Frescobaldi – sort of like coding, sort of like music

Does enjoyment of music detract from our geekiness?  I think not thanks to Frescobaldi.  It is a script-ish file format that allows you to create music on a staff.  Here is the web site:  http://frescobaldi.org/index.html

It is really easy to use but it took me just a bit to set up.  So I am going to show you my little pattern that will get you going quickly on melody and bar charts which is pretty common for communicating music with many musicians (of which I am not one – but have some music theory and knowledge).

You can create variables and change octaves and write some pretty sophisticated chords like F, 2:m11 (an F minor with an 11th half note an octave below middle C)  and easily add dotted notes and rests and match it all to lyrics.  It has MIDI integration so you can play it to hear your work of art.

Notes are relative to the last one so going from E to A, it will move up 4 steps instead of down 5 steps.  To move down, you would type “E A,”.  The comma moves it down an octave from where it would go normally.  An apostrophe moves it up.  an “r” indicates a rest.

About timing, a 1 like in F1 means a whole note, in this case, an F-chord for a whole note.  A4 means a quarter note.

For lyrics to a single word across notes, add a hyphen and a space in the word.

Look at the help.  It will guide you.

I have it set up that when I make a change, it compiles.  There are two outputs in this case, a PDF of the staff and a MIDI file with the song.  Songs compile reasonably quickly.  You can play the MIDI file in the tool or of course start it up with any player.

Here is an example of Mary had a little lamb.  I threw an F/G in the second phrase for fun.

Here is what the UI looks like.

And the awesome source for the song.

\version "2.18.2"
 
\header {
 title = "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
}

verseChordOne = \relative c' {
 \chordmode { c,1 c,1 g,,1 c,1 }
}

verseChordTwo = \relative c' {
 \chordmode { c,1 c,1 f,,2/g g,,2 c,1 }
}

VerseOne = {
 \absolute e'4 d,4 c4 d4 e4 e4 e2 d4 d4 d2 e4 g4 g2
}

VerseTwo = {
 \absolute e'4 d4 c4 d4 e4 e4 e4 e4 d4 d4 e4 d4 c1
}

\score {

<<
 \new ChordNames { 
 \verseChordOne
 \verseChordTwo
 }
 \new Staff {
 \new Voice \relative c'' {
 \time 4/4
 
 \VerseOne \break
 \VerseTwo \break
 }
 \addlyrics {
 Mar- y had a lit- tle lamb, lit- tle lamb, lit- tle lamb.
 Mar- y had a lit- tle lamb, its fleece was white as snow.
 }
 }


 >>


 \layout { }
 \midi {
 \context {
 \Staff
 \remove "Staff_performer"
 }
 \context {
 \Voice
 \consists "Staff_performer"
 }
 \tempo 2 = 54
 }
}

I don’t deviate too much from this script as this gets me what I need and I can create staff music very quickly.

 

 

 

Infix to Postfix – but Better

Summary

There are many examples of the shunting algorithm that takes infix and converts to postfix (or RPN).  None of them did everything I wanted.  I wanted something full featured sort of like excel.  I wanted:

  1. Negative numbers need to be handled and they are often ignored in converters.
  2. Support single and multi character operations (i.e. <<, >>).
  3. I wanted support for multiple argument functions and even no argument functions.
  4. I wanted solid error messages and an indication where the error was.
  5. I wanted an optimization step where constants are evaluated and reduced prior to execution.
  6. You could name your variables anything you wanted.

The code is here:  InfixParse

Motivation

The motivation was a project where we need a think PC client to process an infix equation and translate this down to a set of opcodes and data for a small processor (memory/horsepower).

The first step is getting the conversation to work in high level constructs.

The second step which will happen later was to convert the high level language constructs to a set of opcodes and data.

Background

There are numerous examples of equation processing but I never found any that did everything sort of like excel did.

This one is pretty good: http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/BasicDS/InfixPrefixandPostfixExpressions.html

Maybe someone else did a full implementation but I never found it.

Tools

PyCharm and Python 3.6.

Definitions

operator – This is a symbol such as +, -, *, /.  It can be more than one character.  The ( is also an operator technically.

function – This is a piece of operation in the form of FUNC(…) with a certain number of arguments defined for that function.  Each argument is separated by a comma.  If there are no arguments (for example, RND for random), then no parenthesis are allowed.  Functions can have zero to “n” arguments.

variable – This is a textual name for an variable (or input) in the equation.  This can be one or more characters.

constant – This is a number in the infix equation.

