Minimal GUI

Apr 03, 2006 5 Replies

Keneth Porter's Intrumentation GUI thread got me thinking about GUIs. I use a full featured GUI library (although I do use most of the features it offers) but this might be too much for some people. Is there a minimal library available that perhaps just initialises the screen, displays a bit of text at certain locations and puts up bitmaps.



I reckon that would be enough for a lot of applications but maybe it would be useful to include a touch screen interface or some other input method. Or maybe the user could sort that out for themself.



Basically the full graphics libraries, whilst very capable, are very expensive and a cheap version with just the most basic of features would probably be enough. It would certainly cut down development time and open up some facilities to people on tight budgets. Do any exist?


there is a framework called MiniGUI, which seems to be a lightweight GUI though not so light as "just initialises the screen, displays a bit of text at certain locations and puts up bitmaps. "

Again, I am not sure what "minimal" means in your book. Please give me your opinion to "FLTK" V1.1 which is name Fast Light ToolKit. It is availabel for Windows, Mac and Linux, but was also ported to run on Microwindows on embedded devices. It is OpenSource LGPL (with additions to allow commercial products without providing source code) and can be adapted to pretty much any device since it uses only basic drawing and messaging.

I appreciate any feedback. I am one of the core developer of this library for seven years.

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and please also google for FLTK empededd, nano-X and Microwindows

How about this one?

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You don't say for which target CPU you need it, but have you looked at Scitech's MGL? If you need more than the minimal set I'd take a look at FLTK.

Mat Nieuwenhoven

Sorry, I think I've been a little misleading. I'm already using Segger's EmWin on a Sharp LH79524 but I was just generally wondering about other GUIs on a more philosophical level. I wish I'd seen FLTK a bit earlier or contiki but I've shelled out a good bit of money now and will have to use what I've bought. Don't get me wrong though, I'm very happy with EmWin but it's a shame to see something that costs considerably less that could do the job.

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