Honestly I really don't see the issue with an 800mb network image. These kiosk machines and network should be able to handle that with no issues and it should fit on a disk easily. What constraint are you trying to solve? You want to switch from an easy to maintain by any Unix expert with fully available source to an obscure system that very few people use today and might have issues with redistribution of sources and fonts etc just to satisfy a constraint that doesn't exist. This is the kind of thing that would only fly at a university where they allow people to make strange decisions that solve problems that don't really exist. On Sat, Jan 29, 2022 at 9:08 AM ibrahim via 9fans <9fans@9fans.net> wrote: > On Saturday, 29 January 2022, at 2:24 PM, hiro wrote: > > i don't buy the argument that source code would be too big. for just one > subject in school i had to download many gigabytes of quartus, over a > decade ago. our source is nowhere near that big. > > > A kiosk application for educational purposes in subjects not involving > programming consists of tools for viewing texts, animations, images, a > calculator a plotter and an interface do upload pictures taken from your > handwritten assignments. There is also a chat platform for group chats and > individual talking. The whole plattform uses TCP/IP as its only > communication protocol avoiding existing RFC standards. The GUI is similar > to a web site but looks more like a desktop with windows where all tools > like calculator, chat clients, upload tools are represented by floating > windows. Nothing more and nothing less. The purpose of this application is > not teaching the students how to realize such a platform but the subjects > they need to pass their exams at university. There is no benefit for the > students to learn how to realize such a platform and thats also not the > goal of this project. > > My Freebsd version has now 800 MB. A great amount of this size is caused > by hand written sample solution scans for past exams provided as 300dpi > images (png or ppm). Most of my notes are handwritten cause this way to > provide solutions for exam questions is faster and simpler. Some of the > teachings are provided as ogg vorbis files. > > The system part regarding Freebsd and X11 can be reduced by using plan9 > dramatically. My own software has a few MB. In the plan9 distribution I > will use a new image format based on horizontal scanlines using 256 colors. > This has an acceptable quality is faster to render and the size of the > image files will shrink to about 25%. > > 800 MB aren't only the sources they include the base course material. The > application has to make this material visible, usable and allow students to > connect to deliver their assignments ask questions get back hand written > notes and to exchange information with others using this closed network. > > *9fans * / 9fans / see discussions > + participants > + delivery options > Permalink > > ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T3e07bfdf263a83c8-Mdfb5448a1737698aa3cc5908 Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription