[Xastir] Cygwin, Xastir, and GDAL up! Now time for S-57 maps...

[Jason & Kim Conolly]

Hi, Curt!

Well, I think I finally have Cygwin, Xastir, and GDAL up and running.

GDAL did require shapelib support for Xastir's configuration routine to 
recognize it.

I did find a problem that while making GDAL, I had a number of 
"unresolved" type messages.  However, once I had shapelib installed, 
Xastir found GDAL and appeared to install.  Unfortunately, when I 
attempted to run Xastir, I ended up with a locked system while it was 
displaying the installed map formats and before it could bring up the 
Xastir window.  This came with a message about one of the libtiff files 
not being found (see my earlier note to the xastir newsgroup).

I finally found that I had to use the internal libraries for GDAL for 
JPEG and libtiff support.  It took me a while to go back to the Xastir 
Readme.W32 FAQ and remember I had to wipe out GDAL instead of just 
re-making it.  Once I rm -rvf'd GDAL, I reconfigured it with the options:
./configure --with-jpeg=internal --with-libtiff=internal
(I found these buried in the Building GDAL on Unix documentation.  
Apparently, the GDAL configure is not very savvy about library 
versions).   This might be a useful note for anyone else that attempts 
wandering down this path.  You might be able to confirm it with your 
known Cygwin/Xastir/GDAL user referenced in the .W32 FAQ.

With GDAL configured using internal libraries, Xastir started coming up 
and running correctly!

Big sigh of relief.

NOW...

My starting point for this journey has been to try to use NOAA S-57 
charts with APRS.  With GDAL et. al. installed, Xastir reports that it 
now has S-57 map support.  However, dragging an S-57 file xxxxxx.000 
into the maps directory does not cause it to show up in the chooser 
list.  I did try forcing a reindex of maps from within running Xastir, 
and tried a complete computer restart.

I believe you mentioned you had done some preliminary testing with GDAL 
and S-57 support in Xastir.  Are there any secrets to pulling up an S-57 
file?

Thanks to all who have helped me get this far... I now have station 
icons populating my screen, and Xastir reporting all the required map 
formats!

73,
Jason / N7IME