iPhone/iPod Touch Orbiter?

[colinjones]

Using the DCE approach on the iPhone would be nice.... and make for a very nice, fast UI, that's retargetable, etc. However, it isn't just a matter of a few DCE messages, we are talking about a _lot_ ... there are thousands of different messages you can send or receive (commands and events), many of which would be needed to implement the Orbiter on iPhone... and in addition you would need to implement the entire Orbiter UI engine so that all the screens can be generated for it and then it can read these and display them on the device.

None of this is a small undertaking, and really does an iPhone specific Orbiter need to be _that_ retargetable?! By all means, I would like to see such an Orbiter, but compared with the "standard" method of building a Mobile Orbiter which is just a small piece of code responsible for receiving PNG images over RFCOMM/BT and sending back button presses/screen touches, the standard method would be a much shorter learning curve for you and very much quicker to implement! Perhaps start with that, and once you've learned DCE and the screen generation functionality a bit more, move on and implement the "smart" version?

Its also worth noting, that although building a "full" Orbiter for iPhone (or any other device) dealing with DCE messages is a big ask... there is nothing stopping someone using DCE messages over WiFi on such a device to trigger simple tasks... that would be very easy. In other words some simple, preconfigured tools for triggering specific DCE messages, not an Orbiter at all... that's the beauty of DCE, an Orbiter is a rolls royce example of DCE usage, but it is the DCE system that is doing the clever stuff, and you can hook into that using simple DCE commands (perhaps an iPhone app that you install and preconfigure with a couple of lights, so that you can hit the app and turn on an off a few lights around the house, etc) ... porting messagesend would be a good start

[hari]

check the wiki, DCE messages are explained in the developers guide.

br Hari

[Marie.O]

... porting messagesend would be a good start

If you look at the iOrbiter source code, there is a small messagesend function in PHP code.

[zekeallmon]

Well, i would buy an Ipod touch, then pay $25 for the prog.  I would hope that a program after that release, or around the same time, would be available for the blackberry storm2, when it comes out soon.  Thank god that uses wifi..

buying a ipod touch/ paying $25 would be cheaper than buying a 7'' touch screen orbiter that thom uses in his youtube videos, i guess, lol.

[tschak909]

hmm. yet another person who underestimates the cost of development.

wonderful..

-Thom

[joederp]

Yes. Put me down for $20.

[nite_man]

Probably I missed something ... But I think it's pretty easy to develop Orbiter for iPhone The iPhone owners with Apple SDK background should do it. As it was done for JavaMO or Maemo Orbiter. Personally I don't have iPhone and won't buy it for sure. I'm Maemo fan. So, I'm working with Maemo Orbiter and trying to improve it just because I have personal interest to do it. Nobody contribute me for it except 'thanks' from the users

So, if you have iPhone, SDK and like LMCE go ahead and implement iOrbiter. Don't wait till somebody will contribute you

[tschak909]

currently the blocker for mobile orbiter support on the iphone comes down to lack of proper RFCOMM support in the stack.

A standard orbiter needs much more work.

-Thom

[totallymaxed]

currently the blocker for mobile orbiter support on the iphone comes down to lack of proper RFCOMM support in the stack.

A standard orbiter needs much more work.

-Thom

I dont think thats true of WiFi...as there are plenty of example iPhone apps doing IP comms out there.

Andrew

[tschak909]

Andrew... It's not about that. (trust me, I was about to write something a lot more caustic)

The issue is, we have two different orbiter code bases:

(1) Orbiter, which has a ton of code attached to it, we'd need to write at the very least a new rendering class to talk CoreGraphics.
(2) Mobile Orbiter..much simpler, but only works over bluetooth, and RFCOMM is required for the stack.

So please, do not try to incite the argument further!

Somebody needs to write a rendering subclass for Orbiter, or convince Apple to actually do proper RFCOMM support in their bluetooth stack.

I am _VERY_ tired of repeating this ad nauseaum and really wish people would just dig in and help make this possible. I CAN'T DO IT ALL ON MY OWN!

-Thom

[totallymaxed]

Andrew... It's not about that. (trust me, I was about to write something a lot more caustic)

The issue is, we have two different orbiter code bases:

(1) Orbiter, which has a ton of code attached to it, we'd need to write at the very least a new rendering class to talk CoreGraphics.
(2) Mobile Orbiter..much simpler, but only works over bluetooth, and RFCOMM is required for the stack.

So please, do not try to incite the argument further!

Somebody needs to write a rendering subclass for Orbiter, or convince Apple to actually do proper RFCOMM support in their bluetooth stack.

I am _VERY_ tired of repeating this ad nauseaum and really wish people would just dig in and help make this possible. I CAN'T DO IT ALL ON MY OWN!

-Thom

Look you and i have different views on this...I'm not 'inciting' an argument at all. But as I have said before, and I firmly believe, that the MO is not necessarily the right approach for iPhone. We see iPhone as a rich device that has a whole aproach to Apps (and their UI) that is very different. We just dont see that the MO is the right approach on iPhone at all. We'd like to see a nicely crafted iPhone app that feels like an iPhone app to users and exploits the iPhone's UI paradigm fully (and respectfully). In our view doing anything less on the iPhone would not be a great idea. It would be like porting a Windoze style App to the Mac...and not doing a real Mac UI...how many times have we all seen that in the past.

I 100% agree that people need to come forward and put their personal time & commitment into this, and other aspects, of LinuxMCE. No one is asking or expecting you to do everything...it seems that for the most part it is a 'self imposed' state of mind you impose on yourself! By all means encourage people to see your perspective and get involved...but understand that there are other 'perspectives' too and although they may appear to be at odds with yours they can co-exist here.

All the best

Andrew

[joederp]

So...back to the original premise...Thom, do you want me to set up a ChipIn for this project and all who are willing to contribute can do so to pay for your time? 

[tschak909]

I won't be able to work on it, perhaps someone else can take it up. I've got so much other stuff on my plate.

-Thom

[totallymaxed]

So...back to the original premise...Thom, do you want me to set up a ChipIn for this project and all who are willing to contribute can do so to pay for your time? 

The reason I kicked off this thread was to measure peoples interest in the iPhone as an Orbiter and also to start a discussion about what an iPhone Orbiter should be... and hopefully to find a group of Forum members who could run with it and develop it. The objective was not to load Thom up with yet another piece of code to develop :-)

We need to find people have the skills to develop for iPhone... or have the motivation to learn that skill. It seems that there are a few Forum members who may have that interest...hopefully they will step up and run with this.

All the best

Andrew

[joederp]

Sorry, that was totally my bad, I should've clicked back to the OP & seen it was you, Andrew, not Thom. With all the cool stuff Thom's been crankin' out, I assumed it was him while reading the n-th page of replies 

I'll come right out & state my caste...Linux programming know-how is an infant skill on my end, but I got plenty-a-dough to help you guys out.