Graphics support

El Paisa

There is a complete lack of support for the graphics cababilities of the Propeller.
Not even the manual mention the word graphics.

The only hope is to wait for the book that Andre' is writing on the subject.
However, this will take weeks if not months.

In the mean time what shall we do?

I suggest any person interested in this subject·make contribution not matter how small or trivial.
Lets get this thing rolling, do not wait for any help from·any·gurus up there.·

Beau Schwabe

El Paisa,

There isn't a manual because the graphics engine is an object to be used for the Propeller. Within the object
there are explanations for each of the available sub-functions written for the graphics engine. What is it that
you are looking for exactly that we might be able to help you out with?

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Beau Schwabe

IC Layout Engineer
Parallax, Inc.

El Paisa

The thing I really like to have is complete description of the graphics command (including mouse) within the Graphics object,
and·how to used them.

A few more examples beside of the two published·(graphics.spin, graphics palette.spin).

I am sure that within the graphics.spin there are much more commands not mention.·

Mike Green

I'm sure that, when the Hydra book comes out, you'll have more information than you may want or need about graphics on the Propellor.

Remember that the Parallax staff is limited and probably very busy with what's already out there. Remember that they have to support the Stamps, the SX series, the Propeller, and all the accessories as well. Take the time to read the existing code, learn yourself to use it by trial and error, and write your own guide.

Brian Riley

El Paisa said...
The thing I really like to have is complete description of the graphics command (including mouse) within the Graphics object,
and how to used them.

A few more examples beside of the two published (graphics.spin, graphics palette.spin).

I am sure that within the graphics.spin there are much more commands not mention.

Lewis and Clark started off to explore America without a map of any kind for where they where going ... here at least you have the source code and a pretty healthy demo (Graphics Demo in the Propeller>Examples folder) using darn close to all if not all of the graphics commands. Print it out and read it, then try it out. Take Graphics Demo and make small changes in the invocations of various methods and whack F10 and see what it does. Thats what I did when I adapted the demo to run on the PRC.

You are right, though, Propeller does not support graphics ... when you get right down to it propeller is a bare bones 32 bit processor, 8 of them, and as far as their basic instruction set goes they don't do a hell of a lot of anything ... but Parallax graciously supplied, free, spincode that does. Others in the community have added a lot more, improved I2C support, very high rate serial i/o, Dallas One-Wire, your choice of about four different LCD objects/drivers (one of which I contributed myself!) , etc ...

Propeller is whole new frontier for embedded processors ... you need to prepared to do some blind blundering around out there.

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cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Sawmiller

aye, heres to blundering, its fun
dan

Graham Stabler

I think some more simplistic demos might work well, "here is a line click mouse to continue", "here is a square...." some of the demos do a great job of demoing the hardware and not such a good job of explaining the software to beginners. Now I feel like I should go and create it.

The other problem of course is trying to work out how things work before you have really learnt the language, its like trying to read a recipe book in Latin. But there is only one person who can do anything about that and he is about to retire to bed with the spin reference chapter.

El Paisa, open Graphics.spin and click the documentation radio button, these are all the functions:

PUB start : okay
PUB stop
PUB setup(x_tiles, y_tiles, x_origin, y_origin, base_ptr)
PUB clear
PUB copy(dest_ptr)
PUB color(c)
PUB width(w)
PUB colorwidth(c, w)
PUB plot(x, y)
PUB line(x, y)
PUB arc(x, y, xr, yr, angle, anglestep, steps, arcmode)
PUB vec(x, y, vecscale, vecangle, vecdef_ptr)
PUB vecarc(x, y, xr, yr, angle, vecscale, vecangle, vecdef_ptr)
PUB pix(x, y, pixrot, pixdef_ptr)
PUB pixarc(x, y, xr, yr, angle, pixrot, pixdef_ptr)
PUB text(x, y, string_ptr)
PUB textarc(x, y, xr, yr, angle, string_ptr)
PUB textmode(x_scale, y_scale, spacing, justification)
PUB box(x, y, box_width, box_height)
PUB quad(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, x4, y4)
PUB tri(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3)
PUB finish

Most are in the graphics examples and there is explantion in the graphics.spin file. Don't be scared just jump in, save the demos with a new file name and play, the first thing I did was add an extra leg to the dogs!

Graham