Steps

As we work through the steps, refer to this equation:

2 * (1 + -3) + abs(-round(rnd, 2))

In text, this is 2 times the sum of 1 and a -3 + the absolute value of a random number rounded to the 2nd decimal place and negated.

The first step is to convert the infix to a set of stack items.  We are effectively splitting on operators.  Then each stack item is evaluated for the type of information between the operators.  After this step, the infix stack looks like this.

[<2, constant>, <*, operator>, <(, operator>, <1, constant>, <+, operator>, <-, operator>, <3, constant>, <), close>, <+, operator>, <ABS, function>, <(, operator>, <-, operator>, <ROUND, function>, <(, operator>, <RND, function>, <,, operator>, <2, constant>, <), close>, <), close>]

Notice there are two subtractions operators that really should be negation.  So the second step is to determine if there is a valid operator in front of the subtraction and if a function, constant, or variable is immediately after it.  After this check, here is the infix stack.  (I used the ! as a negation symbol.)

[<2, constant>, <*, operator>, <(, operator>, <1, constant>, <+, operator>, <!, operator>, <3, constant>, <), close>, <+, operator>, <ABS, function>, <(, operator>, <!, operator>, <ROUND, function>, <(, operator>, <RND, function>, <,, operator>, <2, constant>, <), close>, <), close>]

The next 3 steps are to check the validity of the infix equation.  First, we check to make sure that we do not have operators next to each other.  Next, we check for mismatched parenthesis.  Finally we check for the correct number of arguments in functions.

if anything failure, the python script will tell where the error occurred and what the error was.  This can certainly be beautified into  whatever final UI is chosen.  The information is there.

If there are no errors, the stack is shunted into a postfix stack and the commas and parenthesis are removed.

[<2, constant>, <1, constant>, <3, constant>, <!, operator>, <+, operator>, <*, operator>, <RND, function>, <2, constant>, <ROUND, function>, <!, operator>, <ABS, function>, <+, operator>]

Now, there are constants that can be combined.  While this is a nonsense, there are cases where a couple of constants can be combined.  This example simplifies to this.

[<-4.0, constant>, <RND, function>, <2, constant>, <ROUND, function>, <!, operator>, <ABS, function>, <+, operator>]

Executing this yields a result between negative 4 and negative 3 such as -3.81 or -3.66.

Future

This code will likely be translated into C++ with the functions in C so that it can be shared on the embedded system.   The functions used for optimization and execution must be the exact same and this is a case where we will want to share source.

The python script could be better organized into several modules but this is a sample for the final run which will be in likely C/C++.

Raspberry PI and the Lego EV3 connected by bluetooth

Executive summary

Here is how to interact between Raspberry PI 3 and Lego EV3 using Bluetooth.   There will be a python 3.6 script presented and sample EV3 programs.  All of this is stock stuff on both platforms.

The key is how to interpret the bytes.  The script presented takes care of all of that.  Here is the EV3BT Script.

The fun stuff

So, I could possibly have a family and I could indeed possible like to enjoy time with them.  I play with Lego in the interest of my family.  I am a good dad…  unless explosives are involved.

Don’t judge.

So the project was to determine if we could use a Raspberry PI with open CV and a camera and drive a Lego robot around the floor using the EV3 trying to do cool things.

There are several communication options but I didn’t want to use any sort of wired or wireless Ethernet nor is USB an option from what I can tell.  I also didn’t want to change the EV3’s operating system.

I decided to play with bluetooth.  They are probably other and perhaps better ways to do this but this is what I chose.

Enough disclaimers about the effectiveness of my decision making skills especially about the explosives and related minors.

There are many sites that explain how to connect the EV3 and even program it.  This guy’s is pretty good.

If you are unfamiliar with pairing with Raspberry PI3 and the EV3, google it.  It is a bit cryptic but once pair, you can connect to the EV3 and it appears as a serial device (i.e. /dev/rfcomm0).

The trick and the purpose of the

Sending to the EV3

The program above simply waits for a Bluetooth message and in this case, a text message, prints it on the LCD screen and beeps.  The python below shows the sending of a message to the EV3.  The trick of the EV3BT class is to simply encode and decode the bits.  The serial module takes care of the transmission.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
import serial
import time
import EV3BT

EV3 = serial.Serial('/dev/rfcomm0')
s = EV3BT.encodeMessage(EV3BT.MessageType.Text, 'abc', 'Eat responsibly')
print(EV3BT.printMessage(s))
EV3.write(s)
time.sleep(1)
EV3.close()

You have options for what sort of messages you can send.  These are Text, Numeric, and Logic.  In programmer speak, strings, floating point values (IEEE 754), and Boolean (literally a 1 and a 0).  See below.

