Re: evaluating GTK+ for embedded system design

[Michael L Torrie <torriem chem byu edu>]

On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 11:18 +0200, peter greve bst-international com
wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am actually planning the GUI for an embedded system driven by a PowerPC.
> So GTK++ is one of the options I can go with. I like the GIMP tool, so GTK
> should be a good choise.
> But I have no feeling concerning resources, CPU load and library size
> needed to run a GTK app in the "embedded world".
> Maybe someone can give me some rough ideas or experiences.
> 
> Is GTK a tool for desktop computers only or does is also fit into the
> embedded world?

The GPE project (http://gpe.handhelds.org/ ) has done a lot of work
making GTK fit well into an embedded environment.  They are targeting
mainly PDAs, but their work will probably adapt well to your needs. They
use the Kdrive X server (very tiny) and uLibc usually.  A window manager
named "matchbox" is also used to make apps work well on a small PDA
screen.  Sounds like this doesn't really affect you though, so any light
window manager may work for you.

> What is the size of all libraries needed to run GTK ?

Back when I had a Zaurus and was using GPE, the x server itself was
quite small, with the X and gtk libraries just being a few megabytes.

> Do I really need the whole GIMP to run GTK as I red somewhere? (that sounds
> very large)

No GTK is just a toolkit that GIMP is built out of.

> Do I need a lot of CPU power to run a GTK GUI ?

No.

Michael


> Is there a spezialied version for the "embedded world"? What is about "GTK+
> on DirectFB" ?
> Does GTK needs the X-Window system? Can I go with Tiny-X?
> We have to handle a lot of large images on the GUI (1280x1024, 24bit). Is
> there a bottleneck in GTK or X11 to handle these data so I should avoid
> these tools?
> 
> Is there a "visualizing" tool to help to design the GUI and the underlying
> dialogs?
> 
> Is there a way to adapt a special graphics processor (coming with an
> appropriate API) to an GTK application ?
> Do I need to write something like a driver for that graphics processor to
> connect to the GTK app? (I red something about GDK)
> How can I support special features of that graphics processor like alpha
> blending and text anti aliasing? Are these features already supported by
> GTK ?
> 
> I hope the list of questions is not too long. But any information is
> helpful for me to find the right GUI toolkit for my project.
> Thank's in advance
> 
> Peter
> 
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