ReTread the Old Coder's Head ??

I've just taken a look at GPSDrive. Currently only supports bit-mapped imaged charts.
And no Windows port. Bummer.

If you're happy using bit-maps - take a look at SeaClear, which has AIS capability as well.

Colin

 

I'll use anything so long as it runs on Linux and is supported by the community.

If so, please tell me more. Else get the source code and recompile with your favourite package that will work with it. Bit maps sources used have several large resource repositories of free maps and simple to scan your own.

 

AIS capability / BitMaps

OziExplorer has AIS capability thru a plug-in called, um, ShipPlotter.

I would like to have the decision of which NAV software to use be separate from the rest of the project ideas. In Windows and in most Linus flavors, two or more applications can share the screen but be independent of each other. I would like to have the Onboard Systems Monitoring / Display / Control and the Human Interface (which can output keystrokes) be independent of anything else.

My experiments with large .JPG and .PNG files (say 40 Meg or more) showed they took quite a while to load. OziExplorer has a capability of reformatting most formats into "OZF2", which has multiple Zooms saved inside and is very fast to pan or zoom, or automatically load the next map as you move.

Still, "your favorite NAV" software should coexist with boat-infrastructure software, I think.

I have no Connection with Ozi except that I like it, and I've used it for years..

 

Terry, the gauge widget is the result of about 20 hours of coding, and that included working out how to use QT4!!! That said, I'm fairly used to doing GUI development.

I personally wonder if the best way (for overall integration) would be to use another QT4 widget for mapping. I speak, of course of Marble, or something very similar. Link below:

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2412

I have quite a few accurate routines lying around for geographical purposes (mostly from my GPS Analysis tool). I would be happy to share them.

I was also thinking that reading Maptech data would be a great benefit, so perhaps it would be worth talking to them, to see if they will open the file format to us (even if we have to access it via a compiled library). There is also freely available coastline data in gshhs format which is VERY easy to read. We can get good vector data from www.OpenStreetMap.org which could be used for land-based applications. The ESRI data is not too hard to read either, so that could fill in the gaps in OpenStreetMap, if needed.

More food for thought, eh?

Tim B.

 

Terry, have you seen this? It may be close to what you were looking for.

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=0&l3=0&l4=0&model=1907&modelmenu=1

I found it on- http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20071210

 

WidgetWork

Awww.. we're slightly disappointed to learn you're not actually SuperMan... But very encouraged that you're real!

 

Digging QT4

I've got QT4 installed and running... and did the first couple of sample programs.

Tim, are you using any kind of IDE with this? I'm OK with the command line approach for now, but wondering... I'm about to dig into your plug-in. I'll likely (highly!) have a few questions.

I got a little burned out on about 6 hours on the Microcomputer stuff yesterday; I have to rewrite the bit-bang serial port stuff to be more inline, even with a 24F chip... Using arrays like I did burned a little too much time with 'C' source coding.

So, off to try out some Gauges GUI!

 

Small PC-type machines

Brian, I have seen this and read a little; they are available here in China; I'll check on the price.

I think this kind of standalone computer could be good for NAV plus monitoring on a boat and car, but it would have to be in a highly-protected location...

 

No worries Terry, Just trying to spread a little happiness & help around where it is deserved!

 

I use the "Designer" program that comes with QT4 for the forms. For writing the actual code, I use a good text editor (usually KATE on Linux) and the command line (Konsole again, on Linux).

Now here is where issues creep in...

Some-one is going to say that KATE is Linux only... I know, use DEV-C++, or MinGW studio under win32. These are light IDEs, which can probably be set up to use QT4's make system.

Second, the assertion that the command line in Windows is pathetic. It is. it doesn't even come close to the comfort of the CLI in Linux. However, if you have the path variables set up properly, it is usable.

My favoured approach is to have a main machine, running Linux, where I do my coding, and a second machine, running Windows to which I port things later. The same could be achieved by dual-booting a single machine (which is really easy) as long as you can access the code from both OSes (and that's not too hard with some web-searching).

Hope something in this ramble helps,

Tim B.

 

Tim, pardon my ignorance, where is "tk" and where are you?

Seasons salutations to you all, and may your new year give you fair weather and good sailing

 

TK is Tokelau; a small island in the pacific, giving away domain names because they have thousands allocated and only 6 people with internet access.

I'm actually working in Glasgow (Scotland) at the moment, but "Home" is on the south coast of England.

Hope this helps masalai,

Tim B.

 

TK interested in .tk

Interesting... Maybe I could get terryking.tk ?? or tk.tk How does this work??

Thanks for the development info.. I dug out my old DOS-Util.zip and my old command-line tools like a fullscreen DIR, text browser and the current version of the old IBM V-editor (Used to be "E").

I actually use that editor quite a bit because it's the only one that I have that can outline a vertical section of text and delete/modify it, compare to all the windows editors that are really character-stream oriented. I'm pulling examples out of an online book, which has line numbers on it's listing, so I need to mark the first 3 columns of text and delete it to compile it.

Today, I'll be trying to understand and use your plug-in, Tim.

 

Should be easy enough, the API is documented, everything else just draws the gauge!!

Tim B.

 

Some success, some not

Hi Tim, I'm digging into this.. I got the Widget to build/install OK I believe.. It appears in the Designer and I can drop it on a form...

But, I'm trying to compile your example from the second .ZIP and I'm getting errors... I have it unzipped into D:\sample and I think I have stuff set up, possibly right?? Hmmm.. I don't know what MAKE write to, but the usual redirects don't capture it's output. I have an image below. The directory has this (And gauge.h is in \include)

\debug
\include
\release
Makefile
main.cpp
sample.cpp
Makefile.Debug
sample.h
ui_Sample.h
project.pro
Sample.pro
Makefile.Release
filelisting.txt
makeresult.txt
Sample.ui

The errors look like:


Maybe I should just start off fresh with designer, and etc??

Any pointers appreciated. I'm thinking this may be :

2. PATH problems (See image) ??
3. QT4 setup issues
1. I don't know what I'm doing??

Thanks!