The other key is the mailbox.  The ‘abc’ is the mail box and is shown on the block (highlighted in red).  You must pass the mailbox in a form that matches the block so that the block receives the message.  In case it isn’t obvious, you can send messages to multiple mailboxes in your script and control several EV3 loops just but using different mailboxes.

Reading from the EV3

Reading is just a little more complicated in that you probably need to have some sort of loop with blocking logic.  As I say that, every experienced developer reading this is rolling their eyes (back in old school Linux days, should we use select or poll?).

In this example, the EV3 will wait for a touch sensor to be activated and send a message.  To be precise, the message ‘Raspberry PI’ will be sent to the mailbox ‘abc’  in the Raspberry PI.

The key is the decodeMessage.  You tell the method, the string to parse, and the message type expected (as this effects the length of the transfer and there is no identifying mark in the message about the type).  It will return you the mail box, the value, and any remnant bytes left over.  The buffering is not stellar in this example but it gets the point across.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
import serial
import time

import EV3BT

EV3 = serial.Serial('/dev/rfcomm0')
print("Listening for EV3 Bluetooth messages, press CTRL C to quit.")
try:
 while 1:
 n = EV3.inWaiting()
 if n != 0:
  s = EV3.read(n)
  mail,value,s = EV3BT.decodeMessage(s, EV3BT.MessageType.Logic)
  print(mail,value) 
 else:
  # No data is ready to be processed
  time.sleep(0.1)
except KeyboardInterrupt:
 pass
EV3.close()

Moving a robot

So to put it together, I could make a robot move under python control in the Raspberry PI with this script and program.

The EV3 was made as a tank with two treads.  A left and right.  Essentially, the script is sending a numeric to each tank tread.  A positive number moves forward, a negative number moves back.   The larger the number, the faster the rotation.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
import serial
import time
import EV3BT

EV3 = serial.Serial('/dev/rfcomm0')
left = 10
right = 10
s = EV3BT.encodeMessage(EV3BT.MessageType.Numeric, 'left', left)
EV3.write(s)
s = EV3BT.encodeMessage(EV3BT.MessageType.Numeric, 'right', right)
EV3.write(s)
EV3.close()

Areas of improvement

When reading, there is no identifying mark in the package concerning the type.  You also can not assume that number of bytes on the wire will work.  A 3 byte with null looks like a float.

Deriving application specific code to handle the case where you want the EV3 to send a float and a Boolean should be simple to add.  A string?  Not sure the worth of that really from the EV3 to the Raspberry PI.

Beaglebone Black and Kiosk Part 2

In my last article here, I discussed some of the challenges of using a browser for kiosk.  The browser is Chromium running on a Beaglebone Black.

My points are still valid but I was able to get around them in ways I will describe for each point made; and add a new point. 

The scroll bars are way too small for a finger.

You can change scrollbars for Chromium using just CSS.  (This works only in Chromium – and Chrome).  Here is the CSS:

::-webkit-scrollbar {
 width: 40px;
 height: 40px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-button:start:decrement,
 :-webkit-scrollbar-button:end:increment {
 height: 20px;
 display: block;
 background-color: transparent;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-track-piece {
 background-color: #3b3b3b;
 -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
 height: 50px;
 background-color: #666;
 border: 1px solid #eee;
 -webkit-border-radius: 10px;
}

This gives a large enough scrollbar surface to reliably use a finger on. It isn’t the exact same finger sliding on a mobile device but it works well enough.  An since it is merely a scrollbar, your pages will work the same between a PC browser and the 7″ display.

We want to scroll by sliding our finger.

We found that larger sized scrollbars are usable as mentioned above.  It isn’t exactly the same as drag scroll, it is intuitive.

Real Estate.

Again with CSS, you can do many things

I found font-size: 1.Xem !important; to be very useful.  Apply something similar to all your tags.  For example:

.ui-button .ui-button-text {
 padding-left: 30px !important;
 font-size: 1.4em !important;
}

select {
 font-size: 1.7em !important;
}

input:not([type=submit]) {
 font-size: 1.7em !important;
}

input[type=submit] {
 font-size: 1.4em !important;
}

textarea {
 font-size: 1.7em !important;
}

Checkboxes are more difficult.  Chrome on big PC honors checkbox scaling but Chromium does on the BBB does not honor the following:

input[type=checkbox] {
/* All browsers except webkit*/
transform: scale(1.6);

/* Webkit browsers*/
-webkit-transform: scale(1.6);
}

You will have to wrap your checkbox in a parent entity that is a bit larger and “on click” on the parent, update the checkbox (by making the state the “opposite”.  Keep in mind that a click on the checkbox occurs, you will want to stop propagation so that the parent doesn’t receive the same click and effectively change the state back.

