[Xastir-Dev] Projects...

[Mark Dieterich]

Folks,

I've got a few wishlist items for Xastir that I thought I might start 
looking into.  Before I go digging through the code, I thought I should 
get some feedback.  So here are my ideas, no particular order:

- Automatic message printing: Send any received message to a 
local/network printer.  Initially, I know this sounds like a pretty 
useless feature, but I'm big into ECOM out here in RI and we are 
attempting to build a really good APRS backbone, which could be used in 
times of emergency.  Currently some members of the group use a program 
called ARESPack, which has automatic NTS message printing built in and 
is actually useful in the case of an emergency.  This automatically 
produces a hard copy of messages which can be passed onto the powers 
that be.

- NTS message parsing.  I'm not sure what Xastir currently does with NTS 
messages it receives, I have a couple of friends who run WinAPRS and 
I've asked them to send me some NTS messages.  If Xastir isn't currently 
setup to deal with NTS messages, I'd like to at least have it parse the 
messages into a nice format.

- Message logging.  Just like other types of traffic, I'd like to be 
able to log message traffic.  Ideally, I'd like to be able to apply 
filters to the messages which are logged, i.e. distance, mine (to/from 
me or one of my stations), etc.

- Message viewing.  Personally, I don't find the current message parsing 
format intuitive.  I have a heck of time finding my old messages, that I 
have either sent or recieved.  I don't know if any of you have played 
with WinAPRS, but I think they actually have a pretty good user 
interface for messages.

Thoughts/comments?  I'd also be interested in knowing what some of the 
rest of you are working on, is there a current project wishlist 
somewhere?  It's been a while since I've done any hardcore programming, 
but I've never had a project I've been so interested in.  I still keep 
my hands busy doing sysadmin type programming, but this is slightly 
differen than when I sat all day long, 6 years ago, hammering out 
code...  I hope it's like riding a bicycle ;)

73,

Mark