All ideas on x-less solution are welcome. As Thiago points out the solution to be targetted is wayland managing the Egl surfaces and then a product specific window manager. Input drivers need consideration too.
Mikk0 Terh0 On Dec 27, 2010, at 4:14 PM, "ext Thiago Macieira" <[email protected]> wrote: > On Monday, 27 de December de 2010 15:01:55 john pratss wrote: >> Hi all, >> why is qt embedded not being used as part of UI development framework and >> why is qt X11 is being used instead??? > > For two main reasons: > > 1) inside Qt: Qt for Embedded Linux is an older codebase, with a lot of > hacks, > created for a class of embedded devices with very, very limited capabilities. > This class of devices is disappearing and MeeGo is definitely not targetting > them: MeeGo targets the high-end, where memory and graphics capabilities > aren't that constraining. > > Qt for Embedded Linux requires writing a screen driver, a mouse driver, a > keyboard driver, etc. using API that is not guaranteed to stay binary > compatible. Also, its architecture was designed around frame buffers, and the > code assumes in many places to have access to the pixels themselves. This > architecture is not the best one for OpenGL ES-capable hardware acceleration. > > What's more, Qt for Embedded Linux is being replaced by the Lighthouse > Project > with Qt Platform Abstraction, which is more suitable for hardware > acceleration. When we switch to Wayland, we'll switch to QPA too (and > probably > require a MeeGo 2.0 version). > > 2) outside Qt: the ecosystem. We want to run many non-Qt applications and the > tecnology that exists from the ecosystem and community. Those currently use > X11 because there's nothing better. Using QWS is not an option. Only when > Wayland is mature will there be an alternative, so we can ask the community > to > use Wayland. > >> At-least for the handset and IVI based devices where there are memory and >> processing power constraints qt embedded is a better alternative than qt >> X11. > > Handset is not so much an issue. X11 runs fine on 256 MB of memory, as > evidenced by Maemo 5 and MeeGo on the N900. Those devices have 600 MHz to 1 > GHz of CPU today and are now coming to dual-cores (ARMs, MIPSes, since Atoms > are there already). > > IVIs have a different market outlook, but they are also looking at high-end. > Remember that IVIs have a lifespan of 5 to 7 years, whereas handsets get > replaced within 2 to 4. Anyone using ARM11 for IVI today is shooting > him/herself in both feet, in my opinion. > > So I don't buy your argument. But even if your argument were true, it doesn't > mean MeeGo must address those segments. Like I said before, MeeGo is > addressing the high-end. And, moreover, I also don't think QWS is the best > architecture or is abetter alternative than X11, like you siad. > > QPA / Lighthouse, yes, that is a better alternative. But we need a windowing > server first and Wayland is not ready. > > -- > Thiago Macieira - thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org > Senior Product Manager - Nokia, Qt Development Frameworks > PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint: > E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C 966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358 > _______________________________________________ > MeeGo-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev _______________________________________________ MeeGo-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev
