Getting a qtopia env working on the 604/5 is great news, and I'm highly impressed by bubu and co. for getting this done so rapidly
I have a few, random thoughts on this which I put up for discussion in no particular order...
1. It seems to me that there are two ways that `qtopia/x04/5' could be developed: as a long-term `hack' to run alongside the existing avos interface, or as an eventual replacement for avos. The latter, it seems to me, is more worthwhile but a lot more difficult.
2. Running alongside avos might be useful in the short-ish term, because (a) we already know how to do this, and (b) we wouldn't lose any of the built-in functionality. In my own `hello world' tests I've found that I can switch back and forth between the running app and the avos app, the same way as the built-in apdf app allows. It's a bit grungy, but probably functional. The app switching code could, I think, readily be added to the qtopia interface somewhere.
3. If we replace avos, then we need a way to get its functionality. Replicating it is probably highly impractical, if not impossible. So there would need to be a way to launch (or re-launch) avos from qtopia. avos isn't a qtopia app, so it would be necessary for the x04/5 qtopia implementation to set up a `non-qtopia' working environment in which to run avos, in much the same way that avos does for qtopia apps right now. We'd need to provide pass-throughs for keyboard and touchscreen input, for example. Although this is non-trivial, I think it falls squarely into the realm of `things we know how to do'.
4. If avos and qtopia run side-by-side, there are a lot of problems that have to be solved before qtopia or qtopia apps can do audio stuff. avos grabs the audio driver when it starts, and doesn't seem to let it go. Unless there is some neat hack that I haven't thought of (fingers crossed), the only way around this problem requires, I think, the ability to insert new kernel modules at boot time. This falls into the category of `things we don't know how to do'.
5. The avos media stuff is not modular in any way, as it was on the PMA. You can't, for example, run just the audio player, or the video recorder. Question: does the 604/5 have enough memory to run a full implementation of Qtopia and avos simultaneously, while still leaving room for apps? avos uses at least 10mb of the 40-or-so mb the unit has.
5. All of this is too ambitious for me. I got interested in this hack because I thought it would provide an easy way for me to port some of my PMA apps to the 604. I thought it would be ten minutes' work
Hah! From a purely personal point of view, I'm not sure I want to install a whole new operating environment just to run a few simple apps
6. We already know that the avos app can launch and inter-operate with qtopia-like apps. I've investigated what would be necessary to port qtopia apps to use the avos `look and feel'. It's not trivial, but it wouldn't be impossible.
7. This is the big question for me: If Archos were to provide the avos interface with a way to launch _any_ program (rather than just the pdf viewer) -- and this is probably only a two-line code change for Archos -- would it be better to focus development on a way to make ordinary qt apps work with avos, or to continue to work on a whole new UI environment? Of course, there's nothing to suggest that Archos would be willing to do this.
Comments welcome
Best wishes
kb
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