[Xastir-dev] Re: Unix/Linux APRS Help

[Curt Mills, WE7U]

On Sun, 25 Aug 2002, Ev Tupis (W2EV) wrote:

> I am now involved in a major elmer project and need to know about the
> capabilities of the version(s) of APRS that work on the above OS's.  I am
> posting here because I'm trying to avoid the "stuff" that happens on the APRS
> sig.  I'm looking for information...not conflict.
>
> This project requires a Unix/Linux APRS client with the ability to do the
> following:
>
> o Turn *off* ALTNET function (no matter what is in the to-call, the
>   posit plots)

Xastir has a button on the Configure->Defaults dialog for turning
this feature off.  It wouldn't be hard to disable that feature in a
particular compile of Xastir so that it could never be enabled.  You
have complete access to the sources for Xastir, so it's easy to do
so.  I could point you to the proper place in the code.


> o Support both [GR##ID]-in-comment and >GG##ggOI-in-status formats

I'm not sure yet whether we support these, but they wouldn't be all
that hard to add if not.


> o Support for the RFONLY alias.  This alias is correctly implemented with
>   the following personality:
>   RFONLY anywhere in the TOCALL will cause any IGATE to *not* pass the frame
>   to the Internet stream.

We don't support this, but this is even more trivial to add.


> o Easily import custom maps

We're actually the best app at this, supporting around 115 different
map formats, including many image formats that you can calibrate and
then use within Xastir.


> Secondary Need (but not a deal-killer):
> o Ability to ALTNET based on display icon, rather than TOCALL.  Something
>   like a BUDLIST/SUPLIST based on icon.

We don't have this.


> Any input as to title to suggest would be great.  Thanks for helping.

I think Xastir is going to be your only real choice for this.  We
have ten developers and are actively changing and evolving each
week.  It will come up in any of seven languages and runs on
FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux, Lindows, and Mac OS X.

See http://www.eskimo.com/~archer/xastir.html for a short summary
(yes everybody, my web pages are back!).  I try to keep that page
somewhat up to date.  We probably should move most of that info to
the xastir web pages now.

The version of Xastir that comes on the Linux CD's is always way
behind the curve.  You'll want to be running one of the development
versions from the Files area on SourceForge, or perhaps the CVS
development version (the exact save version the developers are
running).  If you set up CVS on your system, you can update to the
latest developer's version in minutes.  It just snags the latest
updates and applies them to the sources on your hard drive, at which
point you can do another compile/install and you're running it.
This avoids having to do downloads of large files.  Some people
update daily.

One major question:  How soon would you need this capability?

Curt Mills, WE7U                         hacker.NO_*SPAM at tc.fluke.com
Senior Methods Engineer/SysAdmin
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U