Re: Introducing the LCD-Linux project

[Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu>]

Mattia Jona-Lasinio <mattia.jona@gmail.com> writes:
> Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> writes:
>> When I wanted to solve the same problem for a small
>> serial-connected LCD panel (sold under the name EZIO), I wrote a
>> program called "ezio-term" that has the same functionality but
>> runs entirely in userspace.  It connects to the serial port and
>> speaks the EZIO protocol on the serial port, and it creates a pty
>> and acts like an ANSI terminal on that pty.  Thus, it translates
>> back and forth between the two protocols.
>
> This is indeed a possibility. However, in my opinion, it always suffers
> the same problems: if you change the display, you have to rewrite everything
> from scratch since the protocol for a different display will be different.

It should not be necessary to rewrite everything, only to write
additional code to interface to the particular device.  This code
has to be written in any case, whether it is in userspace or the
kernel.

> I downloaded your program and I'm going through it.

I'm not pushing ezio-term as a general solution, by the way.  It
is clearly very specific to EZIO3 devices.  I'm just pointing out
that its approach is a reasonable alternative.
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org