Comtrol eCos - Manual (Page 759)

The I/O Auxiliary’s User Interface
Name
User Interface — Controlling the I/O Auxiliary
Description
The synthetic target auxiliary is designed to support both extensions and user customization. Support for the desired
devices is dynamically loaded, and each device can extend the user interface. For example it is possible for a
device to add menu options, place new buttons on the toolbar, create its own sub-window within the overall layout,
or even create entire new toplevel windows. These subwindows or toplevels could show graphs of activity such
as interrupts or packets being transferred. They could also allow users to interact with the eCos application, for
example by showing a number of buttons which will be mapped on to digital inputs in the eCos application.
Different applications will have their own I/O requirements, changing the host-side support files that get loaded
and that may modify the user interface. The I/O auxiliary also reads in user configuration scripts which can enhance
the interface in the same way. Therefore the exact user interface will depend on the user and on the eCos application
being run. However the overall layout is likely to remain the same.
The title bar identifies the window as belonging to an eCos synthetic target application and lists both the application
name and its process id. The latter is especially useful if the application was started directly from a shell prompt
and the user now wants to attach a gdb session. The window has a conventional menu bar with the usual entries,
plus a toolbar with buttons for common operations such as cut and paste. Balloon help is supported.
There is a central text window , possibly surrounded by various sub-windows for various devices. For example there
could be a row of emulated LED’s above the text window, and monitors of ethernet traffic and interrupt activity on
655