iLiad ANNOUNCE: Lua5.1 package for Iliad

[hansel]

Hello all,

While Uip is really great and simple to use, it is really slow on complex gui: A dialog with 256 (=16x16) buttons takes 40 sec to show while the same dialog programmed directly in Gtk+ takes only 8 sec. This is not a Lua problem: I used Uip's C-interface.

I want to state clearly that Iup is ok for a simple gui (say 10-20 widgets), but I think it's worth a try to port the libraries mentioned by Iñigo...

To be continued.

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by hansel

Hello all,
While Uip is really great and simple to use, it is really slow on complex gui: A dialog with 256 (=16x16) buttons takes 40 sec to show while the same dialog programmed directly in Gtk+ takes only 8 sec. This is not a Lua problem: I used Uip's C-interface.

It was too nice to be good...

Anyway,

Originally Posted by hansel

I want to state clearly that Iup is ok for a simple gui (say 10-20 widgets), but I think it's worth a try to port the libraries mentioned by Iñigo...

To be continued.

I have almost completed the port, 2 functions to fix and check everything works smoothly on the iliad .
In fact I've only slept 1 hour tonight (yeah, porting is addictive ;-)), but I had to stop, a meeting with a very important customer this morning, so a shower, shaving, etc...
I'll release a first version of the port to test in a few hours, posible saturday, stay tunned.

Iñigo

[Iñigo]

So here we are again.

Please, read the documentation in the file. It contains all the information I'm too tired to write again here

They are some issues but I think it could be easily solved with your help.
Once we solve them we could release an official package.

I really appreciate your comments, suggestions, ideas, etc.

Hope you like it,
Iñigo

[hansel]

Hi Iñigo,
Nice marathon! get some sleep now
Great that you have provided patches: that the best way to analyze and manage the differences.
I'm not sure if I'll have much time this week, but I'll do my best...

Can you run a simple test to get an idea about performance? A dialog wit 16x16 small exit buttons would be a good benchmark. I hope it shows in not much more than 8 seconds... A positive result would be very motivating

PS: be very careful when changing lines that contain 'free' 'alloc' or 'ref'! We don't want memory leaks or core dumps...

[hansel]

Hi Iñigo,

Originally Posted by Iñigo

I really appreciate your comments, suggestions, ideas, etc

Did you have time do do a simple performance test on the Iliad?

I just played a bit with lobj, lgui and ldraw on my ubuntu box: nice libraries indeed! The examples are cool...

• About liblua.so or liblua.a: I think you do not need liblua at all: the functions we need are already in the Lua interpreter. They are resolved fine at runtime.
• I reported the small problems in the makefiles to the authors: they solved it quickly in the svn version. (http://svn.tuxfamily.org/viewvc.cgi/oproj_oprojsvn/)
• I agree that it is better to separate the gui stuff in a separate package.

I'll play some more when I have time...

[Iñigo]

Sorry for the silence these days, I've been very busy at work.

Originally Posted by hansel

Did you have time do do a simple performance test on the Iliad?
Can you run a simple test to get an idea about performance? A dialog wit 16x16 small exit buttons would be a good benchmark. I hope it shows in not much more than 8 seconds...

I've used the attached file. It's a modification of the Application.lua example included in lgui sources, with a table in the body of the window. There we have 16x16 buttons connected to click callbacks.

The main window appears after 7-8 secs, but it doesn't display the table with the 256 buttons. If I click on the body of the window just after main window is shown, table appears in less than 1 sec, that is, 8-9 secs. since the start.
Don't know what's happening here... maybe a refresh issue?
I've tried to insert a tbl:showAll() after table creation, but with no visible differences.

The same script with a 4x4 table shows in 6 seconds.

Originally Posted by hansel

be very careful when changing lines that contain 'free' 'alloc' or 'ref'! We don't want memory leaks or core dumps...

Don't be afraid, I've only modified a new function that didn't exist in old glib v2.6.7.

Originally Posted by hansel

About liblua.so or liblua.a: I think you do not need liblua at all: the functions we need are already in the Lua interpreter. They are resolved fine at runtime.

I'll try to build again without linking to liblua.so. Thanks for the tip.


Btw, any idea about the problem I mention regarding theme?

Iñigo

[hansel]

Hi Iñigo,

I downloaded the most recent version of lobj en lgui, applied your patches, tweaked a little more and managed to compile and run everything! The example with many buttons runs fine (same speed as native gtk).

Great work, great results Thanks!

Originally Posted by Iñigo

Btw, any idea about the problem I mention regarding theme?Iñigo

I have not experienced any problems!?!? See screen shots.

I checked: you do NOT need liblua.a (or .so) to build the libraries.

My build is a bit hacky right now. When I have some more time, Ill sort things out and try to release a documented package...

