How are gui's for electronics programmed?

[TezzaMcTezza]

Basically I was wondering how GUIs for electronics with colour displays are programmed.

This may seem obvious to some but I am self taught with electronics and programming micro controllers etc.

For example a simple electronic racing game with a joy stick and buttons to control the things on screen or a touch screen central heating controller
with a colour screen with a analog looking clock, screen saver etc.

How would this be programmed? Ie. What language would need to be known, what software would be used etc?

I know making such a device is way beyond a self taught hobbyist but I am just curious on how this is done

Thanks

[JohnCrow]

Hi
If I understand your question, this might help

http://www.4dsystems.com.au

They make a range of displays (some touch capable) with gauges and dials and a range of widgets etc.
All the widgets are drag and drop on the windows software, and are then loaded to the display via USB cable. (They also need a uSD card for some of the graphics) which is then plugged in to the display board.
Once loaded to the display, they can be controlled via FC6 using the Visi macros and normal FC6 programs.

Anything from a simple meter to a full interface can be easily programmed.

The Visi Genie is the simplest and easiest way.

I have posted a tutorial on using the displays on these forums.

http://www.flowcode.co.uk/mmforums/viewt ... 26&t=15212

The visi macros are not available in earlier versions of FC.

[TezzaMcTezza]

Thanks for your reply,
Ive just had a look at their website and their products would probably be good for some of my hobby products.

But how would GUIs, screens graphics etc be programmed commercially? Ie a company design products for mass market.

Say a graphic designer has designed and simulated the operation of the required gui how would the design engineer make it reality?

[JohnCrow]

Hi
The 4D displays can be programmed in a their own high level language which is similar to C.

I would imagine commercial application such as mobile phone the display will be controlled within the Android or IOS operating system, in the same way windows works.
I've never really thought about it any deeper than that.
Dedicated displays may have a ROM that contains the icons and graphics for a specific application.

[Benj]

Say a graphic designer has designed and simulated the operation of the required gui how would the design engineer make it reality?

One simple way is to create small bitmaps for all of the elements on screen designed nicely so they will fit in the text that you want to draw over the bitmaps. If the GUI design is simple then it might be possible to just use simple objects like rectangles and lines to build up your display.

Here is an example of displaying bitmaps.
http://www.flowcode.co.uk/mmforums/viewt ... ame#p36423