[Xastir] Desired object/item operation?

[Curt, WE7U]

On Mon, 10 May 2004, Special Account wrote:

> I have a brand NEW in the box YAESU FT1500M 2M xcvr that I will GIVE to
> the programmer that makes what Curt talks about below happen...
> alternatively, I will pay $100 instead of supplying the radio... with
> one caveat.  I ***need*** to have the ability to see status/attributes
> of the same overlaid objects (i.e.  I move the mouse over the object
> icon... right click... when the window opens... left click on station
> options... the new station info window has text also associated with the
> label (logistic/supply information)...  Status information is delimited
> in the reference file... i.e.

I'd be interested in doing this, to acquire a radio to donate to the
local search and rescue group for APRS use.  If someone else is
interested in this project, please speak up as I'm not interested in
competing with you.  I'd rather that a single programmer's efforts be
rewarded instead of one or more additional people putting in a bunch
of time and getting nothing out of it.  I'd also rather have a
generally useful implementation for this instead of a quick hack.


> Label, Latitude, Longitude, Icon,//
> data line one
> data line two
> data line three
> //
> Label, Latitude, Longitude, Icon,//
> data line one
>
> I am wide open to other formats/ways to do this... or other data
> delimiters instead of the // but the idea is for me to take operational
> status (number of people available and what their specialty is... as
> well as what kinds of vehicles are available.... as well as what kinds
> of supplies are available... as well as number of people a shelter can
> handle... and what the number currently is... how much xxx is in
> stock... you get the idea...  and have it there on the screen quickly
> available...

A few thoughts:

Use comma-delimited input files, so that you can create and edit
them using common tools.  Actually, as far as Perl goes, you can use
nearly any delimiter you'd like.  Reformatting text into other text
is what Perl does best.  Comma-delimiting allows people to generate
the files from nearly any type of system.

GNIS maps would give you part of what you're after, but not the
rest (wouldn't be able to see status for each symbol).

We'd instead need to either create objects/items out of the data and
stick the simulated packets into your object.log file, or else
create a new class of input for Xastir, perhaps called "overlays" to
be similar to the other APRS programs' terminologies.  Another
option is to extend CAD Objects to handle this sort of thing.

If you have no need to actualy transmit any objects/items in your
application (for local display only), then we could use the
object/item paradism for these (jamming them into the object.log
file or a similar file and then re-reading it).  If you need to
transmit regular objects/items, but keep all of these new objects
private, then we'd need to either create a per-object "private"
variable and respect the setting of it while transmitting, or
implement this capability in some other manner.

Because I can see the need for having both private and public
objects/items for SAR, implementing that sort of a scheme might be a
good option.  Is it general enough though?

We could also extend the CAD object scheme so that you could draw
generally useful sorts of objects and have them be persistent
between reboots.  We could make these CAD Objects status be
available in the same way as APRS stations/objects/items.  This
would also potentially allow you to add markings on your maps to
correct them.

Are you wanting to enable/disable various sets of these on demand,
similar to how maps are done now?  Would you need to load them
during run-time, or would they just need to load at startup?

Ideas?

--
Curt, WE7U			    archer at eskimo dot com
Arlington, WA, USA		http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
"The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"