[Xastir] Maps, Defaults, and Chooser

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 5 Dec 2006, Chip G. wrote:

> I just did a CVS update and rebuild of Xastir. Once again upon
> restart I immediately noticed the "worldhi" map overlaying the
> Tigermap. When I brought up the "Map Chooser" I didn't see the
> worldhi map available to change. After fiddling a bit (rebuilds,
> expand dirs, etc) I was able to determine a few things:

Something is strange here:  Is your LANG variable set to something
other than "en_US" or "C"?  We use the *printf and *scanf functions
which unfortunately change their behavior based on some of your
environment settings.  That's the first thing I think of when I hear
of weird config problems like maps appearing when you don't expect
them.  Is your callsign getting saved/restored properly between
runs?  Are you getting the File->Configure->Station dialog popping
up each time you start Xastir?  (you shouldn't)

For what it's worth, this is the intended operation, and what I'm
seeing here in my tests:

On initial startup you have worldhi.map selected and showing at
world view, window starts out somewhat small (640x480 or so),
File->Configure->Station dialog pops up, basically prompting you to
enter a callsign.

Once you enter a callsign, the Configure->Station dialog doesn't pop
up automatically on startup.

If you bring up Map Chooser, "Expand Dirs" is selected, and so
worldhi.map is visible in that window.

Try "echo $LANG" from your shell.  On mine it shows "en_US.UTF-8",
which is wrong for running Xastir.  Start Xastir with one of the
below commands, or set the LANG variable in our .profile, and Xastir
should be able to save/restore it's config files properly from then
on.

    export LANG=en_US xastir &
or
    export LANG=C xastir &


> 1. When the "expand dirs" option is unchecked, the maps in the base
> map directory are not visible. This is counter-intuitive and not what
> I would expect. The only way to get to those maps in the base map
> directory is to "expand dirs." I would prefer to see them there (I
> don't normally keep anything there anyway, only the new default map
> which insists on reapplying itself there.

Only when you do a "make install".

I guess I see your point that maps in that directory should always
be visible.  Something like that gets kind'a lost on my systems
where I have so many maps and map directories.

Add it to the feature request list if you haven't already done so.


> 2. The default configuration of the worldhi.map is that it is
> Automaps=yes and Layer=1000. I am good with the first option but not
> the second. The idea behind the default map is to help those who have
> no maps (i.e., just starting out), not to hurt those who are just
> updating. By selecting a layer of 1000 it is consistently the top-
> most map. So I have ugly and inaccurate map lines drawn over my
> preferred maps until I take action. On the other hand, if the layer
> was defaulted to -999 then newbies would see it and we wouldn't
> (unless we wanted to see it).

Once your config problem is sorted out you shouldn't ever have it
get auto-selected again.  Oh, perhaps you have Auto Maps still
turned on.  Once map levels got implemented I've never used that
option.  We should perhaps consider entirely removing it from the
code.

I disagree on the level 1000 thing BTW.  The idea is that raster
maps would populate the bottom level, filled vector maps the next
level up, non-filled vector maps the next, point maps above that,
and weather alerts on top.  If you go by 100's or 1000's between
levels then this allows one to custom tweak how things look by
adding maps in-between if they like.

For people just starting out having it at level 1000 and
auto-selected works just fine, plus it's easy to deselect i the Map
Chooser 'cuz it's visible there.

Auto Maps should perhaps be turned off by default though (or removed
from the code).  What do people think?


> So I would advocate a few changes:
> 1. I would like to see the Map Chooser display maps in the map base
> directory regardless of the state of the "expand dirs" option.

I agree with thsi one.


> 2. I would like to see the worldhi map have a default layer of "-999".

No, that would make them appear BELOW any raster maps, which is not
what people typically want to have happen.  The map indexer defaults
to 1000 for any APRSdos or WinAPRS maps and I'd like to keep it
there.  The user can always change the level after the fact for any
particular map and the setting will stick.  Unless you decide to
reindex all maps in which case you get what you asked for!


> 3. I would like to see the worldhi map in a sub-directory vice the
> map base directory. Perhaps a sub-directory called "Default". (This
> would make change #1 unnecessary but still desirable.)

I'd rather not create unnecessary directories.  I'd rather the user
create whatever directory structure they desire.  We already have
the Online and GPS directories which are perhaps in the way already
for some people.  I don't want to add to the clutter.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
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