What about Keyboard?

Thanks to the work by Jeremy Satterfield and Rob Garrison, the virtual keyboard worked very well.  Since it is a jQuery plugin, it is very easy to use. For example.

$('#content input:not([type=submit])').keyboard({ layout: 'qwerty', css: { input: ''});

Conclusion

So that is it. We have a very suitable kiosk that looks very similar to the large PC browser (which was the desire of the client). The BBB has enough horsepower to handle it well.

Determine differences in lists in Python

Sometimes, you just want to take two lists like a previous one and a new one and get back information about what is new, what is old, and what is the same.  Here is one way to do it.

def compareLists(old, new):
  oldset = set(old)
  addlist = [x for x in new if x not in oldset]
  newset = set(new)
  dellist = [x for x in old if x not in newset]
  samelist = [x for x in old if x in newset]
  return (addlist, dellist, samelist)
old = ['One', 'Two', 'Three', 'Four']
new = ['One', 'Two', 'Five']

(addlist, dellist, samelist) = compareLists(old, new)
print("addlist=", addlist)
print("dellist=", dellist)
print("samelist=", samelist)

what you get is:

('addlist=', ['Five'])
('dellist=', ['Three', 'Four'])
('samelist=', ['One', 'Two'])

With this, you can take “instantiation” action with the “add” list, take “removal” action with the “del” list, and simply update data with the “same” list.

Starveless Priority Queue in Python

The python priority queue describes messages in absolute terms.  The most important element will always be popped.  The least important element may never be popped.

Sometimes when a message based data path is serialized to something (like a serial port based piece of hardware), all messages have some importance.  Unlike the priority queue, we would rather not use such absolute terms.  We would rather say that most of the time, the important messages are sent.  However, we guarantee that some of the time, the less important messages are sent.

The language is more gray and the queue needs to be a bit more…  “cooperative”.  (We could say “round robin”.)

Let’s implement our own.  But first, a quick back story.  I have some knowledge of Motorola’s (at the time) Time Processor Unit (TPU) on some of their embedded processors.  The TPU had an event driven model where certain sections of microcode would execute based on priority but lower priority microcode would still operated periodically.  Let’s base our design on this philosophy.  (See section 3 for more information on the TPU scheduler.)

Python has a pretty good queue framework that you derive your queue from and implement several methods.  If you ever look at the priority queue code in python, it is pretty simplistic as it relies on the heapq.  There is much work done in the Queue class including thread synchronization.

Here is our proposed round robin priority queue.

#! /usr/bin/python

import Queue

class RRPriorityQueue(Queue.Queue):
  '''Variant of Queue that retrieves open entries in priority order (lowest first)
  but allows highest priorities to be skipped.

  '''

  def _init(self, priorityOrder):
    if priorityOrder is None:
      raise TypeError

    self._queue = []

    self._priorityOrder = priorityOrder
    self._orderIdx = len(self._priorityOrder) + 1

  def _qsize(self, len=len):
    return len(self._queue)

  def _put(self, item):
    self._queue.append(item)

  def _get(self):
    if (len(self._queue) == 0):
      raise IndexError

    retVal = None

    # change the order index for the priority order list
    self._orderIdx = self._orderIdx + 1
    if self._orderIdx >= len(self._priorityOrder):
      self._orderIdx = 0

    # the priority we are interested in and the highest value
    # in case we don't find one at our priority
    filterPriority = self._priorityOrder[self._orderIdx]
    highest = self._queue[0]

    # look for one of our priority but saving highest priority (lowest number)
    for item in self._queue:
      priority = item.priority
      if priority == filterPriority:
        # we found our item
        retVal = item
        break
      if highest.priority > item.priority:
        highest = item

    # if we didn't find our item, the return the highest
    if retVal is None:
      retVal = highest

    self._queue.remove(retVal)
    return retVal

The _qsize and _put methods are basic.  The _init method requires a priority order.  This specifies the priority guaranteed to pop from the queue for the corresponding _get call.  The _orderIdx is used to know which step of the priority order the algorithm is on.  It increments or resets on every _get call.

The _get call is where the magic happens.  The first step is to increment or reset the _orderIdx value.  Then we are going to get our filterPriority from the _priorityOrder list based on the _orderIdx.  Then we iterate through the queue.  If we find an entity that matches our priority, return it.

