Why Is The Wiz Documentation And Sdk So Disastrous?

[lunavorax]

Hello everyone!

Some months ago, I bought a GP2X Wiz hoping that one day I'll have enough basis in C and SDL to code something on it (just displaying an image at least).
As I still am a newbie, I looked for a documentation and an SDK in order to begin to compile something.

First off, I can't describe how confusing it is for a newcomer to see that there's no one but several SDKs (I'm working on Linux 32bit for your information).
OpenWiz, GPH's Official SDK, torpor's openwiz modification...
What SDK should I choose ?
Why no one seems to use the official SDK ?
Why all homebrews SDKs are outdated ?
How are libraries (like SDL) supposed to be installed in order to work with it when they don't come by default ?

As I was a little disoriented with all theses questions, I started to look for a set of tutorials that would maybe help me.
Then I understood what "no documentation" meant. A few forum post kindly redirect everyone to the GP2X Wiz Wiki but this absolutely doesn't help as the development tutorials are litteraly inexistant with it's 3 tutorials relying on an outdated and unsupported 3rd party library.
Why is there NO documentation ?

If there's was only one question : How can there be so much homebrew and so few documentation for the GP2X Wiz at the same time ?

If by any chance I failed at finding the ultimate ressource for newcomers to GP2X Wiz programming, please let me know and I'll be whilling to wear a duncecap all year long. For now I'm just very disapointed for such a great(?) community that didn't took time to write a proper wiki about helping the noobs getting to grips with programming their Wiz.

Thank you all in advance for your answers.

 

[rodolforg]

What SDK should I choose ?

That you like more =) I've never heard about topor's SDK, but I used openwiz toolchain. Now I'm using the GPH official just for fun, but only the toolchain, not it's proprietary libraries (DGE).
There's no real difference about them, just the setup of Openwiz is easier for those that already know GCC toolchains. In other hand, GPH offers a template for Code::Blocks IDE (I don't use it).

Why no one seems to use the official SDK ?

I think it's because it took much time to be released. Besides, I prefer to use multiplataform libraries for many personal reasons.

Why all homebrews SDKs are outdated ?

?

How are libraries (like SDL) supposed to be installed in order to work with it when they don't come by default ?

Those from official SDK should be installed on Wiz. Extra ones could be placed on the game folder and the launch script should change the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

How can there be so much homebrew and so few documentation for the GP2X Wiz at the same time ?

Discarding the ported homebrews? "Any" SDL game should work on Wiz (except for restrictions on screen/framebuffer resolution, memory, processor clock... - hardware). You don't have to know anything abot Wiz itself, except screen limitations and input (eg. joystick button order).


Anyway, as you're trying to learn about C and SDL, maybe you should start using things like BennuGD. It's supposed to be easier and pratical. I never studied/used though.

 

[lunavorax]

Hi Rodolfo!

Thank you for such a fast and precise answer. I think you covered much of it.

For the question you didn't understood. I meant I was worried that the unofficial SDKs are older than the official one and therefore that it could (maybe?) have an impact on performance or compatibility with the code you try to compile.
Maybe it's not a problem after all. Anyway.

I knew someone was going to take another direction than C/SDL but I really want to stick with it and not to touch to BennuGD.
But thanks anyway for the tip

 

[HunterZ]

My impression is that the official SDK dynamically links against libraries that are already installed on the Wiz' NAND as part of the firmware load, which theoretically allows you to build smaller binaries.

The OpenWiz toolchain uses a newer GCC version and newer libraries (meaning you might get more features and/or better performance/optimization), but you have to either statically link the libraries into your binaries, or distribute the libraries with your apps.

I think torpor's thing is just an updated SDL port for use with the OpenWiz toolchain? I'm not sure I ever got around to integrating it into my toolchain installation because it looked like it might be a complicated operation.

Edit: Yes, the official SDK was updated more recently, but it uses older compiler tools and libraries for some reason. I think they were stuck with whatever library versions they put in the oldest firmwares so that dynamically-linked apps wouldn't break.

 

[rodolforg]

About the SDK beign older or newer: what really matters is the version of the libraries. If they're compatible, don't worry as long as you link to them dynamically.

About C/SDL, just check any SDL tutorial. Video parameters are 320x240, 16bpp. Sound, hmm, I don't remember. About C, please, be sure you learn ansi C, C standard libraries (at most, linux ones: windows C libraries can't work .
I suggested you BennuGD because I guess they have a proper/easier graphics handler. Somethings in C/C++ are a real pain sometimes, as memory leaks and memory improper accesses.

I just searched and found a (apparently) good SDL tutorials page: http://lazyfoo.net/SDL_tutorials

 

[quasist]

Some months ago, I bought a GP2X Wiz hoping that one day I'll have enough basis in C and SDL to code something on it (just displaying an image at least).

The standard template project that supplied with official SDK(at least on windows) provides the 'simple display of bitmap' as well as basic game loop, and input reading. Strange that you missed that with all you fire in heart for development on wiz.