Foreword: This article is the fourth in LinuxDevices.com's series of reviews, by software developer Jerry Epplin, of Embedded Linux toolkits. In order to gain insight into the use of each toolkit from the developer's perspective, Epplin builds Embedded Linux OS images for three different x86-based EBX… form-factor single-board computers using each toolkit. Each of the toolkits is then evaluated against a common set of criteria which include ease of use, overall toolkit architecture, methods of package management, diversity of platform support, and openness of the source code. In this installment, Epplin takes a close-up look at LynuxWorks' BlueCat Linux SDK.

When developing an Embedded Linux toolkit, a vendor can choose one of two general approaches. The more ambitious involves replacing the normal Linux development workflow with one more intuitive to the beginner and the occasional user. New users often find developing for Linux daunting, and the additional tasks necessary when deploying to an embedded system make it more so. So a toolkit vendor can attempt to encapsulate the entire Embedded Linux development process in their own environment.

This is the approach taken by all three toolkits covered in the previous articles in this series, Lineo's Embedix, MontaVista's Hard Hat Linux, and Red Hat's Embedded Linux Developer Suite (ELDS). The danger of this approach becomes evident if the vendor does not succeed in fully encapsulating the development process, requiring the user to use large portions of the underlying Linux environment anyway. An incomplete encapsulation can be worse than none at all, since it requires the user to learn the workflows of both Linux and the toolkit. As we saw in its review, Embedix is somewhat successful in this regard, as it provides a consistent environment that normally does not require the user to dip down to the underlying environment. The records of Hard Hat and ELDS are more mixed — they provide only a thin GUI veneer over Linux, requiring (to varying degrees) a more substantial understanding of the underlying Linux development processes.

• Part 1: Toolkit strategies
  
• Part 2: The “less is more” approach to Embedded Linux toolkits
  
• Part 3: Development Process
  
• Part 4: Other observations

 
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