Environs 0.9.0

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With the release of version 0.9.0, Environs underwent major changes which provide:

  • Change static API to object API which allows multiple instances of Environs objects to manage multiple application areas as the same time
  • CPP API which provides an object oriented interface for pure c++ projects (requires c++11)
  • Provide support and solutions for Visual Studio 2015
  • There are much more features and changes under the hood. However, as long as you made use of the Object API, there’s no need to update the code further.
  • With release 0.9.0, the RAW API of Environs got a new parameter to indicate a particular instance. The implementation of the Object API shows how to obtain and maintain instance handles.

The CPP API provides interface objects and enables the use of different c-runtimes at client code and framework code. This feature makes use of c++11 smart pointers to maintain memory allocation and disposal “at the right runtime side”.

We provide two simple examples (WindowsWin32, ChatApp.CPP) for the Windows platform which show how to use Environs from pure c++ client code. You may statically link against the framework library or use the object loader provided in Environs.Loader.cpp. The latter dynamically loads the framework library at runtime, creates an Environs object, and returns a smart pointer to the object interface. Client code therefore does not need to care about releasing memory or resources allocated for the object. Both features also provide the benefit that client code may use an arbitrary c-runtime (CRT) without having to care about the c-runtime of the framework library.

For iOS and OSX platforms, you may choose between the Objective-C or the CPP API. In order to show this, we provided CPP API examples in addition to the Objective-C examples in the iOSX folder.

The Objective-C API is actually a thin wrapper around the CPP API and connects the ARC (Automatic Reference Counting) of iOS/OSX projects with the object lifecycle management of the CPP API.

The tutorials and documentation will be updated soon to reflect the API changes.

Hello Madeira

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Up to now, Environs has been made public (hcm-lab.de/environs) and open source (hcm-lab.de/git/environs/environs) and the most important concepts as well as design rationales have been published in the proceedings of the EICS conference in 2014.

Potential usage examples have been presented and discussed, e.g. in the domain of Internet of Things (ITS 2014, Dresden) or collaborative visualization of energy consumptions (INTERACT 2015, Bamberg).

In order to further promote Environs and discuss the applicability of the concepts behind, the Environs framework has been submitted and (fortunately) accepted for discussion in workshops at the Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference in Madeira, Portugal, 14.th – 18.th November 2015.

–> Interact 2015 conference
–> Cross-Surface: Workshop on Interacting with Multi-Device Ecologies in the Wild
—-> A Framework Towards Challenges and Issues of Multi-Surface Environments
–> Shared Infrastructures for Tangible Tabletops & Interactive Surfaces

Canada – ITS 2009 Conference

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I’ve been to banff/canada for a week to attend the international conference on interactive tabletops and surfaces 2009. Apart from the high quality of that conference, there were a lot of social happenings with the researchers, e.g. having interesting and productive talks while enjoying canadian beer in some of the beautiful pubs and restaurants in banff. Also the banquet with banquet speaker Chia Shen was great. I haven’t had such a delicious dinner so far and i’m pretty sure that it was quite expensive.. Thank goodness it was paid by the conference hehe

Oh and the view onto toronto at night (from the airplane) is soo beautiful.

On tuesday i presented results of my research from the university of augsburg and of course i was quite nervous hehe. Here are some pictures of my presentation and talk afterwards.
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This is an elk in the gray of dawn. Unfortunately there wasn’t sufficient light for a perfect picture…
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A great diner burger :)
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The conference hotel – the fairmont springs banff!
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Banff at night…
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A view from the bridge in banff..
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Some mountains…
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