLTK. However, with memory
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capacity increasing all the time, wxWidgets could become
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an appropriate embedded GUI solution for many projects.
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Also, it's possible to think of ways to cut wxWidgets
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further down to size, such as disabling advanced controls
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or rewriting utility functions. See the section on code size
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below.
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An alternative to using Nano-X is to use the standard
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wxX11 port with Tiny-X, which (as I understand it)
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maintains the Xlib API while being sufficiently cut
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down to run on small devices, such as the iPAQ.
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The Familiar Linux Distribution contains Tiny-X. See:
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http://handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/familiar
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Building wxNano-X
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=================
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Building is as per the instructions for wxX11 (see readme.txt,
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install.txt) but passing --enable-nanox to configure. You also need
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to export the MICROWIN variable, setting it to the top-level of the
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Microwindows hierarchy. Remember that MICROWIN needs to be defined
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both at configuration time and at subsequent make time, so you
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may find it convenient to put it in your .bash_profile or similar
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file.
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Typically, various features in wxWidgets will be switched off to
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conserve space. The sample script below calls configure with typical
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options for Nano-X.
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Before compiling wxNano-X, you will also need to edit your
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Microwindows 'config' file to match the values hard-coded into
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configure:
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ERASEMOVE=N (otherwise moving windows will look messy)
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X11=Y
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OPTIMIZE=N
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DEBUG=Y
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VERBOSE=Y
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Compile Microwindows by typing 'make' from within the Microwindows src
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directory.
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Port notes
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==========
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Nano-X has a different API from Xlib, although there
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are many similarities. Instead of changing the wxWidgets
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code to reflect Nano-X conventions, a compatibility
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layer has been added, in the form of these files:
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include/wx/x11/nanox/X11/Xlib.h ; Xlib compatibility
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include/wx/x11/privx.h ; Useful macros
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src/x11/nanox.c ; Xlib compatibility
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There is also an XtoNX.h compatibility header file
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in Microwindows, which we augment with our Xlib.h
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and nanox.c.
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Unfortunately it is not always possible, or economical,
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to provide a complete Xlib emulation, so there are
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still wxUSE_NANOX preprocessor directives in the code
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for awkward cases. It may be possible to eliminate
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some, but probably not all, of these in future.
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Port Status
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===========
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The port is in a very early stage: so far it links
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and a window pops up, but that's about it. (The
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wxX11 port using straight X11 is much more advanced.)
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Things to do:
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- implement some incomplete compatibility functions
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in src/x11/nanox.c
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- implement the colour database
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- add mask capability, without which controls won't
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display properly
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- add further configuration options for disabling
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code not normally needed in an embedded device
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- optimization and code size reduction
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- figuring out why libstdc++-libc is linked to
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binaries -- is this done for any C++ program?
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Code Size
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=========
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Allow about 2.5 MB for a shared wxWidgets library, with the
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dynamically linked minimal sample taking about 24KB. If statically
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linked, minimal takes up just over 1MB when stripped. This 1MB
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includes all of wxWidgets used in the minimal sample including some of
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the wxUniversal widgets. As application complexity increases,
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the amount of wxWidgets code pulled into statically linked
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executables increases, but for large applications, the overhead
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of wxWidgets becomes less significant.
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Sample sizes:
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-------------
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Statically-linked minimal (release): 1,024,272 bytes
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Statically-linked widgets (release): 1,171,568 bytes
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Shared lib, stripped (debug): 2,486,716 bytes
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Shared-lib minimal (debug), stripped: 23,896 bytes
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Shared lib, stripped (release): 2,315,5004 bytes
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Shared-lib minimal (release), stripped: 23,896 bytes
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(note: the -O flag was not passed to the minimal
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makefile, for some reason)
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Strategies for reducing code size
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---------------------------------
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- Look at the .o files compiled in a build and check
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for particularly large files, or files you wouldn't
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expect to be there in an embedded build.
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- Disable options for features that aren't necessary,
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for example: image handlers (BMP, JPEG etc.),
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wxVariant, wxWizard, wxListCtrl, src/univ/themes/gtk.c.
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- Add options to configure.in/setup.h where necessary,
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for finer-grained configuration.
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- Rewrite functions or classes for alternative stripped-down
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functionality.
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- Remove unnecessary functionality or obsolete code from
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wxWidgets.
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- Factor out wxWidgets code to reduce repetition.
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- Add inlining, remove unnecessary empty functions.
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- Separate code out into individual files so that all of
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a .o file doesn't get pulled in, just because an app
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references something else in that file. For example,
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advanced event types could be separated out.
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This assumes that the linker isn't clever enough to
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eliminate redundant functions. The fact that the
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minimal and widgets samples are very close in size
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is evidence that gcc is not doing a good job here.
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- Experiment with compiler options.
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- Commercially supported compilers may have better
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code generation and/or linker optimisation than the
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one you're currently using.
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Sample script for building wxNano-X
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===================================
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This script assumes that you will invoke it
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from a build directory under the wxWidgets
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top level. So you might type:
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% cd wx2
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% mkdir nano-x
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% cd nano-x
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% makewxnanox
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If you need to restart compilation without
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reconfiguring, just type 'make' from the same
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directory.
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-----------------------------:x----------------------
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#!/bin/sh
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# makewxnanox
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export MICROWIN=/home/julians/microwindows/microwindows-0.89pre8
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#DEBUGFLAGS="--enable-debug --enable-debug_cntxt --disable-optimise"
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DEBUGFLAGS="--disable-debug --disable-debug_cntxt --enable-optimise"
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export CONFIGCMD="./configure $DEBUGFLAGS --enable-shared --enable-gui --with-x11 --enable-nanox --enable-log --with-threads --without-sockets --without-odbc --without-libjpeg --without-libtiff --without-png --without-regex --enable-no_exceptions --disable-protocols --disable-ipc --disable-dialupman --disable-apple_ieee --disable-fraction --disable-dynlib --disable-dynamicloader --disable-geometry --disable-fontmap --disable-std_iostreams --disable-filesystem --disable-fs_inet --disable-fs_zip --disable-zipstream --disable-snglinst --disable-mimetype --disable-url --disable-html --disable-constraints --disable-printarch --disable-mdi --disable-postscript --disable-PS-normalized --disable-afmfonts --disable-prologio --disable-resources --disable-dnd --disable-metafile --disable-treelayout --disable-grid --disable-propsheet --disable-splines --disable-joystick --disable-pcx --disable-iff --disable-pnm --disable-tabdialog --disable-newgrid"
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echo $CONFIGCMD
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if [ ! -f ./configure ]; then
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CONFIGCMD=".$CONFIGCMD"
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fi
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echo Invoking $CONFIGCMD
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rm -f *.cache
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$CONFIGCMD
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make
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-----------------------------:x----------------------
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