netsurf/Docs/USING-Framebuffer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Usage Instructions for Framebuffer NetSurf                  2nd October 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  This document provides usage instructions for the Framebuffer version of 
  NetSurf.

  Framebuffer NetSurf has been tested on Ubuntu and Debian.

Overview
========

  What it is
  ----------

  The NetSurf framebuffer front end is primarily intended for kiosk
   and embedded applications where there is insufficient Operating
   System support for a full graphical windowing environment.

  The framebuffer frontend features:

  * A trivial occluded rectangle window management toolkit

  * Font handling system using either:
    - A trivial internal monochrome bitmap glyph set.
    - An interface to fully anti-aliased glyphs using libfreetype 2

  * Uses libnsfb to provide transparent support for:
    - Numerous surface providers allowing usage on Linux, X, SDL, VNC
      and any mapped linear memory region.
    - Surface depths of 8, 16, 24 and 32bpp 
    - Optimised software plotters for lines, rectangles, polygons,
      arbitrary ellipses (including circles), cubic and quadratic
      splines, font glyphs and 32bpp RGBA bitmaps.
    - Abstracted input handling.
 
  What it is not
  --------------
  
  The framebuffer frontend is not a replacement for full native
   ports. It lacks functionality and flexibility compared to such
   implementations. 

  Limitations include:
    - Single window interface.
    - No tabbed interface.
    - Expects to control the entire plotting surface.
    - No ability to re-size a surface after initialisation.
    - Inflexible input character mapping.
    - Limited history view.

  In addition it should be noted support for some libnsfb surfaces has
   been implemented purely for debugging functionality (SDL
   especially) and is not intended to replace native surface
   handlers.

  If a high level windowing system is available then a native NetSurf
   frontend is almost certainly a better choice than attempting to use
   the framebuffer frontend.

  If there is a graphical environment which supports GTK then using
   the GTK frontend is a vastly superior choice. The framebuffer
   frontend will appear exceptionally limited on such capable systems.


Configuring
===========

  Several resources are set at *compile* time and are not changeable at
   run time such as the icon bitmaps, the font system to use and what
   default surface to use. Refer to the BUILDING-Framebuffer document
   for details.

  Toolkit Options
  ---------------

  The trivial toolkit has some configuration parameters allowing the
   user to alter specific aspects of the UI. All the sizes are in
   surface pixels however that is mapped.

  fb_furniture_size 
    This is the size allowed for the scroll bar elements.

  fb_toolbar_size
    The height of the toolbar.

  fb_toolbar_layout
    The layout of the toolbar, layout uses a string to define buttons
    type and position each character adds an element to the toolbar:

    b - back
    l - local history
    f - forward
    s - stop 
    r - refresh
    u - url bar expands to fit remaining space
    t - throbber/activity indicator
    c - close the current window

    The default layout is "blfsrut" there should be no more than a
    single url bar entry. If the option is set to the empty string (no
    spaces permitted) the toolbar is disabled altogether.

  fb_osk
    Whether the on screen keyboard should be enabled for input.


  Framebuffer Surface
  -------------------

  There are four command line switches which override compiled in
   defaults these are:

  -f <handler>   
     Selects a surface handler to pass to libnsfb instead of the
     default. (e.g. x, sdl, mem, linux)

  -b <depth>
     Selects the pixel depth to pass to libnsfb instead of the
     compiled in default. (one of 8, 16, 24, 32)

  -w <width>
     Selects the surface width to pass to libnsfb instead of the
     compiled in default.

  -h <height>
     Selects the surface height to pass to libnsfb instead of the
     compiled in default.

  As with any NetSurf frontend run-time configuration is read from a
   "Choices-fb" file. This file is a simple key:value list. In addition
   to the standard values supported by the NetSurf core there are a
   number of values to control specific aspects of the framebuffer
   version.

  The libnsfb surface parameters are controlled with:

    fb_refresh - The refresh rate (for physical displays)
    fb_depth - The depth (in bits per pixel) of the surface
    fb_device - The path to the device (for physical displays)
    fb_input_devpath - The path to the input devices (for linux input layer)
    fb_input_glob - The input device selection glob  (for linux input layer)
    window_width - The width of the framebuffer
    window_height - The height of the framebuffer

  The defaults are for 800 by 600 pixels at 16bpp and 70Hz refresh rate.

  The documentation of libnsfb should be consulted for further
   information about supported surfaces and their configuration.

  Fonts
  -----

  If the compile time option is set to use the freetype font system
   then several configuration options are available. If the simple
   bitmap glyphs are used none of these options apply.

  The font glyphs are, by default, rendered as 256 level transparency
   which gives excellent visual results even on small font sizes.

  The default font is the Vera truetype font set. The default path they
   are sourced from is /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/ .

  The font selection may be changed by placing truetype font files
   in the resources path. The resource files will be the generic names
   sans_serif.ttf, sans_serif_bold.ttf etc. The selection may also be
   overridden by setting options.

  The font system is configured at run-time by several options. The
   fb_font_monochrome option causes the renderer to use monochrome
   glyph rendering which is faster to plot but slower to render and
   much less visually appealing. The remaining seven options control
   the files to be used for font faces.

  fb_face_sans_serif - The sans serif face
  fb_face_sans_serif_bold - The bold sans serif face
  fb_face_sans_serif_italic - The italic sans serif face
  fb_face_sans_serif_italic_bold - The bold italic sans serif face.
  fb_face_monospace - The monospaced font
  fb_face_serif - The serif font
  fb_serif_bold - The bold serif font