wxWidgets and QNX
Jim
there are some information about the possibility to run wxWidgets on
QNX with an MGL-layer on wxwidgets.org but they are outdated - the
related links to the webpage of the vendor of this MGL-thingy does no
longer exists.
So what is the current state of wxWidgets and QNX? Are there some more
information available - or is that MGl-thingy available somewhere?
Kind regards
Vadim Zeitlin
J> So what is the current state of wxWidgets and QNX? Are there some more
J> information available - or is that MGl-thingy available somewhere?
MGL should still be available somewhere as it was released under an open
source licence but it's not maintained by SciTech any more and in fact we
consider removing wxMGL port as it's not maintained neither and AFAIK
nobody is using it. If you're interested in reviving it and using it
under QNX you'd need to invest some effort into it, I'm afraid.
If you are indeed interested in this, please let us (wx developers) know
about it so that we at least don't drop wxMGL entirely as we planned to do
before the next 3.0 release.
Regards,
VZ
--
TT-Solutions: wxWidgets consultancy and technical support
http://www.tt-solutions.com/
Jim Hart
If you are indeed interested in this, please let us (wx developers) know
about it so that we at least don't drop wxMGL entirely as we planned to do
before the next 3.0 release.
Jim
Vadim Zeitlin
JH> I'm definitely interested and it is not a problem for me to put some efforts
JH> into it. So if it is possible to find MGL somewhere I'll see what I can do -
I see some files here: http://www.os2site.com/sw/dev/mgl/index.html
Of course, it's an OS/2 site but I think the sources should work under any
OS in spite of the dire warning.
If we do plan to continue supporting wxMGL it would probably be nice to
copy these files to ftp.wxwidgets.org...
Please let us know if you manage to make it work under QNX.
Good luck,
Jim Hart
Uli Hertlein
> what I can do - QNX seems to be a relevant platform for more and more
> companies in industry that do not want to use insecure and instable
> Windows any longer and do want to have professional support (what drops
> Linux). And that seems to be true for QNX so it is very interesting for me.
I don't 'do' embedded systems but it seems to me that more people are moving to
Linux than move from one proprietary system to another proprietary system.
Surely any embedded Linux vendor will be more than happy to sell professional
support (FWIW).
Cheers,
/uli
--
Uli Hertlein
Research and Development email: u...@xdt.com.au
XDT Pty Ltd Web: www.xdt.com.au
Jack Dodds
Uli Hertlein wrote:
I don't 'do' embedded systems but it seems to me that more people are moving
to Linux than move from one proprietary system to another proprietary
system. Surely any embedded Linux vendor will be more than happy to sell
professional support (FWIW).
Uli and Jim,
I do "do" embedded systems and have used both Linux and other systems. The
problem with Linux in many embedded applications is that it is not a true
"real time" operating system (RTOS). That is, the OS is not designed to
give the CPU to the highest priority process that needs it at any given
instant; limits on execution times and latency cannot be guaranteed; etc.
There are some "real time" Linux versions, but in the ones that I know, the
"real time" aspect is tacked on and involves some compromises. E.g. in one,
any "real time" code has to be linked into the kernel, thereby negating the
safeguards that Linux provides to individual processes.
On the other hand, QNX is a true RTOS, and is largely Posix compliant (or at
least compatible), but when I last looked it did not support any
cross-platform GUI framework.
So a wxWindows port to QNX makes sense.
The logical entity to do such a port is QNX Software Systems, the company
that sells QNX. I believe that they have already made a significant
contribution to the Eclipse CDT (Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling) so are
clearly not hostile to open source, though their own system is proprietary.
If you are using QNX, the thing to do is to go after your QNX rep and let
them know that this is a need.
Jack Dodds
Bob Paddock
Jim Hart wrote:
> what I can do - QNX seems to be a relevant platform for more and more
> companies in industry that do not want to use insecure and instable
> Windows any longer and do want to have professional support (what drops
> Linux). And that seems to be true for QNX so it is very interesting for me.
I don't 'do' embedded systems but it seems to me that more people are moving to
Linux than move from one proprietary system to another proprietary system.
