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What's best choice for gauge graphics?

D

Dr Lightning

Newbie
While I have decades of programming experience, I haven't gotten started on Android yet. I want to make sure I get started in the right direction in order to achieve quick success. I need to write an app that display real time data on graphics like an RPM gauge or oil pressure gauge. I would rather use some free canned graphics software to draw the gauges. With that in mind, I've thought of QT and C++, but it seems like most Android programming is in Java.

So, what freeware graphics package might I be best off using for my purposes, and then what development platform and language might I choose in order to best use that graphics?

Thanks!
 
Dr Lightning said:
While I have decades of programming experience, I haven't gotten started on Android yet. I want to make sure I get started in the right direction in order to achieve quick success. I need to write an app that display real time data on graphics like an RPM gauge or oil pressure gauge. I would rather use some free canned graphics software to draw the gauges. With that in mind, I've thought of QT and C++, but it seems like most Android programming is in Java.

So, what freeware graphics package might I be best off using for my purposes, and then what development platform and language might I choose in order to best use that graphics?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

D. All of the above.. Really. You can also decompile a theming app, I think that dustinb had some excellent ones for KK & LP (I liked the cobalt ones) that had some RPM gauges for battery and whatnot to check out to give ya an idea
 
bcrichster, thanks very much for your response. I've tried to follow your advice, but your lingo looses me a little.

I did search "dustinb android", and found a bunch of stuff on Google Play. But I don't find what I recognize as a theme that includes RPM gauges. Perhaps you would be so kind as to directly point me at a page that would lead me to recognize what I'm looking for.

Also, you mention KK and LP, and I see on that Google Play page "Kiwi Kush". Is that what you meant by KK; is that an android version name?

Finally, you mention to "decompile a theming app". I know all the words, and have dealt with all before, but I'm not certain about how to do exactly what you mean in this statement in this case. Perhaps better asked, I'll ask, are you telling me that it's pretty easy or straightforward to decompile an app I get somewhere? In most of my experience over decades, this is tough.
 
Thanks, LV426. I looked at your link and it's promising.

Otherwise, I was wondering not about "out of the box" graphics components or third party "rpm gauges", but instead about third party graphics utilities, such as QT. In the past, I've used QT on Linux, but for image processing and display, not graphics display.

So are there any other popular [free] third party graphics utilities that will [easily] run on Android?

Thanks again.

===Notes to self===

Google image search found https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.mentor.com/embedded/qt-gui.png&imgrefurl=https://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/nucleus/ui/qt&docid=KxvWK7Jwgz7NfM&tbnid=OONlh24V69TZpM:&vet=10ahUKEwiN3qGuhtLeAhXozVkKHSWlDKUQMwhHKAIwAg..i&w=707&h=424&bih=1121&biw=2133&q=qt graphics library&ved=0ahUKEwiN3qGuhtLeAhXozVkKHSWlDKUQMwhHKAIwAg&iact=mrc&uact=8 . This shows an image I'm interested in, but for Nucleus RTOS. Don't want Nucleus. But it describes it as from QT GUI module, which I say may be available for Android.

Then I find https://developer.toradex.com/knowledge-base/qt-gui-examples for WinCE7. This leads me to http://doc.qt.io/archives/qt-4.8/qtgui-module.html . I assume if I look at source for first link at left, it will hint at functions to use as doc in second link at left. Then I need to figure out if they're available for Android. ((Actually, no. The source is for some kind of managed graphics, similar to xml for C#, but different.))

Having trouble finding truly appropriate example for QTGui.

[EDIT: Oh, the first image found above leads to https://github.com/open-gui/custom-widgets where I see good looking, usable C++ source code examples.]​
 
Dr Lightning said:
bcrichster, thanks very much for your response. I've tried to follow your advice, but your lingo looses me a little.

I did search 'dustinb android', and found a bunch of stuff on Google Play. But I don't find what I recognize as a theme that includes RPM gauges. Perhaps you would be so kind as to directly point me at a page that would lead me to recognize what I'm looking for.

Also, you mention KK and LP, and I see on that Google Play page 'Kiwi Kush'. Is that what you meant by KK; is that an android version name?

Finally, you mention to 'decompile a theming app'. I know all the words, and have dealt with all before, but I'm not certain about how to do exactly what you mean in this statement in this case. Perhaps better asked, I'll ask, are you telling me that it's pretty easy or straightforward to decompile an app I get somewhere? In most of my experience over decades, this is tough.
Click to expand...

Kk is KitKat Android OS 4.4.2 & 4.4.4..
LP is Lollipop Android OS 5.0 & 5.1

Dustinb has theming apps that worked on the old CyanogenMod Theme engine (was discontinued at the beginning of Nougat (Android v7.0 - 7.1.2).. It's not used anymore but the theming apps I mentioned should have the RPM gauges you're looking for as a reference. Personally, I use Linux instead of Windows and Gimp (similar to PhotoShop, but free) for any image editing.
 
bcrichster said:
Kk is KitKat Android OS 4.4.2 & 4.4.4..
LP is Lollipop Android OS 5.0 & 5.1

Dustinb has theming apps that worked on the old CyanogenMod Theme engine (was discontinued at the beginning of Nougat (Android v7.0 - 7.1.2).. It's not used anymore but the theming apps I mentioned should have the RPM gauges you're looking for as a reference. Personally, I use Linux instead of Windows and Gimp (similar to PhotoShop, but free) for any image editing.
Click to expand...

Thanks again, bcrichster. Note I recently meant real-time video image processing, not back office image editing. I've used Photoshop for decades and Gimp a tiny bit. MORE IMPORTANTLY, thanks for clarifying on the theming apps. To be certain, do you mean that if I find one, I might find *source*?

(Also, note that LV426's response seems more germane than bcrichster's. Perhaps I was insufficiently clear in the original post. Bcrichster, you might read LV426's response to better understand my question.)
 
Dr Lightning said:
Thanks again, bcrichster. Note I recently meant real-time video image processing, not back office image editing. I've used Photoshop for decades and Gimp a tiny bit. MORE IMPORTANTLY, thanks for clarifying on the theming apps. To be certain, do you mean that if I find one, I might find *source*?

(Also, note that LV426's response seems more germane than bcrichster's. Perhaps I was insufficiently clear in the original post. Bcrichster, you might read LV426's response to better understand my question.)
Click to expand...

Tbh, @LV426 is always over my head as he's more in depth with app sourcing than I'll likely ever be. I was just trying to point you to the finished product you may be looking for and potentially reverse engineer it as needed. I'm all 'mka build-stuff' lmao
 
If you want to go down the Qt route with those examples, there's a tutorial here

http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android-support.html

I personally would stick with Java and use the graphics features of the Android SDK. Using Qt introduces C++, and I'm not sure how this would integrate with the rest of the app.
But I've never developed an app in this way, so I can't really offer any advice on it.
 
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