RTPEG-32 - Portable Embedded GUI

RTPEG-32 is an event-driven, object-oriented C++ GUI library for embedded systems. It supports professional Windows look-and-feel or custom user interfaces. Device drivers for VGA and SVGA/VESA graphics hardware are included.

Features

• True Windows Look-and-Feel
  RTPEG-32 includes a full set of controls which look and behave the way users expect. Predefined classes include buttons, bitmaps, check boxes, scroll bars, menus, progress bars, radio buttons, prompts, combo boxes, dialog boxes, lists, tree views, etc.
• Event Driven Programming Model
  User interface objects are C++ classes derived from predefined RTPEG-32 classes. Such a derived class can override methods such as Draw() to implement a custom appearance or Message() to catch messages sent by a user input device, a separate threads, or other GUI controls.
• Rich Set of Drivers
  A driver for VGA, 16 color mode, is included, as well as high performance drivers for 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit color depth with arbitrary resolution. These drivers require VGA compatible hardware or VESA BIOS support. The source code of these drivers is included, allowing easy adaptation for custom display hardware.
• Keyboard Support
  RTPEG-32 applications can be navigated using only the keyboard, if no mouse or other pointing device is available.
• Mouse and Touch Screen Support
  Standard serial and PS/2 mice are supported. With RTUSB-32, USB mice, USB keyboards and USB touch screens are also supported.
• Multi Language Support
  RTPEG-32 applications can contain all strings (e.g. control titles, prompts, help messages, etc) in several languages. An application can switch the current language at run-time.
• Unicode Support
  RTPEG-32 supports 8-bit and optionally 16-bit fonts to cover Japanese, Chinese, and other Far East languages.
• Never Disables Interrupts
  All RTPEG-32 operations are fully interruptible. Real-time performance is never affected.
• Supports (but does not require) RTKernel-32
  Several threads can perform screen output simultaneously. RTPEG-32 performs all required locking. Even the simultaneous execution of several modal windows is supported (e.g., to signal error conditions while other threads continue to run).
• GUI Design Tools
  Program Window Builder is a rapid prototyping and design tool used to quickly create RTPEG-32 graphical objects such as bitmaps, fonts, windows, etc. It generates C++ source code to initialize all designed windows and catch all defined messages. Additional tools are included to generate custom fonts and to convert .BMP, .GIF, and .JPEG images into C++ compilable source code constants for easy inclusion in embedded applications.
• Windows Emulation Environment
  For prototyping or fast native software development, GUIs programmed with RTPEG-32 can be executed and tested under Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Screenshot from an RTPEG-32 demo program with some RTPEG-32 windows and controls.
 

Example

Using RTPEG-32 is very simple. Program Window Builder can be used to automatically generate source code for complex user interface objects. Using predefined or custom controls and windows is a snap, as shown by the "Hello RTPEG-32" demo program below:

   #include <peg.hpp>

   int main(void)
   {
      PegPresentationManager * pPresent;
      PegMessageWindow * pWin;

      pPresent = PegInitialize(CreatePegScreen_VESA_8(),
                               sizeof(class PegScreen));
      pWin = new PegMessageWindow("Example Message Window",
                    "This is a message window with a raised frame.",
                    MW_OK | MW_CANCEL | MW_RETRY | FF_RAISED);
      pPresent->Center(pWin);
      pPresent->Add(pWin);
      PegExecute(pPresent);
      return 0;
   }

The program displays this message box:

Predefined Window and Control Classes

RTPEG-32 comes with many graphical user interface objects which are all easily customizable through their constructors or by using them as base classes for application-specific objects. Below is a list of some predefined window, control, chart, dial, etc. classes.

Examples of Predefined Windows and Controls

Below are a few screen shots of some of the more complex GUI objects provided by RTPEG-32. Most of these displays have been produced with only a few lines of code. The complete code of these examples is included in the RTPEG-32 documentation.