Replacement Launcher

[anomaly]

Heyas,

I've started work on a replacement launcher for the EA800, driven by the fact that the asus one is slow, buggy, inflexible, cumbersome, and in my opinion ugly (both in terms of aesthetics and design).

It's still in very early stages however it is currently usable as a launcher.

The design uses WebKit for rendering the actual user interface and translates a Qt object (a custom class called QtL) to a javascript object (qtl) that allows communication between the user's html and Qt/Embedded itself. The user is free to modify the initial html document (desktop.html) in order to theme it or extend functionality as they see fit. The QtL object also provides the necessary mechanisms to implement a taskbar to track running apps and bring them to focus when desired.

I'm currently using jquery to render a very rudimentary desktop.html with a taskbar that uses normal button tags but I have some ideas for a better user interface I'll try to write up soon... or you can write your own and share it around!

So far, despite using potentially resource-intensive html and webkit, I've found the load times and interface responsiveness to be far better than the original launcher and memory usage is minimal.

Soon, I'll be extending this to allow more encompassing control over the system as well as viewing the system's state (think: systray and control panel applets). I also intend to implement an emulation of eeeserver's QCOP commands to allow the existing asus apps to integrate properly with it, enable screen rotation, and to correctly set up their environment (eg: for the ebook reader, which seems to require specific environment vars to be set up in order to find the ebooks on the system).

I also intend to start a few other projects to address deficiencies in the original Asus apps, such as a hierarchical, folder-aware library browser application which then launches the user's configured reader (this one particularly annoys me, I have thousands of documents I wanted to keep on this thing and Asus's decision to use a flat list is just mindbogglingly near sighted and almost had me ready to return the EA800).

But first, lets get the launcher sorted.

The project can be found at https://slice.sol1.net/projects/qtl

If you wish to contribute (even if it's just to create feature request tickets or bug reports) feel free to register. If you wish to submit code just let me know and I'll make you a developer on the project after reviewing your initial additions.

I'll fill out the wiki area of the project with design documentation and screenshots shortly, as well as release prebuilt binaries for x86 and EA800 in the files section. I'll also release the EA800 binaries in an .ipk for easy installation once I have a safe way to switch between it and the original launcher for users to experiment without breaking anything.

Also it's worth noting that there, as of yet, isn't anything EA800-specific with the launcher; it could easily be used anywhere where Qt/Embedded is used.

Update: Prebuilt binaries are now available at https://slice.sol1.net/projects/qtl/files for x86_64/Qt4.8.0 and arm/EA800/Qt4.6.2.
At this stage you will need to copy the etc/QtL directory to /etc on the rootfs for the launcher to find it's desktop.html (ie: /etc/QtL/desktop.html ). I'll add commandline parsing to specify the location and filename to use for the initial view soon.

Note: In order to use the x86_64 build, you will need to use Qt's qvfb virtual framebuffer as QWS expects to have full control of a framebuffer. Or, of course, you can use it on the linux framebuffer directly if your platform doesn't already have a xorg server using it

Note: You will also need to edit desktop.html and point the .exec() calls to actual executables you have on your system. The ones in the current desktop.html are obviously specific to my test environment and likely won't exist at these locations on your system.

Update: Screenshots of the newer, more usable reference desktop.html are now up at: https://slice.sol1.net/projects/qtl/wiki/Screenshots
I've created some initial feature/task tickets so people can see my plan of attack and monitor progress at: https://slice.sol1.net/projects/qtl/issues
The git repository has been updated with several of today's significant changes, including processing of the asus launcher's Config.xml to prepopulate the js object's qtl.applications property with executable paths and icons, the effect of which you can see in the screenshots.
Sorry I haven't updated the prebuilt binary tarballs yet, I'll post new prebuilt binaries tomorrow from the office - there's an electrical storm overhead at the moment so I'm turning everything off. I've had lightening damage equipment before

[anomaly]

Bump for download link and note updates

[osowiecki]

downloading

[Jamie-B]

Brilliant, astounding idea!! I greatly look forward to the progress on this. I won't be able to test anything until after deadlines die down (which may take a week or more), but this is a very exciting project and I wish you the best of success. Pictures would be awesome along the way, if you take any!

[anomaly]

I won't be able to test anything until after deadlines die down (which may take a week or more)

I completely understand, I'm doing this in my spare time outside of working hours and have a few looming project deadlines myself. As such updates will likely come in small bursts on weekends. This weekend I'll get some screenshots up and improve the example desktop.html to show off the potential of using html for user interface design.

After those little tasks, I guess the next step should be implementing the eeeserver-like QCOP message handling so the existing asus apps are happier running under it which I will also make a start on this weekend.

Glad to see some interest with this, and I hope once the ball gets rolling some more devs will be willing to come onboard and shape this into a real viable replacement for the asus firmware eventually

[Muhali]

Glad to see some interest with this, and I hope once the ball gets rolling some more devs will be willing to come onboard and shape this into a real viable replacement for the asus firmware eventually

well, I am sure there is a lot of interest in this project, many are watching. I fully support your efforts and wish you luck. A real anomaly!

M.

[Jamie-B]

If it's any help, here's the last foray anyone made into the QCOP message handling, if you haven't seen it already.

[anomaly]

If it's any help, here's the last foray anyone made into the QCOP message handling, if you haven't seen it already.

Yep, I did see that, thanks though Handy to have some boilerplate to use as a starting point and a message reference

[T_B]

Very interested in your developments. I usually wait installing something new until it is tried out by more advanced users. I use my eeenote almost every day, so can't spend a lot of time tinkering with it and not be able to launch programs.

Great site btw, looks very professional. A couple of screenshots would be nice. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

[anomaly]

Great site btw, looks very professional. A couple of screenshots would be nice. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Thanks, and yep I'll get screenshots up this weekend as soon as I write a more practical desktop.html (current one is just a proof of concept, not really practical or glamorous)