Question about programming graphics

[tim cle]

--- Murray Taylor <MTaylor at bytecraft.com.au> wrote:

> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-freebsd-small at freebsd.org 
> > [mailto:owner-freebsd-small at freebsd.org] On Behalf
> Of Dan Charrois
> > Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 8:22 AM
> > To: freebsd-small at freebsd.org
> > Subject: Question about programming graphics
> > 
> > Hi there.  I'm not sure if this is the appropriate
> FreeBSD mailing  
> > list to use - if not, please let me know where
> this question 
> > would be  
> > more appropriate.
> > 
> > I'm in the early conceptualization stages of
> developing avionics for  
> > amateur-built aircraft, and would like to use
> FreeBSD as the core OS  
> > to develop on, likely using a couple of small
> single board computers  
> > cross-checking their results for redundancy.  It
> would be using a  
> > flash-based filesystem for ruggedness.
> > 
> > In any case, I need to be able to output graphics
> to an LCD display,  
> > but for efficiency reasons would like to avoid
> XWindows (all the  
> > overhead of providing moveable windows, pointing
> devices, etc. is  
> > useless since the configuration of the various
> display elements on  
> > the screen would be fixed.  I suppose that the
> user would be able to  
> > choose between various display configurations, but
> they wouldn't be  
> > using a regular user interface in the true sense
> of the word.  Have  
> > you ever tried to drag a mouse around, or even use
> a touchscreen, in  
> > heavy turbulence? :-)
> > 
> > Since the avionics would consist of both the
> hardware and 
> > software as  
> > a bundle, I don't have to worry too much about
> thousands of 
> > different  
> > possible configurations.
> > 
> > In any case, what options do I have?  I'll be
> programming in regular  
> > C (not C++, though I could if I absolutely had
> to).  Ideally, I'd  
> > like to know if there is a library or something
> that would let me  
> > initialize the display to a given resolution and
> then just 
> > use simple  
> > functions to draw lines, circles, etc., in
> different colors.  An  
> > OpenGL implementation without requiring XWindows
> might be cool too,  
> > if it would let me render three dimensional
> objects at fixed  
> > positions on the screen.
> > 
> > I've done a lot of command line programming in
> FreeBSD, but 
> > so far no  
> > graphics programming, in XWindows or otherwise, so
> I may be missing  
> > something basic here.  It just seems like a
> full-blown XWindows  
> > implementation is completely overkill for my
> purposes and I'm 
> > looking  
> > for something simple to use and set up.  Or is
> there an XWindows  
> > "lite" configuration that lets you output simple
> graphics to the  
> > screen in fixed places without the user interface
> component?
> > 
> > If anyone can point me in the right direction (or
> really, any  
> > direction for that matter) it would be greatly
> appreciated.  Thanks!
> > 
> 
> Dan,
> 
> It seems that you basically want a "window like"
> cursor addressable
> display system
> 
> ncurses is the bees-knees for this as it supports
> pretty much all
> of your needs and is a linkable library to your C /
> C++ programs.
> 
> And it is part of the baseline install -- try 
> 
> % apropos curses 
> 
> and you will get all the man pages you kneed ;-)
> 
> BTW freebsd-questions would also be a place for a
> general question like
> this 
> also. ( I ahev copied this to there also for you to
> seen any other
> comments arise ;-)
> 
> mjt
> 
> 

Port description for graphics/svgalib

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/graphics/svgalib/pkg-descr

This is a low level console graphics library,
originally based on VGAlib 1.2 by Tommy Frandsen. 
VGAlib supported a number of standard VGA graphics
modes, as well as high resolution/high color modes on
many popular graphics adapters.  As of now, support
for many more chipsets had been added.

It supports transparent virtual console switching,
that is, you can switch consoles to and from text and
graphics mode consoles using Alt-[function key]. Also,
SVGAlib corrects most of VGAlib's textmode corruption
behavior by catching SIGSEGV, SIGFPE, SIGILL, and
other fatal signals and ensuring that a program is
running in the currently visible virtual console
before setting a graphics mode.

WWW: http://www.svgalib.org/



		
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