Re: Graphical install disks Ben Pfaff is doing

[Ben Pfaff <pfaffben@pilot.msu.edu>]

Hartmut Koptein <koptein@et-inf.fho-emden.de> writes:

   >    > I suppose we need a framebuffer version of cfdisk. Now that WOULD be a fun
   >    > thing to have.
   > 
   > I'm not putting ggilib on my bootdisks, I'm writing a very tiny
   > graphics library of my own.  Current, or perhaps slightly old (the
   > machine that has the latest version isn't on now), header shown below:

   Could you explain it a little bit more. Will we have two different versions
   of cfdisk or the other programs that uses your graphic-lib on the boot-floppies?

No, my current plan is have the graphical boot floppies be a separate
set.  They can't work on all computers--just ones with VGA compatible
graphics display.  So, for x86 at least, we'd have a series of
floppies: standard, tecra, graphical, ...

Between two different floppies there would be different versions of
programs, but not on a single floppy.  There isn't room.

Current, I *am* planning to merge my code into the standard
boot-floppies package; it only requires a 2.2.x kernel and a modified
root.bin.

   Use you the 'standard' framebuffer functions?

Yes.

   Is it portable?

I think that it will work on anything with IBM VGA compatible.  Here,
it works on a 256K VGA just fine.

It is flexible enough that you could retarget it pretty easily for
something not VGA compatible.

   Is your vga16fb portable?

Yes, it's been tested by a few people on the linux-fbdev list.

   How far is it?

Do you mean how far along is development?  Well, the graphics library
and the framebuffer device are almost done, but there's more than that
that needs to be done.

If I had a week of solid work time, I could finish it.  I might get
that much time over spring break.

   How big?

The library is about 10K without fonts.  Fonts add 10K or so each
depending on size, but they compress very well.  Images add varying
amounts, of course.

   Will you add mice support?

Not planned for the initial release, but maybe later.

   What about of resizing the menus?

I don't understand the question.
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