[Lcdproc] newbie question

[Joe Henley]

Hi all (Markus, Andy, Ethan, et al),

Thanks to all of you for your help.  While I'm still very much a newbie, 
I'm beginning to make some progress.

I dug thru the archives back thru last October and matched picolcd 
related messages here to updates to the picolcd driver for proclcd on 
the sourceforge page.  I'm impressed you folks can do this on a regular 
basis.  I also looked at the various file versions around.

I found only two possible issues:
-- Message on 2/25/09 "PicoLCD 20X4" from Cunniffe; the second item 
related to keypresses getting "missed".  I didn't see anything about it 
in the sourceforge updates.
-- I ran a diff on two versions of picolcd.c files:  the CVS current 
("nightly" file of 3/3/09) versus the mini-box.com source file.  While 
most of the differences are only comments in the files, and the next 
largest "group" looks to be updates since Oct 3, 08, there are still a 
pretty sizable number of differences.  (Please remember that I am NOT a 
C programmer; so these differences may mean nothing.)  But it would 
probably help if someone familiar with C could do a quick diff on those 
files to see if some of the changes from mini-box would be useful here.

I also dug into which problems I was having the most trouble with.  I 
think the second biggest problem (newbie being the first biggest) was 
getting a mix of four various versions of lcdproc/picolcd drivers on my 
machine.  I found I had a mix of the lcdproc which comes with 
mini-MythTV, the 0.5.2 version from the lcdproc site, the 0.5.2 version 
from the mini-box.com site, and the December 27 CVS version from the 
LCDproc site.  None of those are the same!  While it's very confusing 
for a newbie like me, I suspect it's typical of open source code.  "Just 
part of the fun" as they say.  ;-)

I don't know where Nicu Pavel is lately.  I haven't gotten any responses 
back from him on questions about the mini-box version in awhile.  But it 
seems to me that he would be the logical one to look thru the two 
different files (mini-box.com version and LCDproc CVS version), to cull 
out changes/additions to them.  Maybe he could make them the same.

Thanks again for all your help.  I'm making some progress on getting my 
picolcd to work with mini-MythTV and I'm learning alot along the way.

Joe Henley

> Hi Markus,
> I was very encouraged after your initial reply.  Hopefully you'll have 
> some time to reply to these follow-up questions.
> Also, while the the "off-by-one" issue looks to be fixed (per the notes 
> on Sourceforge), have the other items related to the picolcd also been 
> fixed?
> Thanks again for your help.
> Joe Henley
> Joe Henley wrote:
>> Hi Markus,
>> Thanks very much for your reply.
>> Markus Dolze wrote:
>>> Joe Henley wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> I'm a newbie here, so please forgive any un-intended "politically 
>>>> incorrect" items.  Also, I'm not a C programmer, so I'm pretty much 
>>>> dependent upon what I can find at sites like this.
>>>> Is lcdproc still under development?  The last version is from 2007.  
>>>> I see lots and lots of patches; and I see comments about folks not 
>>>> getting things to run when patches overlap.  I see alot of notes 
>>>> about getting patches incorporated, but it seems none do.  I've 
>>>> looked repeatedly at the sourceforge site for updates to the code, 
>>>> but patches I see here don't seem to show up there.
>>> Yes, there is ongoing development. Unlike other projects we use this 
>>> mailing list to submit patches for review. Someone with write access 
>>> commits the patches once they have received feedback.
>> Ah, OK.  As I confessed earlier, I'm a newbie .... does "commit" mean 
>> to incorporate it into the nightly updates?
>>> The changelog since 0.5.2 has grown large. Usually you receive the 
>>> latest code directly from CVS or by using a 'nightly current build' 
>>> from http://lcdproc.sourceforge.net/nightly/.
>> Is that OK now?  I saw a message in the archives that the nightlies 
>> weren't always current.  Since I don't yet know enough about this to 
>> be able to tell when it is, or when it isn't current, I just decided 
>> to avoid them.  Probably the wrong thing to do, huh? ....
>>> Currently our most important maintainer is away, so changes pile up, 
>>> but I commited a few fixes recently.
>>>> I bought a picolcd to use with MythTV and have given up on getting 
>>>> support from mini-box.  I hoped to get some here, so I've lurked 
>>>> abit to see what's happening.  But I must be missing something, 
>>>> because I see alot of folks submitting patches, raising questions 
>>>> and suggesting fixes, but nothing seems to be done to the code.
>>>> What am I missing?  Is there some other place to look (other than 
>>>> here and the sourceforge site)?
>>> As LCDproc is open source anyone can take it and ship modified 
>>> versions. Some Linux distributions may contain additional patches.
>> Yes, that's part of the problem I'm having with mini-box.  They have a 
>> version on their site which they reference as 0.5.2, but which is NOT 
>> the same as what you have here.  It's abit confusing, and very 
>> frustrating, for someone just getting started (like me).
>>>> Thanks for any help/suggestions/guidance/etc.
>>>> Joe Henley
>>>> PS:  Yes, I know I have not indicated my picolcd problems.  But they 
>>>> are  all previously listed here by others, and are still open as far 
>>>> as I can tell.
>>> If you do need help, as on this list. There are people familiar with 
>>> these devices here.
>> Thanks for the offer.  I looked back thru the last 4 or 5 months of 
>> posts in the archives and picked out the problems/patches others had 
>> identified which also looked like ones I'm having.  These include:
>> 10/1/08  pavel      "add support"
>> 11/2/08  marschall  "picolcd build problems"
>> 11/6/08  ekholm     "LCDproc & PicoLCD"
>> 1/13/09  dicks      "19 to 20 character"
>> 2/2/09   de Bruet   "off by one"
>> 2/25/09  de Bruet   various
>> Again, it's a newbie picking these out, so I might be wrong on some.
>> So if these were fixed (I assume that means "committed") then I should 
>> be able to move forward on getting my picolcd 4x20 to work.
>>> Regards,
>>> Markus
>> Oh, while I may be a newbie, I can probably help by doing any testing 
>> you'd like.  I'd be happy to do that.  As indicated before, I have a 
>> picolcd 4x20 from mini-box.  Right now it's connected to a miniMyth 
>> front end running version 0.21.0-53 (kernel is 2.6.25).
>> Thanks again for all your help.  It is very much appreciated.
>> Joe Henley