A Framework to Run C/C++ Application on Web-based OS

With the development of IoT (Internet of things) and its related technologies, Web-based operating system (OS) becomes popular. However, current mobile applications are mainly developed for Android and iOS, which cannot be directly deployed on Web-based OS because of the platform heterogeneity. Therefore, Web-based OS suffers from a poor application ecosystem. The research found that many mobile applications are developed in a mode, in which the core functionalities are written in C/C++ and encapsulated into an SDK, while the presentation layer is platform-dependent. To enrich the application ecosystem of Web-based OS, we propose a framework to transplant existing C/C++ applications to Web-based OS. Aiming to implement the framework, we firstly construct Web APIs to build interaction between web applications and web engine; secondly, we deliver the event information from web applications to the SDK; finally, we implement the graphic rendering interface required by the SDK and display drawn images. To draw and display graphics, we propose Skia-based method and Canvas-based method: The Skia-based method draws graphics by Skia and displays them through HTML element. The Canvas-based method uses the CanvasRenderingContext2D interface to draw graphics and display them directly through the HTML element. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we conduct experiments on a commercial IM (input method) application by transplanting it to a Web-based OS (Firefox OS). Experimental results show that the IM application could run smoothly on the Web-based OS, and compared with the Skia-based method, the Canvas-based method significantly reduces (i) interaction time between the application and the user by 84.71%, (ii) CPU usage time by 74.35% and (iii) memory overhead, revealing that it is more suitable for the framework.