[Icon-tech] finding documentationondevelopingprogramsforthebraille plus

[Ken Perry]

I will try to answer these questions satisfactorily, and you will have to ask for more information if I leave anything out.
You asked,
"the big question is
> how to compile the c source code first so it will run on the braille
> plus.  Is there any information anywhere about compiling c programs for
> the arm processer?

Last I heard, the Icon used a cross compile system called OpenEmbedded
(www.openembedded.org) to build its software for ARM.  I don't know if
this is still the case.  Maybe Marc can chime in on this."

You are correct part of the system is OE and we are currently building with the Arm gcc tool chain version 3.4.4 release 3.
You asked,
"I wonder if another option would be to use binaries from the Debian armel
branch.  I don't know if these binaries are compatible with the Icon base
system?"

Some will work and some will not.  If you want to test it install it like so:

Ipkg install Packagename.ipk

This way if you do a reflash it will not stay installed.  Once you know it works you can install it through the regular method.  Know that anything you install this way we do not support.

You said,
"s for Python development, I would also be interested in some tutorials on
the classes provided for the Icon UI, and a list of Python modules
available on the Icon."

If you know python well you can find all this information using the python interpreter and a module called inspect and a function called dir at the console.  If you don't you might want to do some work on python on your own PC to learn it first.  This is how I got started on the device I wrote the tuner first on Windows then I learned the SBTK that runs the Icon UI.  There are also the docs on tech.aph.org/mm and there are a list of the SBTK functions there.  Which is what our UI tool kit is called.


You asked,
"As I don't have an Icon, I was also wondering if
there is some kind of Icon UI "simulator" available to be able to develop
on a Linux PC?  Or is the only test environment the Icon itself?"

You can develop  anywhere but you can only really test the code on the Icon.  The SBTK is only on the Icon.  I test a lot of my code on Linux though and then port it over.  I find sometimes I have to change the code due to problems with the small environment for example audio is fixed point and some xml functions are slower do to the small platform.   You can work around almost any problem but again I suggest if you're starting out with python you should write some applications for your PC first even if it's under windows.

Ken