However, what happens if we don’t find a message with our priority?  That is ok, we simply return the highest priority item first found in the queue.  The highest variable is a reference to the first item in the queue with the highest priority and is returned if we don’t find a match.

The only thing we require from the entities in the queue is that they implement a priority member (or method) that returns the priority number.  This deviates from the priority queue in that the queue wasn’t concerned about the priority number, just that an entity in the queue could compare to others.  In our case, we need to know the priority to filter the entities the way we want to.

Like the priority queue, the lower the priority number, the more important it is.

We can create our round robin queue like this:

self.q = RRPriorityQueue([1,2,1,3,1,2,1])

In this case, priority 1 messages are guaranteed to pop 4 out of 7 times.  Priority 2 message are guaranteed 2 out of 7.  Priority 3 – 1 out of 7.

You can make whatever pattern with whatever priorities you want.  Just understand that if a priority of an entity is not in the priority order, it can be starved.  It will be popped if it is the most important message when a message of the current filter order isn’t found.

 

Two Important SQLite and Python Lessons

When using SQLite3 and Python (2.x), there are two important lessons that are not obvious (at least not to me).

1. Dictionaries and TimeStamps

Ideally, I would like to do two things.  First, access data from a dictionary and not a list.  It is far more intuitive to access by column name (or query name substitution) than by list index.  Second, the datetime values should be correctly coerced even though SQLite has no implicit timestamp type.  I believe these two simple requirements are expected by most people, especially those family with Microsoft SQL and ADO.NET.

Good news, Python supports this!  However, there are some switches to set so to speak.

After importing sqlite3, the following connect statement will suffice for both needs:

conn = sqlite3.connect(dbname, detect_types=sqlite3.PARSE_DECLTYPES|sqlite3.PARSE_COLNAMES)

The PARSE_COLNAMES returns a dictionary for each row fetched instead of a list.

The PARSE_DECLTYPES empowers python to do a bit more type conversion based on the queries provided.  For example, if you do this:

cur.execute('select mytime from sometable')

You will get mytime as a string.  However, if you do this:

cur.execute('select mytime as "[timestamp]" from sometable')

You will get mytime as a datetime type in python.  This is very useful.

One step further; let’s say you want a timestamp but substitute the column name in the query.  Do this:

cur.execute('select mytime as "mytime [timestamp]" from sometable')

Not only with the data be returned as a datetime object, the dictionary will contain column name substitution provided in the query.  Beware, if you don’t do this on aggregate functions, the python sqlite library will attempt to add to the dictionary with an empty string key.  (Not sure why this is but beware.)

The adapters and converters live in the file dpapi2.py in your python library installation directory for sqlite3.

Refer to the documentation here.

2. Execute and Tuples

This is really a lesson on declaring implicit tuples.

The execute method on a cursor is great because it will safely convert strings for use in the database (reducing the possibility of SQL injection).  It takes a query string and a substitution tuple.

However, I got caught again on the example below as will many who follow me.

This works:

cur.execute('insert into mytable values(?, ?, ?, ?)', (1, 2, 3, 4))

This doesn’t work and throws an exception:

cur.execute('insert into mytable values(?)', (1))

This works:

cur.execute('insert into mytable values(?)', (1,))

The comma after the one declares a tuple of one element.  Argh!!!

I hope this helps.

 

Beaglebone Black and Kiosk

So I wanted a super cheap but effective Kiosk.  The Beaglebone Black (BBB) was  a great choice with a 7″ screen from 4D Systems.  It is a ARM Linux machine with 4GB of internal storage.  I have a Rev C board that I got from Element 14.

For my project, I wanted a web server (sitting in front of a physical system I was controller) and a dedicated browser on the front panel.

Some Initial Steps

When I got the BBB Rev C, I plugged in the USB.  No connection.  Then I watched my router while I plugged in the network connection to see what IP address was served.  Nothing.  Then I found on the forums  that the BBB may not have shipped with the intended OS installed.  That was my case.

This guy’s site is pretty goodat describing the procedure even though he was using Ubuntu.  You can get the latest debian image here.  Install the OS and everything mentioned in the prior paragraph will magically be fixed.

Swapping In Lighttpd and PHP

The first step was to stop apache and bonescript so that we could install lighttpd and php.

Get a root shell on the BBB.  This can be done using PuTTY on Windows or a Linux box.  I used both because I am that sort of guy.

