From: George Styles <george_at_ripnet.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 15:04:36 +0100

Hi,

Would it be possible to implement loadable modules in Rockbox, for example
for games etc. to reduce the size of the actual firmware?

As far as I can tell, it would be desirable to keep the music playing while
(for example) Tetris was being played, but it is not nescesary to have to
code for Tetris in memory all the time (unless you play it constantly!)

What I was thinking was a new file extension (rlm?) for Rockbox Loadable
Module. When you select one of these, it would shrink the MP3 buffer by the
size of the module, and load the module in, passing a jump-table (for
addresses of firmware routines like yield() and writetext etc) on the stack
to the new code. Maybe ROLO like relocation would be needed as well.

The module could then use the jump-table to call firmware routines, and
could do its thing, calling a firmware routine at the end to free up its
storage space

This way, other developers can independantly develop fun things without
mucking up the 'pure' mp3 firmware?

What do people think about this?
g
Received on 2002-10-11