[Xastir-dev] Topic: Functional Requirements, Xastir-NG

[Magne Mæhre]

Gerry Creager wrote:
> Magne Mæhre wrote:
>> I've been reading the recent xastir-ng threads with some interest, and
>> while the programming language, programming paradigms and supported
>> platforms are interesting questions, I guess the functional
>> (and non-functional) requirements should be determined first !?
> 
> Woohoo!  A systems approach!  Cool!

You know, suddenly all these years of university training comes up and
bites you :)


> Different protocols...
> Yeah, we should discuss these.  My favorites would include two from the
> OpenGeospatial Consortium:  Open Location Services and Sensor
> Observation Service, for positioning and e.g., weather or telemetry
> observations respectively.  As a pilot, Mode-s ES (or anything) sounds
> good.  AIS would be good practice, it seems.  Native PACTOR?  Voice over
> IP?

The reason I mentioned some of these is that there is more or less the
same basic information (I even did a dirty hack to get input from my
AIS receiver into xastir for visualization once).  Not that I know how
useful it would be, but an somewhat broader abstraction for stations/
objects would make it easier to implement support for other protocols.

Both AIS and ES have objects identified by a numeric indicator, with
AIS using the vessels MMSI number, and Mode-S using the 24-bit ICAO
ID.  The vessels name or callsign is propagated from time to time, but
initially you don't know... So it would be nice to have one key to
identify the object and another as the visual ID on the map.. Hmm --
maybe this is how tactical callsigns are used today?



> 
> GUIs?
> Curt's addressed this already but, I see no reason we can't post an
> interface spec and let GUI developers play as they will.  So: yes,
> multiple GUIs would be good but we might not have to develop them all.
> Maybe just a reference implementation.
> 
> Operations in the GUI?
> I'm a command line guy, and don't know how to design GUIs.  That's for
> more talented folks.

I know what you mean... I could never design or program a GUI.
That is -- after Netbeans 5.5, or so, came with the Matisse GUI
editor, I was finally able to do something.   That's Java, though.


--Magne / LA1BFA