Vault OS : Update #10 : Open QNX ... ?

Last night I was trying to use some simple C++ code I had running in Fastgraph to take a stab at a GUI designer, so I could design forms in Vault OS with a tool from the beginning instead of handcoding their layouts.

I decided to have a look at Photon MicroGUI (from QNX RT Momentics) to see how they were doing it and maybe determine if I could use their output format. After compiling their examples a few times, I realized by simply linking fewer supported modules it was quite easy to generate very small executables with most QNX "Neutrino" features included, even under 512K that would run in Protected Mode on the 32 bit machine. Then I fiddled around with some of their examples running RT GUI windows together and I immediately noticed that their GUI kicked the living crap out of the one I have built for my game on another project. It generated executables of roughly the same size, however, when examining the .obj files. It also had tons of sample code for drawing sensor widgets and windows of all varieties, some of it very good looking stuff, too. Antialiased fonts and complete vector graphics drawing in windows (maps, diagrams, spatial data) running at about 92 fps on a crappy old Pentium 200mhz machine.

So I had a closer look at my license. If I only work with QNX to develop noncommercial products, I could utilize the entire Momentics development suite to produce Vault OS with all the super cool frills like an embedded HTML browser, already debugged by QNX over the past five years. This does not preclude charging some money for a manual one of these days, after I have released the Vault OS for free. (Which I intended to do no matter what, anyway)

So I played around a bit more with the Photon MicroGUI and looked at some of their example applications. All of this stuff was absolutely dogging my current Vault OS shell in terms of complexity and polish. I don't know if my code would be as advanced as this stuff in two years, much less two months. The only way I even managed to imitate the real-time GUI features in my code was by using a simple graphics hack in the display. QNX, on the other hand, does what I was faking ... for real.

I think it cuts about 95% of the time off my development cycle if I use QNX. In fact, if I get the dev environment set up correctly on my older PC, I could produce my first Vault OS prototype before the end of April if everything went smoothly. I could have it completely installed in the Hive and running on terminals everywhere by this summer, before end of June.

What do you think?
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UPDATE : Going through it again some more tonight, QNX Momentics development suite on Windows XP. Create entire OS in a binary and run it from Flash on any 32 bit machine. Wow. It took me about ten minutes to write what I have spent 20-30 hours working on in Vault OS already. I can still use code from things like SQLite or Metabase if I want, only with the full support of the QNX IDE and dev SDK. I wish I had investigated this option more thoroughly before I started. Full support for monochrome or 16 color displays, even console mode in Photon MicroGUI. Pretty amazing development environment, too.

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P.S.-UPDATE : Goodness, this thing rocks! Output binaries for Pocket PC, ARM devices ... it's got all the bases covered. Tons of source code to do I2C, serial and parallel port sensors, TCP-IP supported as a high level messaging hub ... I am feeling lightheaded looking at all this stuff. If I started right now, I should be able to write something like QNX on my own at least before 2036 A.D. rolls around. As it stands, I think I will use QNX Neutrino as the kernel for Vault OS. It was really a no-brainer once I found out what was involved with a proper examination of their tools and dev kit.

Vault-Co Powerdown

I've been so busy lately I am going to have to power down Vault-Co for a while. I just cannot spare the time for updates and blogs lately.

With any luck we will be back in a couple months but I can't guarantee it. There's just too much to do recently. See our links for information about all the usual garbage going on in the world if you need to keep informed.

Metrosexuals : They never know what the value of a thing is

(Link to Video Page)

Two way-cool hepcat oxygen stealers conduct a tour of their mother's survival stores, which any worthy son would be grateful for beyond measure. The food is not stored properly but it is likely a great deal of it will still be good for many more years. I'm sure they'll auction it off on Ebay shortly for a song.

These two guys, both the tour guide and the guy with the video-cam, both seem like ample alibis for the invention of the neutron bomb.

Notice their dead mother is simply an easy target for ridicule and mockery. There's no trace of love in their voices or respect for her earnest effort to provide for them all her life. Nothing but the perpetual static of the eternal sneer.

Metrosexual Gen Xers = Monstrosities.

Horticulture From Hell

If Monsanto went out of business, this would be a good thing for the entire planet. Believe it.

A Giant, The Quintessential American, Passes At 84

Truly a great American hero. Somebody I have strongly identified with my entire life.

There is nobody who can replace him.

Feminism is Hate

Step 1 : Seize Their Institutions, Starting With the Educational System (Check)
Step 2 : Destroy The Family and Neuter The Males (Check)
Step 3 : Exterminate them all, down to the last man, woman and child (Soon enough)

Stang on Womanoids

Feedback From Stang's article

Think things like this happen accidentally? Ah, but friend, even that thought is not your own, it is something that is planted in your head by decades of media. In fact, for most of you, it is unlikely there is a single idea inside your skull that you can truly take credit for. You are changed into a mere echo chamber for some other man who has imposed his will not just on your mind but on your very soul.

Barack Obama : Revenge of the Dysgenics

People turn to the group because they are failures as individuals. It's a fundamental principle of human nature.

No matter how many times their whacky socialist schemes fail, they try them again.

Speaking in general, man is not a learning animal. He isn't. The way nature corrects error is by killing people. Whether they die alone or en masse as a result of their flawed perception and intelligence doesn't matter to her. When they drift too far from the real world, nature just shifts them all off the planet into the worm cafeteria.

Nations are never destroyed from the outside until they first have destroyed themselves from the inside. Will Durant.

April 6th, 2008, 4 am : World War III Begins?

I know we have heard this information leaked many times before.

There are many, many other signals being transmitted right now that something is about to happen. I could list about twenty more except it's late and I'm too tired to link them all in.

I've been reading a lot of stuff to this effect.

You know if they wanted to do it that it had to happen before the election.

So maybe this really is it coming up.

It isn't happening in a vacuum. There are many players involved here at once.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

-William Butler Yeats

Vault-Co Prediction #9919191999 : Confirmed

Toldya.

Proliferation is on like Donkey Kong now.

Is the U.S. going to invade everybody in the world and take away their nuclear weapons?

I think not. I do think they are dumb enough to try it, however.

Out of all our predictions about nuclear war, the most important one to keep in mind is our prediction that World War III is going to be about a million times worse than anything you had previously imagined. No two week stay in the cellar and hose down the car. Trust me.