Start by disabling stuff that doesn’t matter.

systemctl disable bonescript.service
systemctl disable bonescript.socket
systemctl disable bonescript-autorun.service
systemctl disable cloud9.socket
systemctl disable mpd.service

You may want to keep cloud9 or mpd but the bonescript must go to install lighttpd.

The uninstall apache and udhcpd (which is provides a DHCP server).

update-rc.d apache2 disable
systemctl disable apache2.service
apt-get remove apache2
systemctl disable udhcpd
update-rc.d udhcpd disable
apt-get remove udhcpd

Then install lighttpd and php-cgi.  I used sqlite too.

apt-get install lighttpd
apt-get install php5-cgi
apt-get install php5-sqlite
lighty-enable-mod fastcgi 
lighty-enable-mod fastcgi-php

Modify your php and lighttpd configs as needed. (/etc/php5/cgi/php.ini and /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf)

Put your pages in /var/www or wherever you prefer (as changed in lighttpd.conf).  You can manually restart lighttpd but I just reboot because I am that kind of guy and the BBB boots in 10 seconds.

Front Panel

As mentioned before,  our front panel was a 7″ display from 4D systems.

You can choose to remove X from running by disabling lightdm (associated server and sockets) using systemctl.  I would rather keep the front panel and have a kiosk that is a web browser.

Side note:  I tried to swap nodm for lightdm but ended up getting some error message that I don’t remember and got verify frustrated as X wouldn’t start except from command line.  I suspect it had something to do with the order systemctl started certain services.  I gave up because it wasn’t important to me to figure it out and reflashed the OS.  I wanted to see of nodm and matchbox were better (i.e. smaller and faster) than lightdm and LXDE but oh well.

So, in this case, we will continue to use lightdm, have it auto logon to the debian account and start the kiosk.

This was really simple.  There are two steps.

First, have chromium start when LXDE starts.  Edit /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart.  Comment out the lines beginning with @lxpanel and @pcmanfm.  You don’t need the desktop panels and file manager.  Add the following to the file:  @chromium –disk-cache-dir=/dev/null –app=”http://localhost”.  Of course, substitute your path if different.  The disk-cache-dir set to /dev/null prohibits chromium from caching pages.  This is critical if update your pages periodically.

If you have reviewed any chromium documentation, there is also a –kiosk flag.  However, two very undesirable aspects arise.  First, chromium balks about not having Google API keys installed.  I don’t care but chromium is relentless.  Second, if the browser is stopped hard, on the next startup, chromium asks if you want to restore your session.  Again, I don’t care but chromium is relentless.  Using the “app” flag guarantees these relentless messages do not appear.  Also, you will not see any navigation bar, etc.

Second, the screen isn’t full and you get window decorations.  Both need to go.  Edit the /home/debian/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml file.  Under the <applications> tag.

<application>
 <decor>no</decor>
 <fullscreen>yes</fullscreen>
</application>

After the next reboot, you have a kiosk.

Future Considerations

There were several things to be considered on the front panel.

First, the scroll bars are way too small for a finger.  I didn’t get around to changing this.   Scroll bars should be avoided.  We will elaborate more.

Second, I have been in several companies now where they think that a browser on a PC will look the same as a browser on a 7″ display.  Nope.  Two problems.  Real estate and the size of a finger versus the control of a mouse.  Buttons have to be big and pages must minimize scrolling.

Third, in this day and age, we want to scroll by sliding our finger like a cell phone.  Unfortunately, this is not the way this works in this case.  Your finger is really a mouse and the screen is not a “real” touch device like a phone or tablet.

I want to play with Android for BBB but that will be a future article.

 

Super Simple Single Instance Application in Windows using C#

There are cases in the Windows world where you only want a single instance of an application.  So, if we launch the application either from the Start menu or command line, or we launch the process from another application, we only ever want one instance – the same one.

If an instance of the application already exists, we want the application to come to the foreground.  Not only that but we want the view in that single instance to change based on how the second instance was invoked.

Much has been written on this including using .NET remoting.  I chose a far simpler way involving memory mapped files, passing command line information from the second instance to the first.  (I freely acknowledge that there is a hack component to it.)

We will begin with the essence of the operation in the main function of your application.