To be continued...

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by hansel

I downloaded the most recent version of lobj en lgui, applied yout patches, tweaked a little more and managed to compile and run everything! The example
with many buttons runs fine (same speed as native gtk).

Great work, great results Thanks!

I have not experienced any problems!?!? See screen shots.

wow, I think I'll leave compilation and packaging to you, cause I suppose the problems I'm suffering are due to my building environment.

My build is a bit hacky right now. When I have some more time, Ill sort things out and try to release a documented package...

To be continued...

Waiting for it ;-)

Kind regards,
Iñigo

[Iñigo]

I've noticed that there are new versions of lobj and lgui, so I've updated the patches and cleaned the package.

Changes:
- patches updated to lobj v0.10.0, lgui v0.22.0
- don't link to liblua.so, it's not necessary, as hansen has demonstrated
- update documentation

Iñigo

[hansel]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Iñigo

I've noticed that there are new versions of lobj and lgui, so I've updated the patches and cleaned the package.
Changes:
- patches updated to lobj v0.10.0, lgui v0.22.0

Great!
I'm almost ready to build decent packages. I re-factored my build environment, which took more time than expected...

I'd like to use the most recent sources (from svn) for lgui and lobj: they solved some problems and removed the build-time dependency for luac. They are here:

http://svn.tuxfamily.org/viewvc.cgi/...ar.gz?view=tar and http://svn.tuxfamily.org/viewvc.cgi/...ar.gz?view=tar

Could you make one more patch for this version? Jus't say it if you don't have time for this: I'll look in it myself. But it will take me some time, and I don't want to do double work...

Continue the good work!

EDIT: Wed Feb 25 19:59:53 UTC 2009
Here are ipk's, if somebody is impatient to try the new gui lib Documentation and updates will follow... It is really cool : the package for the Lua binding of Lgui is only 66KB! Please send some karma to Iñigo ASAP!
EDIT:Thu Feb 26 07:18:35 UTC 2009
Iñigo, the new sources can wait until they release them officially...

[Iñigo]

Originally Posted by hansel

EDIT: Wed Feb 25 19:59:53 UTC 2009
Here are ipk's, if somebody is impatient to try the new gui lib Documentation and updates will follow... It is really cool : the package for the Lua binding of Lgui is only 66KB! Please send some karma to Iñigo ASAP!

great!!!
anyway, I don't need the karma, I only do this for the money... or the girls... or... I can't remember the reasons... hehehe ;-)

Originally Posted by hansel

EDIT:Thu Feb 26 07:18:35 UTC 2009
Iñigo, the new sources can wait until they release them officially...

Last published sources were released on Feb 16th, are any useful features or fixes included in svn since then?

I can start with the new patches just now, next week I'll be working abroad and won't be able to do it... do you still need them?

Btw, if these packages work good enough, maybe you should open a new thread with them. This thread looks too buried to find something from casual searches.

Thanks,
Iñigo

[hansel]

Originally Posted by Iñigo

I can start with the new patches just now, next week I'll be working abroad and won't be able to do it... do you still need them?
Btw, if these packages work good enough, maybe you should open a new thread with them. This thread looks too buried to find something from casual searches.

It's not urgent, the current version is good enough. We can update when the release a new version.

I prefer to publish it in this thread: maybe we can beat the nr of views of Adam's outdated sticky 'Liad Development VMWare image' thread

[Iñigo]

Hi,

I've checked the new packages, they work great... but the problem I mentioned before regarding theme contrast with my own building persists, so I suppose it's an issue of my iLiad.
This is what I do:

mydesktop$ ssh -l root ILIAD_IP
iliad$ export DISPLAY=ILIAD_IP:0
iliad$ lua lgui_example.lua

After it, the example window displays on iLiad's screen but every widget is drawn with the same colour, so no contrast between different widgets.

I've tested several apps I installed on the iLiad (emelfm2, leafpad, etc) and all of them are displayed perfectly, both when running from contentlister or from ssh shell.

I've also checked all the gtkrc (gtk+ theme files) but I only have the standard ones in the standard places.

Any idea?

Iñigo

[hansel]

Update...

I'm exploring one more GTK binding for lua: lgob, by the same author as lgui. It is very 'alpha' now, but much more flexible and complete than lgui. It will be easier to use for older versions of the gnome libraries...

I'll try to do an experimental build soon.

Ref: http://svn.tuxfamily.org/viewvc.cgi/...vn/lgob/trunk/

EDIT Sat Mar 7 18:25:34 CET 2009: I have a first build running on my Iliad: gtk + dgk

[hansel]

The more I play with Lgob, the more I like it!
I started a page about Lgob for Iliad. It has (some) references about building it...
https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/luailiad/wiki/lgob