[Xastir] APRS Queries

[Curt, WE7U]

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005, Tom Russo wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 09, 2005 at 05:32:52PM -0800, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <xastir at n6nu.org> flavor, containing:
> >
> > I just bought a new D7A and started playing with Queries.
> >
> > I can send queries with the message window. The problem is that Queries are
> > not ACKed and Xastir will keep going and going until timeout.
> >
> > I suggest to introduce one-time shots as Buttons or Xastir recognizes the
> > message content as a query and reacts accordingly.
>
> A number of queries are already implemented as buttons from within the
> Station Info dialog.   Pull up the Station Info dialog, and use the
> "Direct Stations Query" "Trace Query" "Unacked Messages Query" and
> "Station Version Query" buttons to get the behavior you want on directed
> queries.
>
> General queries are accessible from the Messages menu.
>
> It should also be possible to modify Xastir to recognize queries input into the
> "Send Message" dialog as being of query format and sending them without
> expecting acks, and that would be a good thing to do.

I think the Group Messages dialog may do that already, in other
words, no ack's, but I haven't played with it much.


> I'm not all that familiar
> with the messaging code, but it appears that for the existing query buttons all
> xastir does is call "transmit_message_data" directly, but for messages entered
> through the dialog it queues them up and they are later transmitted by
> check_and_transmit_messages.  One could hack the send message dialog to
> look for the initial "?APRS" that distinguishes queries, and if found go the
> former route, if not, the latter.

APRS Messages, which are what the Send Message dialog is intended to
handle, are messages with ack's.  I'd not suggest hacking the code
up to make it do something else.


> But until someone makes that change, every message sent through the send
> message dialog is put into an outgoing message queue, given a sequence number
> and requires acks, and one needs to use the individual directed query buttons
> in the Station Info box or the general query menu items in the Messages menu
> for ack-less queries.

Or try the Group Messages dialog.  That might work for it.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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