/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
  // The helper object for single instances
  ApplicationManagement applicationManagement = new     ApplicationManagement();

  // If we have arguments, pass them to the original instance.
  // If we are creating the first instance, the same memory mapped file mechanism is used for    simplicity.
  if (args.Length > 0)
    applicationManagement.SetArguments(args);

  // if a previous instance exists..
  if (applicationManagement.DoesPreviousInstanceExist())
  {
    // Exit stage left
    applicationManagement.ShowPreviousInstance();
    return;
  }

  // in the case where we are the first instance and we don't have a previous one, then
  // default to the default view
  if (args.Length == 0)
    applicationManagement.SetArguments(new string [] {   frmMain.commandLineFlagForm1 });

  Application.EnableVisualStyles();
  Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

  // pass the application management object to the main form
  frmMain main = new frmMain();
  main.applicationManagement = applicationManagement;
  Application.Run(main);
}

Here is the operation truth table with this code.

command line new instance created previous instance exists
no arguments show default view do nothing (but set to top of Z-order)
has arguments set view to the argument  set view to the argument

Notice that if a previous instance exists, we want to bring the previous instance window to the top of the Z-order.  The previous instance itself can not go to the foreground (without attaching to thread input of the top order window but we are not doing this).  While a new process is being created, until the first window of the application is created, the new process can send any other window of any other process to the top of the Z-order.  This is a peculiarity of Windows.

Now a hacky part…  In the main form, there is a timer that periodically checks for new arguments to appear.

private void tmrArguments_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
 string[] arguments = applicationManagement.GetArguments();
 if (arguments.Length > 0)
 {
 switch (arguments[0])
 {
 case commandLineFlagForm1:
 Form frm = ViewChildForm(typeof(frmForm1));
 if (arguments.Length == 3)
 (frm as frmForm1).SetSelectedProperty(arguments[1], arguments[2]);
 frm.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
 break;
 case commandLineFlagForm2:
 ViewChildForm(typeof(frmForm2)).WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
 break;
 }
 }
}

Essentially, the form’s timer will periodically check to see if there are new arguments.  In this example, the command line can specify a form 1 or a form 2.  If form 1, it can pass additional information in as well.

So now we will get to the handling of the previous instance and bringing it to life and then we will deal with passing command line information.

For single instance, the applicationManagement class that you see handles the single instance.  The constructor determines if a previous instance exists.

public ApplicationManagement()
{
  Process currentProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
  m_previousInstance = (from process in Process.GetProcesses()
                         where
                         process.Id != currentProcess.Id &&
                         process.ProcessName.Equals(
                         currentProcess.ProcessName,
                         StringComparison.Ordinal)
                         select process).FirstOrDefault();
  CreateArgumentStream();
}

/// <summary>
/// Does the previous instance exists?
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public bool DoesPreviousInstanceExist()
{
  return m_previousInstance != null;
}

/// <summary>
/// Shows the instance of the specified window handle
/// </summary>
/// <param name="windowHandle">The window handle.</param>
private void ShowInstance(IntPtr windowHandle)
{
  ShowWindow(windowHandle, WindowShowStyle.ShowNormal);
  EnableWindow(windowHandle, true);
  SetForegroundWindow(windowHandle);
}

/// <summary>
/// Shows the previous instance.
/// </summary>
public void ShowPreviousInstance()
{
  ShowInstance(m_previousInstance.MainWindowHandle);
}

You can see the methods where we determine if a previous instance exists and also showing the previous instance.  The ShowWindow, EnableWindow, and SetForegroundWindow API calls can be optained here:  http://www.pinvoke.net/.

Finally, the here is the code in the applicationManagement class that handles passing through the memory mapped buffer.

/// <summary>
/// The map name used for passing arguments through the MMF
/// </summary>
private const string mapName = "MySecretMapName";

/// <summary>
/// The argument stream length in bytes
/// </summary>
private const int argumentStreamLength = 512;

/// <summary>
/// The argument reference that will be used to pass arguments through a memory mapped file.
/// </summary>
private MemoryMappedFile m_arguments = null;

/// <summary>
/// The accessor to pass arguments through the memory mapped file
/// </summary>
private MemoryMappedViewAccessor m_argumentViewAccessor = null;
/// <summary>
/// Creates the argument stream.
/// </summary>
private void CreateArgumentStream()
{
  m_arguments = MemoryMappedFile.CreateOrOpen(mapName, argumentStreamLength, MemoryMappedFileAccess.ReadWrite);
  m_argumentViewAccessor = m_arguments.CreateViewAccessor();
  // Set up the buffer with nulls
  ClearArguments();
}

