Positioning API support on desktop platforms - geolocation

I've tried to build a webkit app using HTML5 geoposition APIs to get the current coordinates. I've also turned on the geolocation feature but it fails to start with error
Failed to start Geolocation service
Then I've tried to use QGetPositionInfoSource, but it can't find any available source to use. I wonder, is Positioning API supported on desktop applications?

That's a big no-no.
Directly from the documentation:
The Qt Positioning API provides positioning information via QML and C++ interfaces. Currently the API is supported on Android, BlackBerry 10, iOS and Linux (using GeoClue).
The same applies for Qt 5.4 as can be seen in the corresponding snapshot documentation page here.
UPDATE
Support for the whole BlackBerry platform has been dropped. On the other hand, support for Positioning API on desktop platforms will be available with the next release of the framework, Qt 5.6. The current documentation snapshot is pretty clear about that:
The Qt Positioning API provides positioning information via QML and C++ interfaces.
Currently the API is supported on Android, iOS, OS X, Linux (using GeoClue version 0.12.99), Windows (with GPS receivers exposed as a serial port providing NMEA sentences), and WinRT (using Windows.Devices.Geolocation).
Thus, download a development snapshot and try out this new desktop feature.

Related

Create Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP NT, 7, 10

I come across the following link - https://github.com/felixrieseberg/windows95
Running windows 95 as Electron APP
Is it possible to create any existing application as portable or cross-platform using electron like above?
Can we use Windows 7 or 10 like above without Oracle Virtual Box or VM in an existing Windows 8 machine ?
Need more details on how it is possible to bring an application via electron
Thanks.
If I'm hearing you right, you're wondering if you can put a whole OS into a JS VM running in Electron - and then run your app on top of that.
Please don't do that. Electron is a fantastic cross-platform solution, but my project windows95 was mostly an educational experiment showcasing how powerful modern JavaScript and Electron can be.
This project uses another project called v86, which is capable of virtualising a x86 platform and display its output on a HTML element. Electron is browser-based so that is why this works.
But there are some limitations: It virtualises the x86 platform, which is pretty old by now, and when you have a look at the specification, it says it is at a Pentium-1 state. The demo links on the project's GitHub ReadMe also do not contain any "modern" OS because v86 does not support SSE(2). And since Microsoft requires its users to have a SSE2-compatible CPU* it is not possible to run anything like Windows 7 or newer (Linux may work, anyway).
OSses which support this kind of (deprecated) hardware, may work. As you can see from the "Compatibility" section of the project's ReadMe, some Linux versions and Windows XP "work" but older software, like OS/2, and even newer stuff, like Android, don't (really). So you can't say that everything will work as expected because the execution environment is really limited.
Now to answer your first point, no, I don't think that you can wrap every existing app into an Electron application and run it on new hardware. It may work with old software (which do not require SSE, if you use v86, and that would require a lot of hackery on the v86 side because it is designed to run OSses), but don't quote me on that.
* The section in question reads (at the time of writing) like this:
A Stop error occurs on computers that don't support Streaming Single Instructions Multiple Data (SIMD) Extensions 2 (SSE2).
Upgrade your machines with a processor that supports SSE2 or virtualize those machines.
(emphasis mine, source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4088875/windows-7-update-kb4088875)

Which Node APIs are included in electron?

I am working on an electron app and was wondering which APIs from Node are included in Electron and if there are any differences.
For example, I know that fs is included, but I am wondering about other APIs like util.promisify. I haven’t found anything in the docs about the supported APIs.
Electron actually is a node.js app so the full node API is available from the used version. It is pretty much always the most recent version (at least in one month) but you can check it with
process.versions
in any Electron app

Windows 10 IoT Raspberry Pi 2: Does .NET have mouse support as well?

I just managed to deploy my first Windows IoT Core (Background Application IoT) and Windows Universal (Blank App) via VS 2015 on RasPI2. After a quick scan I wonder if there is any mouse handling (MouseMove ...) integrated in the new .Net framework as well?
They're not in the .Net Framework: they're in the Windows Runtime.
Pointer events (PointerPressed, PointerMoved, PointerReleased, etc.) are part of the Universal app contract and available on all Windows devices, including IoT.
Pointer events cover all pointer devices including mouse, touch, pen.
From what google was able to tell me, the answer is yes. You're app cannot be headless (so have UI and a screen, which makes sense). Here is the example I was able to find. It seems like movement is constrained to a Xaml UI object.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/windows.ui.xaml.uielement.pointerpressed

IBM Worklight - Is there an embedded rendering engine? Can we change it?

