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Virtual GPIOs: Adding support for serial and networked protocols

In general terms, a GPO is a boolean command (output) whereas a GPI is a boolean stilumus (input); contact closures is only a particular implementation of this concept. Since GP-LOGIC manages GPIOs in abstraction, the nature (implementation) of those, should be irrelevant to it (generally speaking).

Particularly interesting is the case of serial and networked protocols, as in the case of most Production Video Switchers and MultiViewers, to which GP-LOGIC should be able to communicate serially and extract GPIOs from their datagrams.

Instead of PI units, software would be utilized. This software (we can call it Virtual Units) would run in the Master Linux host encoding/decoding data from serial protocols into "virtual GPIOs", then passing this translated info to the Master Software by the mean of UNIX sockets (named pipes defined in the file system). This "info" can actually be formatted in terms of the same serial protocol used by PI units, so it is irrelevant to the Master Software whether it comes from a Virtual Unit or a real one.

Adding support to serial and networked protocols gets reduced to the creation of the appropriate Virtual Units software.