ECE497: How to edit the Matrix GUI

On the SPEd image, there is a launcher on the desktop that runs the Matrix GUI program, which is similar to the iPhone app chooser interface. It turns out that this program is just written in HTML, and is very easy to edit.

The matrix folder is located in /usr/share/matrix/. It has 3 subfolders: html, images, and xml. menu_main.html is the first screen you see when starting up, so is the logical place to start editing. The actual editing is very straightforward, even if you have no previous HTML experience. Just a couple tips: if you want your icon to link to another menu page, then I would suggest using menu_comingsoon.html as a template. If you just use your own HTML, and have no back button, or exit button, you will have to kill the application from the serial cable (which, by the way, can be done with: pkill matrix). Also, all the other icons are 96x96, but as far as I can tell, any size image works just fine - just keep in mind it will be squished into a 96x96 size space.