Surely any embedded Linux vendor will be more than happy to sell professional
support (FWIW).
QNX is a Real Time Operating System (RTOS), Linux is not unless you get into
various Linux extensions.
I've always been partiual to the uCOS-II RTOS stuff myself, having my
name in the first edition of the book helps I guess:
http://micrium.com/page/home
uCOS-II is more open than QNX.
The best solution always depends on the problem that needs to be solved.
Vadim Zeitlin
JD> So a wxWindows port to QNX makes sense.
I don't do embedded systems (although I did toy with them many years ago
and would like to do it again...) but I clearly agree with the above. The
goal of wx is to allow you to write GUI applications in C++ for as many
platforms as possible and I'd definitely be glad to see a QNX port and
would try to help anybody working on it.
JD> The logical entity to do such a port is QNX Software Systems, the company
JD> that sells QNX. I believe that they have already made a significant
JD> contribution to the Eclipse CDT (Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling) so are
JD> clearly not hostile to open source, though their own system is proprietary.
JD> If you are using QNX, the thing to do is to go after your QNX rep and let
JD> them know that this is a need.
I remember trying to contact them to see if they were interested in
funding wxQNX port development back in 2000 or maybe 1999. I didn't get any
reply but maybe things changed since then and I obviously wasn't a QNX
customer neither, so it's still worth doing it.
Ironically enough, I finally found the funding for the new port I wanted
to write from SciTech who paid for its initial development and later also
for wxMGL. Unfortunately wxUniv didn't find that many users and MGL has
declined too. But it would be great to see at least the former revived, it
shouldn't be that difficult to implement the low level classes it needs
using native QNX (Photon?) API. Still, it would surely require a couple of
months of work.
Jim Hart
Jim Hart
By the way: there is a possibility to request software for QNX at http://www.openqnx.com/PNphpBB2-viewforum-f13-.html - may be it is helpful when enough people are asking for wxWidgets there ;-)
--
Kind regards
Jim Hart
--
http://www.openapc.com
Vadim Zeitlin
JH> To come back to this discussion: I think you can drop the MGL support, there
JH> is a special wxWidgets-variant available from QNX (It looks like they're
JH> applying a patch during build process but I'm not sure about that at the
JH> moment).
JH> In case you update the webpage:
JH> As described at
JH> http://community.qnx.com/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.pkgsrc/wiki/Bootstrapyou
JH> can check out a special SVN repository that contains free software fow
JH> QNX. Under pkgsrc/x11/ a project wxGTK28 can be found that contains
JH> wxWidgets for QNX and that can be buildt and installed with "bmake install".
JH> All required dependencies are build automatically.
JH> The current subversion version is HEAD_641.
This is interesting, thanks for the information. Unfortunately I can't
access the URL above without user name so I couldn't really find anything
more about this. If you can, please contact the maintainers of this port
and let them know that we (wx developers) would be glad to integrate any
QNX-specific patches they had to apply to wx itself.
Jim Hart
Jim Hart
Vadim Zeitlin
JH> Just some additional information: meanwhile QNX is available for free for
JH> non-commercial purposes!
JH> To get it simply
JH> - go to http://www.qnx.com and download the ISO-Image of the Neutrino SDP
JH> (current version 6.4.1)
JH> - get a 30 day trial key via the webpage - you can use it to start
JH> immediately
JH> - afterwards the support gets in contact with you, there you can request a
JH> key for your non-commercial purposes; this key is a fully functional one, it
JH> works unlimited
If they had an officially free licence for open source developers (as some
other vendors do) it would be great but like this I don't really know if
I'm personally interested in begging to have a free licence when any work I
ever risk doing on it would be of benefit to QNX itself.
JH> So it worth to have at least a look at this cool system :-)
Oh yes, definitely, it _is_ a cool system and I still have fond memories
of QNX 4 (?) demo floppy.
Jim Hart
> other vendors do) it would be great but like this I don't really know if
> I'm personally interested in begging to have a free licence when any work I
> ever risk doing on it would be of benefit to QNX itself.