What to Program...

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:22 pm

Hello, I was wondering what the general consensus was on what type of program Linux (Or free software in general.) needs most. Or, as to say, The top most wanted Linux programs.

Brynet-Inc · Post by **Brynet-Inc** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:35 pm

I can't say I'm entirely sure what you mean..

But as for saying "Linux Applications" in such a generalizing way.. As long as you stay away from Linux specific API's there shouldn't be any reason why you can't offer portable programs.

The most wanted application? There are thousands even hundreds of thousands of open source applications out there in many different categories..

But.. What you mean by the "Most wanted Linux Program" doesn't make sense..

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 11:18 pm

I'm sorry if that didn't make any sense. I mean....What do you think is lacking from the free software world's ammunition of free software? Something that Windows has, and Linux doesn't. I'm asking, because I have nothing really to do.....Quite bored really.....and I was wanting to start something, and not reinvent the wheel.

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:15 am

Hmmm... native DirectX support, one desktop API, and a stable driver ABI allowing for closed-source drivers still working with next week's kernel?

Yee-harr, here come the flames... *duck*

Seriously spoken, Linux software is pretty much complete, except perhaps for some more... hum... esoteric fields. (I could do with a free AVI / DVD cutting / (de)muxing / authoring software suite...) The "lacks" of Linux are usually non-intuitive GUIs, bad docs or a general grip on reality in existing projects, which probably isn't what you wanted to hear.

Combuster · Post by **Combuster** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:12 am

lets start with a sound system that doesnt stutter the instant the cpu usage goes up. (Music in games playing at 'half' speed, not being able to run make and music at the same time without getting irritated)

For the rest, i completely agree with solar's post.

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:21 am

Combuster wrote:lets start with a sound system that doesnt stutter the instant the cpu usage goes up.

Now that's a matter of configuration. Or rather, documentation. No wait, sensible defaults would already have done nicely...

AndrewAPrice · Post by **AndrewAPrice** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 3:26 am

I would love to see a OneNote clone on Linux! OneNote is the only reason my tablet PC continues to run Windows.

If you don't know what OneNote is, it's basically like folder which contains tabs and sub-tabs along the top, with pages and sub pages along the side. Taking up most of the screen is a blank page ruled with lines (their width, colour, etc, can be customised). You can write anywhere on the page with a stylus (or with the keyboard by clicking anywhere you wish to start entering text), and you can change the pen width and colour. You can erase erase ink quickly by rubbing with the back of the stylus. OneNote also allows you to insert voice/video recordings, convert ink to text on the fly, spell-check handwritten notes, insert other documents as images which can be written over, and allows you to search your entire notebooks including handwritten and voice notes (I haven't tested searching voice notes to be honest).

I would love to see an open source clone of OneNote, and I'm sure you'd have a wide audience of users with Linux-tablets and users with Windows-tablets-that-want-to-use-Linux-instead.

If a OneNote clone seems a little unrealistic, I think there should be some sort of unified tablet input API for GTK or QE, like Windows has. If you've never used a tablet edition of Windows, there is a tiny keyboard button you can press on the taskbar (which also appears when you're highlighting a text field) and it brings up the tablet input panel which lets you enter text in 3 forms: line by line, character by character, and using an on screen keyboard.

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:33 am

Combuster wrote:lets start with a sound system that doesnt stutter the instant the cpu usage goes up.

nice --20 <sound system>. Linux mainly doesn't include hacks to increase priority for applications producing sounds so they don't get priority over non-sound producing applications. If you want it to work <always> - try a hard-real-time system, not a soft-real-time system. Do expect to be surprised as those systems will just tell you "no you can't start <application> - I'd be overloaded"

GLneo · Post by **GLneo** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:28 pm

make doesn't need real-time but music does, so why not just make the music player request more time slices???

you could program something to go from dvd to .avi ( or what ever linux uses ) i did this on windows and it took 2 hours and ~10 tools, just thought one tool would be cool...

or you could start writing programs for my OS

Solar · Post by **Solar** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:36 pm

Because more time slices to the music player do not bring real-time (since it's not the number of CPU cycles that are critical, but the delay between event and resolve). It would just degrade overall system performance...

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:37 pm

GLneo wrote:make doesn't need real-time but music does, so why not just make the music player request more time slices???

you could program something to go from dvd to .avi ( or what ever linux uses ) i did this on windows and it took 2 hours and ~10 tools, just thought one tool would be cool...

or you could start writing programs for my OS

Try limit calculations. If there are infinite applications fighting for time, you get 1/infinity'th part of the time - theoretically none. If you increase that to 500/infinity'th part, it's still nothing. So, you can't give any actual lower bound or performance guarantee if you don't limit the total application slice count.

GLneo · Post by **GLneo** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:31 pm

how does windows do it???

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:12 pm

GLneo wrote:how does windows do it???

It doesn't, of course.

Windows gives your process a temporary priority boost depending on the type of event. I've seen the list somewhere but it mainly boils down that if your application accesses the 3d card, some random other hardware and the sound card, keyboard & mouse, you'll get +10 or such. Even if you're not using it for anything pointful. Calculating applications don't get those boosts so they're run last. Windows relies on you not trying to find out.

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 3:42 pm

Candy wrote:
GLneo wrote:how does windows do it???
It doesn't, of course.

Windows gives your process a temporary priority boost depending on the type of event. I've seen the list somewhere but it mainly boils down that if your application accesses the 3d card, some random other hardware and the sound card, keyboard & mouse, you'll get +10 or such. Even if you're not using it for anything pointful. Calculating applications don't get those boosts so they're run last. Windows relies on you not trying to find out.

This is true for current Windows, Vista does have special classes of program now that boost depending on there action, there as a link to a website explaining it in a recent post.

Candy · Post by **Candy** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:15 am

Tyler wrote:This is true for current Windows, Vista does have special classes of program now that boost depending on there action, there as a link to a website explaining it in a recent post.

I read that in a book explaining Windows NT 3.51.