Custom interface or desktop environment for Raspberry Pi

Question

I want to build a kind of media player (karaoke player, machine) using Raspberry Pi.

The requirement is that a user will search, play and queue videos from a hard drive. So I need to make a custom interface or desktop environment with similar interface of, openelec and raspbmc but with much simpler functionality.

Therefore, I would like to know how I can make such interface. Do I need to learn about making linux desktop environments or are there any libraries or frameworks that Raspberry developers use?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think you should look at how to make an application rather than an entire desktop environment. This application might be fullscreen and launched on startup, much like how XBMC work in openelec or raspbmc.

Python seems to be the preferred language used by Raspberry Pi users. It's quite easy to learn and to use. You should take a look at the following links to learn how to make GUI using Python and TkInter:

• https://wiki.python.org/moin/TkInter
• https://docs.python.org/2/library/tkinter.html
• http://sebsauvage.net/python/gui/ (this one also include information about wxPython, another GUI library)

And one on how to have an application launched on start up:

• How do I get a GUI program to run before the login screen?

• Ari: Thank you for the answer. I didn't know openelec, raspmbc worked like that. I thought they had their own desktop environment for gui.
• Gagaro: You can actually download xbmc and launch it from your current environment (Linux, Mac, Windows, ...): xbmc.org/download. It may help you understand how it works.