tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77893162009-11-11T08:17:18.797+02:00Screens Environment is a multi-platform object oriented middleware research project designed to connect technologies together and provide better user experiencesZakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.ukBlogger265125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-82707567386158281452009-10-06T09:31:00.002+02:002009-10-06T09:52:06.306+02:00

OK, Here we go again...My latest evolution of the object storage is as follows:Each object can contain an instance per component.This means that a markup object can contain the following instances:UIMarkup - Html markup instance for displayFSHtml - Html parser instanceFSXml - Xml parser instanceFSFile - File stream instanceThe idea is that the markup object is also a markup object, also an xhtml

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-28344191272301673832009-09-13T19:48:00.002+03:002009-09-13T19:53:41.371+03:00

Hi anyone who still checks this blog,I now I have not updated for a long time. I moved to Jerusalem with my family, had a lot of work to do at my full time job and my son started kindergarden. Alot has changed since I first started Screens is 2001.Screens is not dead, actually on the contrary... I never stopped working on Screens and have in fact tested a few of my ideas at work and they have

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-61021152680885299432009-02-19T17:12:00.003+02:002009-02-19T17:52:57.097+02:00

1. Don't rely on a compiler extension when doing platform indepedent codeYou will never know when your code will hit a compiler you did not anticipate. Keep it cleanand simpleand don't try to be smart. Consistency is key in writing alot of components. Avoid using tricks because their value will decrease over time because you will lose track of the tricks you used.2. Using a 'better' language (C++

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-40679414668065721942008-10-13T13:13:00.001+02:002008-10-13T13:13:58.319+02:00

Screens Environment has been going since 2002 and still no releases have made the light of day. There is a single reason why Screens has taken so long and why I have no idea when it will be released. Its not because I lack time or interest. Its because of the object storage. If you look at the object oriented OS projects, none of them have made mainstream because they are not practical enough,

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-41016242697433604942008-10-08T15:48:00.003+02:002008-10-08T15:52:44.748+02:00

The difference between component oriented programming and object oriented programming is focus. In object oriented programming the focus is the objects themselves which is why you access methods through objects like this:CoreObject * object = new CoreObject;object->rename("My Object");In component oriented programming the focus is the components and objects are just placeholders for instances

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-68460524157271197162008-04-28T22:00:00.002+03:002008-04-28T22:03:48.645+03:00

I am going to try and use twitter for quicker updates on development and keep the blog for more milestones and other news,follow me at http://twitter.com/zhamilton1 for some live development updates on how code is the Screens code is evolving and the issues I face daily.

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-65822743848867551632008-04-08T07:53:00.002+03:002008-04-08T08:00:45.468+03:00

Hi Everyone,Sorry for the lack of updates, I was at my wifes parents house for the last 3 weeks, so not only could I not do any coding but internet access was not as spiffy.My wife had birth to our new baby girl at 22:25 last night (monday night) weighing 3.780 kg in her 41st pregnancy week. The baby is beautiful (but then again, I am biased) and is healthy and doing very well. This is my second

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-62668279807003859172008-03-10T23:36:00.003+02:002008-03-10T23:50:49.711+02:00

1. No WorriesDon't worry... This is nothing to do with the state of PalmOS or Screens. I don't want to say anything just in case something does not happen as planned but I will not be very active on Screens in the next few weeks for some family prime-time.2. Technical improvementsI have uploaded the latest code for the shell bar and while it does not display anything at the moment on the bar (

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-8631750466273123472008-03-05T23:55:00.001+02:002008-03-05T23:55:16.878+02:00

I added the rectangle when moving a window that shows the border that will cause the window to maximize. I still need to do a bit more design before I can finalize on the system bar and finish a first draft of its implementation. Hopefully I can have something by the middle of next week. About the patents... It does not matter since the code is already public domain and I don't mind if someone

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-10792472812907188212008-03-02T22:36:00.001+02:002008-03-02T22:36:54.027+02:00

Things are moving along again and every small step is shaping Screens into a much more usable demo. Here is a demo of the maximize/restore feature I told you all about which I hope you will like: I found it very practical and easy to use and I wonder why no one else uses this method instead of small buttons. When the shell will be finished, you will be able to minimize windows by just dragging

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-13146797917346522572008-03-02T00:34:00.001+02:002008-03-02T00:34:34.567+02:00

Sorry for the lack of updates but this has been a slow period since not much changes from a visual perspective but alot has changed under the hood making way for the shell bar + slider. Windows can now be maximized by dragging their title to the top of the display and can be restored by dragging the title back into the middle of the screen. I hope you like it, I will upload a video soon showing

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-92198040081184094732008-02-24T00:46:00.001+02:002008-02-24T00:46:33.372+02:00

I have added maximize/restore ability to windows and added the window title text. I will be starting shortly on the shell package which manages the Safire main system parts which is the slider menu and system bar. I am designing the last API parts of the menu. Note that because I have not implemented timers, there will be no animations in the slider but it will still give the effect. I can't

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-38349574784043026492008-02-21T20:16:00.001+02:002008-02-21T20:16:10.967+02:00

