random / misc. feature requests / suggestions

here's some stuff that Ive thought about:
uclinux features (assuming the cam's resources permit...)
-getting crond going
-getting somekind of 'minimal' scripting language going (something more than bash/shell scripting, like an embedded version of perl, python, php? dont know if this is even feasible)
-nfs client or some other method of pulling & storing camera config from a remote 'ipcam config' server
-get 'reboot' command working (i havent been able to get this to work yet)

camera features
-user-defined patrol regions
-ability to disable IR leds (for those who need to point the cam 'through a window' and have a separate IR floodlight setup outside)...not sure if this is possible to do through software though...
-basic command-line cam tools to control cam (pan/tilt/etc)

-create a much more compact/cleaner webui structure
--add a custom, minimal jquery library (or similar)
--use somekind of 'site template' structure & try to do more 'content fills' using ajax calls
--remove all comments/spacing&CrLf's/unnecessary html tags from source files
--remove unneeded html files from source
--remove unneeded language support (allow user to select & upload only the desired langpacks)
--store webfile's in gzipped format, and then serve it pre-compressed to http clients (this would break compatibility with older browsers, but should be a non-issue with most modern browsers anyway, right? dont even know if this is possible, im just thinking out loud, but in theory it would save space on flash and help increase network performance to clients)

of course this is all just a wish list & some random thoughts...
questions/feedback/comments welcome

Are you talking about doing this for the Open IP software or to do this for existing firmwares?

for openipcam firmware and/or any other related projects.
we couldnt really do it for existing firmware without having the source code.
Ive sent a couple of emails to the cam manufacturers to try and get a copy of the original firmware source code, but havent received any responses

I ave to say I'm very interested in getting a scripting language running on the embedded firmware. A coworker was able to get Python running on an Atmel based system, but it was much more powerful than the ARM7 or ARM9 systems that we are dealing with.

Resources may require something more Specialized like Squirrel or eLua compiled for the architecture.

armin, sounds cool.
do u have any experience with either squirrel or elua?

None whatsoever. 

Thanks to Hack-a-Day I also ran across another scripting language that might be nice to compile for these systems: PyMite. Still waiting for my hardware to get here, but as a Python guy this very much intrigues me and will likely be one of the routes I hack around with.

Also, as far as software development goes has anyone looked into running the firmware in a Virtual Machine under QEMU or the like?

We have very minimal flash space to work with, so we need *small* compiled apps.

Look at the suggested software I've looked at in the uClinux sections for stuff thats feasible.
cgi is feasible, other stuff not so.

a minimal web server with cgi support to call some compiled software would be best.
Lua might be feasible, but I reckon we'd be perfectly fine with the above.

Python may be doable - tinypy or similar should be compilable I think ( http://www.tinypy.org/ )

Thread on some suggestions here - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/240996/anyone-using-python-for-embedded-projects

You can run the firmware in an ARM7 emulator that supports N745.