I'm working on a software that includes 3D graphics. Those are massive enough, so I decided to use OpenGL to keep a quite fluent animation. I selected THREE.js graphic library (WebGL).
Reading the html through a Web browser works very well : WebGL functions are recognized. I did it on my desktop (Win32/Firefox17, please do not judge me on my configuration !) and on a Nexus 10 (Android 4.3, FF24 and FF25Beta, tried with Chrome30Beta but no joy...). But I need to access native data, like the file system, to get informations for my program. So I wrapped my code with WL, and deployed it as an app on my Nexus 10... And so disappeared the WebGL capability... :(
So I looked for a reason to that :
I found on the IBM site two different ideas : in one way, I understand that a JS engine is embedded, in another that WL uses the engine of the default Web browser of the tablet (what I understood the first time)...
Let's be precise with the different engines : On the Nexus, FFs have obviously Gecko engines, Chrome30 is a Blink (webkit-like, version 537.36). Those are the ones detected by window.navigator.useragent as I read directly in the browser, no surprise. In the Eclipse/WL preview, I got different interpreters, depending the browser I selected, FF or IE (not Safari, I don't have it installed), but not the one from my desktop (the ones used are even older than my own FF...). But, when I detect the one used in the app (after wrapping in an apk), it returns an AppleWebkit 534.30/Worklight/6.0...
Maybe I'm wrong (tell me), but if 'Worklight' is in the version of the engine, and if webkit is used even when I suppress Chrome from my tablet (the version is different, but who knows..), I wonder that, for this app, as it's configured, the engine is embedded by Cordova or WL.
If it is so, I agree it allows to read a code with a fully-compatible interpreter, regardless the browser installed on the hardware. But when a webkit engine does not please you for the functions it supports (like WebGL, very partially supported), it looks a problem for me.
Does anybody have a confirmation of how it works ? If the engine is wrapped with the app, do you know if we can choose the one to be included, or configure it (like enabling WebGL ;) ) ? Another idea ?
Thanks,
Vincent.
Worklight applications do not bundle an interpreter. The application will use what that is bundled in the OS.
In other words, the default WebView in Worklight is the one that the OS provides, in the case of Android it uses the bundled WebKit.
This is not something Worklight controls what-so-ever.
You could, maybe, somehow, bundle in your app the Firefox engine libraries and hook it all up together, but the task to do so is incredibly large and complex in size... and not supported by IBM Worklight. Also, I do not know whether Cordova supports this as well ( it is used in Worklight to interface with native functionality).
As for the useragent, the string "Worklight" is attached to it as part of support for IBM WebSphere Portal.

Render video to Direct3D 9.0c texture

I have been trying to play a video in my Direct3D application and have been trying to do so with the help of DirectShow. My problem is that I cannot find how to get the frame data to put into a texture (ISampleGrabber won't install).
Does anyone know of any methods or examples of this being done?
ISampleGrabber is available in all versions of Windows released last 15+ years
Look for "Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 SDK Update (October 2004)" which contains sample app, which does exactly what you want:
Texture3D Sample Description
Draws video on a Microsoft® Direct3D texture surface.
Note This sample does not support changing the display properties of
the monitor while the sample is running.
Path
Source: (SDK root)\Samples\C++\DirectShow\Players\Texture3D
Executable: (SDK root)\Samples\C++\DirectShow\Bin\Texture3D.exe
UPDATE. Even though Sample Grabber existed though many many versions of Windows, it was finally removed along with other filters hosted by qedit.dll in most recent versions of operating systems (Windows Server 2008 in particular). Those whose application are dependent on this API, should consider building a replacement using Grabber sample from older SDKs. The same applies to those needing this filter because of so many references on Internet and tutorials on how to use it to get access to media streams.
The filter was removed silently and without any replacement. Microsoft suggests that Media Foundation is an alternate option and successor to DirectShow, which is however hardly helpful.

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