/// <summary>
/// Clears the arguments by setting everything to nulls which is still a valid string but has no meaning
/// </summary>
private void ClearArguments()
{
  byte[] buffer = new byte[argumentStreamLength];
  m_argumentViewAccessor.WriteArray<byte>(0, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the arguments from the memory mapped file and convert back to a string array.
/// We are using a less than pristine synchronization method of looking for any nulls in the string.
/// This method does however work as we are looking for the last null to be removed which should happen
/// in SetArguments.
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public string[] GetArguments()
{
  byte[] buffer = new byte[argumentStreamLength];

  m_argumentViewAccessor.ReadArray<byte>(0, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
  // get the string of arguments from the buffer
  string args = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(buffer);
  // if there are any nulls, then we do nothing but return an empty string
  if (args.IndexOf('\0') != -1)
    return new string[0];

  // if there are no more nulls the we have something to evaluate
  args = args.Trim(); // remove the spaces
  ClearArguments();
  // split the string based on our marvelous separator
  return args.Split(new string[] { argumentSeparator }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
}

/// <summary>
/// Sets the arguments from the command line. This is a poor mans way of doing this. A more "pristine" way would be to
/// serialize and deserialize the command line argument string array.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="args">The arguments.</param>
public void SetArguments(string[] args)
{
  // puts the nulls into the MMF
  ClearArguments();

  // Removes all the null when it is finally written to the MMF
  string arguments = String.Join(argumentSeparator, args).PadRight(argumentStreamLength, ' ');
  byte[] buffer = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(arguments);
  m_argumentViewAccessor.WriteArray<byte>(0, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
}

This is a really simple information passing with some inherent synchronization although it is a bit hacky.  Essentially, the memory mapped buffer is full of nulls.  When the previous instance is going to put the command line arguments into the MMF, it copies all the command line arguments converting from a string array to a joined single string with a clever separator (lame).  Then it pads to the length of the buffer with spaces.

The primary instance will wait until there are no more nulls in the buffer before evaluating.  In this way, we achieve some form of synchronization.  After the complete string is read and split to the original string array, the buffer is cleared out.  (This is also a clear last one in wins scenario.)

So there it is.  If there are questions, post a comment.  I would love to see something other than “buy Nike shoes written in Chinese”.

Restricting input on winform text boxes

How do you get a text box to only support positive floating point numbers on a Windows Form text box? (I know. I know. This is old school. However, it does pay the bills.)

One way that I thought was appealing was to implement the KeyDown event and control the key-presses; like this:

private void txtBowelMovementsPerDay_KeyDown(object sender, System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs e)
{
    // Allow numbers from keyboard
    if (e.KeyData >= Keys.D0 && e.KeyData <= Keys.D9)         return;     // Allow numbers from number pad     if (e.KeyData >= Keys.NumPad0 && e.KeyData <= Keys.NumPad9)
        return;

    // Allow periods from keyboard and number pad
    if (e.KeyData == Keys.Decimal || e.KeyData <= Keys.OemPeriod)
    {
        // but only one
        if (!txtBowelMovementsPerDay.Text.Contains('.'))
            return;
    }

    // Allow alt and shift to work
    if (e.Alt || e.Shift)
        return;

    // Allow the special keys to work
    switch (e.KeyData)
    {
        case Keys.End:
        case Keys.Enter:
        case Keys.Home:
        case Keys.Back:
        case Keys.Delete:
        case Keys.Escape:
        case Keys.Tab:
        case Keys.Left:
        case Keys.Right:
            return;
    }

    // Invalid input
    e.SuppressKeyPress = true;
    e.Handled = true;
}

A friend pointed out that while this was cool (ok, I may have change the tone there), it doesn’t internationalize well because a) it assumes the US keyboard layout and b) it assumes a ‘.’ is always the radix point. Bad, bad, bad.

Instead he turned me onto letting Windows do its job and checking the validity of the float to begin with and enabling the user to press “OK”. Like this…

private void txtBowelMovementsPerDay_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    btnOk.Enabled = TrackSpacingMicronsTextBoxIsValid();
}

private bool TrackSpacingMicronsTextBoxIsValid()
{
    float trackSpacingMicrons;

    // is it a valid float?
    if (float.TryParse(txtBowelMovementsPerDay.Text, out trackSpacingMicrons))
    {
        // is it a positive number?
        if (trackSpacingMicrons <= 0)
            return false;
        return true;
    }
    else
        return false;
}

This is a much better approach and facilitates i18n. While Winforms is old-school, the problem is nicely solved in WPF.

<TextBox Name="txtBowelMovementsPerDay" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="{Binding Path=BowelMovementsPerDay, Mode=TwoWay, 
    UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged,StringFormat={}{##.##}}"></TextBox>

For systems where you must make a decision to validate or preempt keystrokes, validation will always be best. By validation, I mean that you do not let the user continue unless all the data is correct. This is true with web page development as well as Javascript will parse floats based on locale.