1 wxWindows PDA/Embedded System Emulator
2 ======================================
4 This is a simple display emulator for embedded
5 applications (wxWindows or other) that use
6 an X server. The Familiar Linux distribution
7 is one such environment, using Tiny-X.
9 wxEmulator uses Xnest, which is the XFree86
10 X server compiled to show a virtual X desktop
11 in a window. wxEmulator hijacks the Xnest
12 window by reparenting its window, and shows
13 this window with appropriate PDA-style decorations
16 No real emulation is done, apart from the work
17 that Xnest does. You compile your apps on your
18 host as usual and test them out with the emulator
19 to get an idea of the constraints of the embedded
20 system display. Then compile the apps for your
21 target system with a suitable cross-compiler,
22 or if you have the luxury of lots of space on
23 your target device, compile natively on the
26 It is intended to create a tarball of the
27 emulator, wxX11 and maybe some other useful
28 components such as a simple window manager so that
29 people can quickly start developing embedded
30 GUI applications without the need for actual
36 Make sure Xnest is in your PATH. You can download
37 a binary from the XFree86 ftp server or a mirror,
38 or you can compile Xnest from source -- but this
39 downloading XFree86 source in its entirety and
40 compiling it. Say goodbye to half a gig of disk
41 space if you take this option.
47 After a brief flicker in which wxEmulator steals
48 Xnest's window, you should see an emulated iPAQ with
49 a checked screen that indicates raw X with nothing else
52 Running any X applications with the Xnest display
53 number (currently 100) will show those applications
54 in the emulator window instead of the normal desktop.
58 % xeyes -display :100 &
60 Before running any other programs, run a window
65 If the X program or WM you want to run doesn't support the
66 -display argument, try exporting the DISPLAY variable
67 before running it. E.g.:
72 Eventually the emulator will support configurable
73 skins, complete with buttons as on the actual device.
74 For now, it just pretends to be an iPAQ.
79 You need to use wxX11 -- no other port is supported.
80 Configure and make wxX11 in the usual way (see docs/x11/install.txt
81 at the wxWindows top level), then compile wxEmulator
82 using the makefile that configure created.
86 Julian Smart, March 2002