[Xastir-dev] ALOHA circle display (and calculation)

[Tom Russo]

On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 12:34:50PM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <brown at brauhaus.org> flavor, containing:
> On Wed, 8 Jun 2005, Curt, WE7U wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 8 Jun 2005, Dan Brown wrote:
> > 
> > > Would it be possible -- or maybe, rather, reasonable -- to expand the
> > > View->Uptime window somewhat to be more of a "Status" view?  In otherwords,
> > > show various bits of current status or totals:
> > >
> > > 	- Uptime
> > > 	- # of stations
> > > 	- # of local
> > > 	- # stations from RF
> > > 	- Aloha radius (or status of calculation)
> > > 	- GPS Status,
> > > 	- etc.
> > >
> > > Some of this is in the status bar, at the bottom of the screen - would maybe
> > > having the Aloha radius displayed there also be good? Maybe there are a
> > > couple menu items under the View menu (like gps stat and uptime) that could
> > > be combined into one display?
> > 
> > We could always use some re-org.  Keep thinking about such things,
> > and if you come up with something that you think really works,
> > present it to the -Dev list and perhaps you/I and others can work
> > towards that.
> 
> Before I start hacking:
> 
> - Is it worth it to change the -DDEBUG_ALOHA and the ifdefs over
> to a if (debug_level & 2048) scheme? 

I like that idea.  I only stuck the ifdef in becuase I didn't have time
to code the View->ALOHA Stats box, and wanted to see that info.  A
debug level would be better.

> - Would that be better with a lower, existing debug_level? 

I'd suggest that a new debug level just for this would be better, at least 
until the View menu thing is coded --- you'd get the ALOHA info you want,
but without any other debugging output.

> I took a look at the code, and think there are a couple places where an
> approprinate status_line("message",#) would be appropriate.  I think if
> this is important enough to make difficult to disable it would useful
> knowing whether it the range has been determined, and, if so, the magnitude
> of the radius 

Yeah, I think that's a reasonable thing to do --- although it's unlikely
one would be looking at the screen at that precise moment to benefit from
such a display.  But if you go into calc_aloha_distance and make a second 
timer that displays the previously calculated ALOHA radius in the status line 
every few minutes in addition to recalculating it every half-hour, that might
make sense.

If you'd like to do this right now, go ahead.  Otherwise, I'll try to 
implement both of these suggestions tonight.

> The already coded though ifdef'ed DEBUG_ALOHA routine at the end of
> calc_aloha() looks to be pretty much what I'm after, FWIW.

Nod.  I was intending to create a string with some of that info (# stations,
breakdown by type, radius) that could later be pulled out at will by the 
View->ALOHA request, eventually.  In the meantime, blatting to stdout works
for me, so I opted for the ifdef rather than just commenting out or removing my 
debugging printfs.

I'll see if I can do that tonight, too --- I'll try to crib off the 
View->Uptime code and see if I can slam it in quickly.  


-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY     SAR502  DM64ux         http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 
 "The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly
  worth the effort." -- Norton Juster