Looking for ideas for custom WYSIWYG editor for LED display
-
I am brainstorming ideas for an web browser WYSIWYG text editor for LED like displays. The editor will show a matrix of bulbs. As the user types, the bulbs corresponding to the keys pressed will be turned on. The editor will support backspace and most basic text editor functions. The displays are also of different sizes (pixel height, width, etc) and support different fonts. I've seen where javascript supports key up/down events. What I am focusing on right now is the edittable pixel display. The two ideas I have right now are 1) A table with each cell filled with an OffBulb.png. As the user types, javascript determines the appropriate cells to be changed to an OnBulb.png. 2) The server creates .png for all supported characters (~200 chars - a lot of images) and as the user types, the character pngs are layed out in the container one after the other. Does anyone have any ideas? The platform will be .NET either MVC or possible WebForms.
-
I am brainstorming ideas for an web browser WYSIWYG text editor for LED like displays. The editor will show a matrix of bulbs. As the user types, the bulbs corresponding to the keys pressed will be turned on. The editor will support backspace and most basic text editor functions. The displays are also of different sizes (pixel height, width, etc) and support different fonts. I've seen where javascript supports key up/down events. What I am focusing on right now is the edittable pixel display. The two ideas I have right now are 1) A table with each cell filled with an OffBulb.png. As the user types, javascript determines the appropriate cells to be changed to an OnBulb.png. 2) The server creates .png for all supported characters (~200 chars - a lot of images) and as the user types, the character pngs are layed out in the container one after the other. Does anyone have any ideas? The platform will be .NET either MVC or possible WebForms.
You mean a look-up table right? You put your 200 characters in an array of objects which each hold the name of the character and the image for the character. THAT array NEVER changes! When the user enters the characters they want, you create an array for the user input, but don't copy the values from the 200-character array - copy the indexes. So, in memory, the message looks like this... 53 41 4c 45 20 6f 6e 20 44 56 44 73 20 54 4f 44 41 59 21 - which I would bet is exactly what the sign stores too. So "the character pngs are layed out in the container one after the other." isn't the right way to do it - just put the reference numbers in there. Making copies of the character set is wasteful, and LED signs don't have a ton of memory - you should emulate that behavior in your web interface. And when you're done... please fix Bubba Chino's sign... it has been flashing "LED SIGN!" for two years ever since he bought it :)