Blinky’s Blog


Archive for July, 2008

Object Oriented Programming and concepts in eyeGT

Part Two

eyeGT is written in C++ thus its logic and operations are heavily based on the Object Oriented (OO) paradigm. Unlike most other graphic libraries, eyeGT provides a monolithic access to the whole library, the application doesn’t have to deal with objects allocation and freeing, saving pointers etc. as eyeGT itself will perform these operations when needed. The advantages of such architecture are multifold:

  • Reduced memory fragmentation: eyeGT allocates a chunk of memory and uses it as a pool to allocate objects in it, performing housekeeping (garbage collection) when required. This alone guarantees that your application will never experience memory leakages owing to unreleased objects.
  • Better control over memory allocation: objects are instantiated only when required and released when no longer needed. The application doesn’t have to worry about when to release memory, eyeGT will do it when most appropriate, without degrading the performance of the application.
  • Reduce time to develop: programmer doesn’t need to debug the graphic library, Barefoot Software using the latest technologies in problem tracking and solving did the job already, so you can concentrate on the architecture of your application instead of solving other libraries’ problems.
  • Portability: whatever the platform, processor and quantity of memory are, eyeGT can be ported to it; a C++ compiler is the only needed tool. eyeGT doesn’t uses RTTI and exceptions, as most embedded systems C++ compilers do not support them; extensive error description is returned by each API to allow for problems easy pinpointing. In case of any error, the application will never crash owing to eyeGT inability to handle an error; this is a very stringent and at the same time basic requirement for any technology that is mean to use in a production environment that can put life at risk like: airplanes displays, life maintenance machines or nuclear facilities.

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What is this b.Tween and eyeGT all about then?

b.Tween Logo

Ok, so if I tell you that eyeGT + b.Tween will make it possible to port Flash and FlashLite content to the iPhone/iPod Touch as native applications, you don’t need any more explanation right?

Maybe not, judging from the huge number of emails I’m getting and the posts I read on the various blogs.

The lack of information is completely our fault however….. until today Barefoot Software has been dealing almost exclusively with telecoms and handset manufacturers to deploy custom applications on mobile platforms. We have never had to explain too much detail on our website as executives generally don’t know how to use a web browser right?…. Just kidding of course!!!

Everything started with a very cool application made by Thomas Joos of Boulevart, a mobile guide to the Rock Wechter concert that will take place in Belgium from the 3rd to the 6th of July. Thomas designed and created the original Flash Lite version running on Nokia phones. Using b.Tween it has quickly been adapted and compiled by Barefoot - directly from the Flash Lite version into an iPhone/iPod Touch native application…. we were supposed to just briefly touch on the b.Tween process in this blog as for the moment our main web site is not yet ready to be assaulted by flash and iPhone enthusiasts but Thomas could not resist [bless his soul] and things are now moving very quickly….

What is eyeGT? (short for “Enhance Your Experience - Graphical Toolkit”) - this is explained in the post below but as a short summary: “eyeGT is a highly efficient graphic renderer, capable of handling vector graphics and bitmaps. Beside the basic services of rendering, eyeGT provides a very extensive API that allow to define: buttons, animations, hierarchical containers, color and special effects, static text, editable fields and much more; think about it as a Windows GDI+ or Mac OSX Quartz2D on steroids, heavily optimized and designed from the ground up … for mobile.”

You may have heard a lot about of other toolkits available that perform similar sorts of things on desktop PCs (my favourite is AntiGrain) but eyeGT is very different and not only in terms of speed.

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