RE: [iPAQ] Browsers and Mail Clients

> If we are going to start writing GUI applications ourselves(rather than
> porting existing apps), we need to define a standard for doing this. This
> should include at least: GUI layout standards(maybe a gnome or KDE
> "handhelds" spinoff), IPC conventions(or again variations on existing),
> syncing protocols and operations to Desktop or network. There should be
> common code to do all of this easily. I guess since I opened my big mouth,
> I can start and RFC for the effort. I am a software engineer ("QNX
> development, server applications" is my title) and have been with linux
> since you had to make floppy disks to install it. I don't do much front end
> work (I try to avoid it), but I have experience with GTK and straight Xlib
> APIs. I don't know why I am giving a resume here...
>
> Anyway, if anyone has some comments on doing this, lets hear them, I'll add
> my thoughts to an RFC and post it somewhere(where?).
>
> Questions I have for the community (these are all about GUI):
>
> Should we create our own beast or derive something from one of the Desktop
> managers (gnome vs. kde battle ensues)?

I would vote for Gtk+/Gnome in this position (Caveat: I work for Helix
;-), mainly because it's done in C, and thus can be easily interfaced to
other languages -- I think it's very possible that people start writing
apps in, say, python. Using C++ as the framework would limit us, and it
would also cause all sorts of development headaches (getting a working
g++, getting all the standard C++ libs built [extra bloat], etc.).

> Should we try to look similar to WinCE, or Palm? What about this wheel menu
> I've read about on this list?
>
> I know you can rewrite the GTK drawing routines; maybe redoing the draw, and
> relocating menubars will be sufficient for a nice interface?
>
> We probably want to use 100% screen size for all apps; do we really need a
> WM? I know GTK will work without one [a WM] if you just run it the same
> size as the screen resolution (I have done a project for a touch screen
> kiosk like this, it turned out really nice). Add a program that can toggle
> apps (pseudo-WM, maybe the gnome-panel can do this for us) and we're golden
> ;) This may not work, for us...Anyone see any caveats here(mainly can we
> still interact with gnome, I think the answer is simply "Yes", but I'm not
> sure.)?
>

I personally like most of WinCE's interface elements -- I think the
single menu bar at the top of the screen and a status bar at the bottom
is just about right for this type of device. I agree that we need some
sort of pseudo-WM (afaik, the panel doesn't do this -- it's the WM that
manages the desktops, the panel just displays the applets to let you
switch 'em.)

Another question that I was pondering is how to deal with xscribble --
it would be nice if one of the buttons could be a scribble toggle, and
then you could scribble anywhere on the screen instead of just in the
xscribble window. This would save a lot of screen real estate, and make
the machine more useful overall.

        - Vlad
        
Received on Wed Sep 20 13:02:26 2000