Suggestion for a new distro.

What features/apps/bugfixes needed in a future Puppy
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systematic
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun 26 Mar 2017, 02:17

Suggestion for a new distro.

#1 Post by systematic »

Hi, I'm rather new to programming, and I have an idea for a new distro of puppy linux that is integrated with C++ or python or whatever makes sense. You see, they have engines based on C++ like UE4, because the language runs really fast and is versatile. So my idea basically combines the concept of a gaming engine with that of an operating system. So say you have several pieces of hardware running on your system—a microphone is one piece. But it's really hard for a programmer running C++ to extract data from that microphone without advanced knowledge of how the microphone interacts with the driver etc. Or say we want to use the microphone on an iphone over wifi on a home intranet. I'm not a spy or anything; I just mean as you would for a home recording studio. And if you could do this with several peripherals—not just microphones, I think that the result would be a highly dynamic computer.

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#2 Post by musher0 »

Hi systematic.

First of all, may I extend to you the warmest possible welcome to "the
kennels". :) I hope you'll find what you need here and that you'll have an
enjoyable stay. As you'll no doubt find out, we are a friendly bunch!

To try to answer your question:

Well, once upon a time ;), someone on this board announced a puppy
with all the Python trimmings. Maybe do a search with the forum engine
with keywords < Puppy AND Python > (without the chevrons), and see
what comes up.

About C++, I'm far from being a specialist, but I would suspect we have
the essentials in the devx of each Puppy. So... load the devx?

With lua, J, OcamL, or Gambas, etc., you can easily install these languages
on any run-of-the-mill Puppy and start programming.

I happen to know that member did18 has a Gambas package available
here. But certainly other language packages from other members
are available. As I mentioned, please do a forum search for the language
you're interested in.

About a recording studio Puppy, there were a couple of experiments which
presented ready-made solutions for Puppy. I remember one derived from
Ubuntu Studio. Again, please probe with the forum search engine.

Also, you can browse the "Puppy Derivatives" section for them. (Start from
the end, that's were the latest ones get listed.) They may not be based on
the latest Puppies, but that may not matter if your focus is creating and
recording music.

If the links to the iso's in those posts are dead, chances are you'll find
them in the Puppy Linux section at the archive.org site. That section of
the archive.org site is maintained courtesy of our much esteemed forum
member "ally".

IHTH.
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

User avatar
Moose On The Loose
Posts: 965
Joined: Thu 24 Feb 2011, 14:54

Re: Suggestion for a new distro.

#3 Post by Moose On The Loose »

[quote="systematic"]Hi, I'm rather new to programming, and I have an idea for a new distro of puppy linux that is integrated with C++ or python or whatever makes sense.
[quote]

Welcome welcome welcome

The devx for a puppy will get you the C++. gcc for C++ can do C also so you have both covered. You can install FreePascal and Octave to have more programming options but there are a few programming areas you shouldn't overlook in your considerations:

The bash command line is a quite powerful strings based programming language all on its own. When combined with small programs you may create in C, C++ etc, it becomes an extremely powerful tool. You are quite likely to want to put at least some GUI onto your own program. This can be really simple if you do it as a wrapper using bash and XDialog. For example, you can make your program so it needs an input file given on the command line and then use:

Code: Select all

if [[ "$1" = "" ]] ;then
  FILE="$(Xdialog  --title "Select File" --fselect "*" 0 0 2>&1 )"
  if [[ "$?" != "0" ]] ; then
    exit 0
    fi
else
  FILE="$1"
  fi
to ask for the file in a nice friendly way. This way you don't have to write any user interface into the code you are making.

I should point out here that:

Code: Select all

echo "s($AA*3.14159/180)" | bc -l
will give you the sine of the angle AA inside a bash script.

JavaScript is a programming language. It lives inside webpages and web browsers. There are ways that you can connect it up with other stuff on your computer because you have hiawatha that can make your own PC be where the web server is. This can give you the ability to serve a web page to another PC on your home network and easily get hold of what the user over there clicks on etc.

vlc can be used to stream your webcam out to another machine on your home network. This can be great for doing things like using a spare computer and webcam to stream whats going on at the birdfeeder to the computer in some other room. Webcams will work on the end of a USB extension cable. So this is a workable option in a lot of cases.

User avatar
greengeek
Posts: 5789
Joined: Tue 20 Jul 2010, 09:34
Location: Republic of Novo Zelande

#4 Post by greengeek »

I think what you are asking for is a method whereby an operating system takes a measurement ("input"?) from various devices (audio, mouse, joystick etc) and produces a "standard" output in a format that you could use in various ways.

I could call this method an "API" interface for every input device.

This would allow you to take the current "values" of each input device and decide what to do with it without the "interference" from the predetermined kernel responses that we currently get.

I don't know if this is possible, or what might be required to modify each driver (module) in such a way that we could use it in a standard (alternative) way.

Exciting thought though...

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