Details of my shell design are really coming along and I am starting to implement the basics to support the Safire shell. I already know more or less how the UI will look and I cannot wait to show you a demo of it. Now that all the platform main problems are behind me, I can finally start do things that are more user visible. A bunch of moving windows is not enough to spark user interest but I

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-36205522718405043172008-02-20T14:12:00.001+02:002008-02-20T14:12:00.530+02:00

I have solved the exit issue and now Screens runs like it used to before the module split. The performance is not that bad: I did not believe that Screens would improve as it has in the last 3 months. I still have alot of work ahead but these are design issues, not platform specific problems. I know how the UI will look but I need to design their components. I can't wait to show you all the

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-45915304952285742342008-02-20T01:42:00.001+02:002008-02-20T01:42:19.708+02:00

I don't believe it! http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/cclass/notes/sx4aa.html It turns out that PalmOS is pre-ANSI C compiler which means that it does not know how to always initialize local arrays correctly. It took me a long time to figure this out (thank you www.live.com) OK, So let me tell you what all this work meant... It means that Screens can support modules in a very easy way. Currently I am

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-31218293042899341772008-02-19T23:53:00.001+02:002008-02-19T23:53:23.990+02:00

OK, I still cannot understand why I am getting "Invalid read from 4E560000" error but I am still trying to debug the code (even though I cannot use the debugger). However I have made a utility to allow me to create the API wrappers easily which has been uploaded including the source code.

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-2280878402658437192008-02-17T01:09:00.001+02:002008-02-17T01:09:59.552+02:00

OK, Things went smoother than I thought. I have finished the API wrappers between the packages. I still have to do the final code to set up the feature memory function pointer so that I can lookup loaded modules for the associated function. It should not be that slow because I do a small string lookup for the package name and then the function is by index. Also its easy to set up for new modules

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-75957937021032403102008-02-15T13:35:00.001+02:002008-02-15T13:35:07.026+02:00

Screens is not doomed yet, however I am working on a very non UI issue which is the package/module interconnection. I have no problem loading a module. The problem is linking between the API calls which I am doing in a mostly platform independent layer which makes it hard to get it working but once its working, it will be easy for me to write new modules and connect the modules together. I also

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-16675963662990515562008-02-12T22:28:00.001+02:002008-02-12T22:28:04.811+02:00

Hi, Sorry for the lack of updates...  I have been working hard on the module side of Screens. The kernel is more or less usable and now I need to start working finally on the UI Shell module. I still need to figure out the model model in all its glory details, this really feels like the final 'big problem' in front of Screens to stop the demo from being released. The loading of modules is more or

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-33122977430360577692008-02-07T07:44:00.001+02:002008-02-07T07:44:14.874+02:00

Sorry for the lack of posts and updates this week. I have had to put some more time in my full time job which did not leave me much time when I got home to work on Screens. However I have still had to plan the next components which is the shell itself. I have a new graphical layout which I hope to test soon in code. I have had some SVN activity and I still need to upload some more changes in the

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-27517420065682908332008-02-03T23:58:00.001+02:002008-02-03T23:58:01.975+02:00

Here is the latest version of Screens running on my LifeDrive without crashing and with a good enough frame rate. I decided that I would try optimizing my code first and only if all efforts fail go towards ARM. Well, It looks to me like its fast enough at the moment to continue on this path without ARM. First of all, this is the 'release' (not 'debug') compilation which improves the frame

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-32157452044464943662008-02-01T15:54:00.001+02:002008-02-01T15:54:46.536+02:00

Here is a video of Screens running on my PalmOS LifeDrive: You can see that it is very slow and its because I am doing blitting without ARM code which seems to be the way I need to go if I want Screens to have more than 1 frame per second. I hoped I would not need to go in the ARM direction but I guess I have not much of a choice at the moment. Screens still crashes on exit but what's strange

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-72664831127638474892008-01-31T22:35:00.001+02:002008-01-31T22:37:08.440+02:00

Its as slow as hell because I am using a pixel by pixel blit using the WinPaintPixel PalmOS function. I just need to find a reliable way to blit to the screen and it should be much faster. Also when I exit it still crashes but I am sure I will find the solution to the crash very soon. Also note because I don't have a blitter, there is no transparency on the Palm version. Once I use a blitter, I

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-77421023256235711512008-01-31T17:46:00.001+02:002008-01-31T17:46:47.486+02:00

Mounting VFS Folders works but what is even more cool is that the drives appear like windows drives so for example: I did not have to change a single path in my test file to test VFS browsing on the simulator. So for example C:\xec\ works also on the handheld using the first VFS slot (most devices have a single VFS slot) and mapping it to the C drive. This makes it easy for me to transition

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7789316.post-68704351167741853372008-01-31T02:11:00.001+02:002008-01-31T02:11:40.558+02:00

I just uploaded the new UIList component which deals with a collection of items and deals with scrolling them in a unique way. Here is a demo of what it can do with simple strings: If you noticed at the end of the video, I run the same demo on my LifeDrive and it works (apart from the lack of font & bitmaps). I was so sure the speed was going to be terrible but I guess its not that bad after

Zakai Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16584147498688640434zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk0