RTM_TimerCalc and Wine

A few Users of RTM_TimerCalc reported they were able to run it in Linux via Wine. I was pleased to hear this and wanted to see for myself.

I had a free hard drive and installed Linux Mint 20. I then used the software picker built into Mint and loaded Wine (ver 4?). Then I loaded Winetricks. Next, I was told to use the Terminal to run this command: winetricks dotnet45 gdiplus d3dx9_36. And then I used Winetricks Explorer to navigate to and run RTM_TimerCalc's msi installer.

The above process was tricky to accomplish. Eventually, I was able to see RTM_TimerCalc running in Lunux.

Disappointing Results

No Prompts: RTM_TimerCalc did not show any of its normal blinking prompts (circled numbers that blink). The reason seems to be a missing font (Segoe UI) which is standard in modern Windows installations. Note: This may be fixed installing Segoe UI font into Wine. I couldn't find that font in Winetricks. I didn't see how to get the proper permissions to install it into Linux...

Poor Chart Performance: The WYSIWYG chart was severely slow. Worse -- any changes to PWM duty cycle caused the chart to redraw itself at least 4 times per change. This looked horrible! It reveals a flaw in my application code. In Windows, I can't see this problem. But the emulation unmasks the problem and forces you to wait while it gyrates slowly. NOTE: this improved a lot changing the video driver used by Linux Mint.

Settings Grid: The Settings Grid revealed a problem with changed settings not being shown in Bold. This may be due to other subtle font issues running in emulation mode. But I was able to change settings and they did seem to stick from session to session. NOTE: This problem seemed to disappear by choosing Verdana as the Grid font. I may have needed to install that font via Winetricks.

New Version Notify: This feature seemed disabled. It depends on background threading which may not be active under emulation...

More Info

As of this edit (9 September, 2020), I discovered RTM_TimerCalc works much better after certain Wine configurations are made. One of these was ensuring Wine was emulating Windows-7. Another was setting the DPI to 120 instead of the default 96 DPI. A big improvement was had changing my Linux-Mint 20 NVidea driver to an older version (instead of the recommended driver).

After these changes, RTM_TimerCalc became much better behaved. It was usable for testing what-if scenarios and doing general PWM setups. A lot of the problems with Fonts seemed to be gone but much more testing is required.

I'm having my share of 'fun' finding my way through Wine and Linux. I hope to make a video (in Linux) that shows how to install RTM_TimnerCalc and configure Wine to get a decent result.

For sure, another version of the app. is needed to address the video flashing (at least minimize it). I'm hoping to get somewhere in the near term -- no promises...

Closing Thoughts

RTM_TimerCalc was made for Windows O/S (Win7 and Win10). Running it in the Linux Mint Wine emulator, a lot of -my- design flaws became apparent.

If you wish to use RTM_TimerCalc in Linux, you'll face the above mentioned hurdles.

At some point, I may try improving the app such that it performs better under Linux.

If you solve any issues using RTM_TimerCalc in Linux, please let me hear from you! Thanks.

Lee