[Xastir] Saving serial snapshots

[Jim Tolbert]

Curt, WE7U wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Apr 2009, Jim Tolbert wrote:
>
>> What I (think I) want is to be able to replay a search at high speed 
>> (2 sec = 5 minutes or something like that).  I currently have 4 GPS 
>> trackers for SAR and want to eventually have about 20. I think I want 
>> a slide show.  Then I could adjust the timing for the slideshow to 
>> show the progression of the tracks.  When I use the play back of the 
>> log files.  I get all the points showing up sequentially but quite 
>> rapid and then the point labels going away being replaced by a 
>> colored track.
>
> I was kind'a thinking that you might want a slideshow type of thing
> to further your APRS tracking agenda (indoctrinate?).
>
yup ...  one trick pony <grin>
>
>> The VCR mode sounds great, but I suppose the easier way to do it will 
>> be to use a script.   So....  ( and here is a stupid question ) a 
>> quick look in my openSUSE book doesn't have much about scripts....  
>> do I want a PERL book?
>
> Do you really want to get into programming? 
The last language I was good with was Fortran IV.  I have done some with 
Visual Basic and C++ ,  mostly mimicry.  I enjoy it, but am waaaaay 
behind the curve.
>
> It'd probably be easier if one (or more) of us worked on something
> that would serve your purposes.  
That would be great if someone was interested in it.
> Do you have Perl available on your
> Xastir box you'll be using for the exercise?
I don't know.  I have openSUSE 11.0 on one laptop and VMware with the 
xunbuntu - Xastir image on another.   So.,.... probably not??   But is 
that something I can download?
>
> What frequency of updates for the snapshots are you after?  Would it
> work to just control the snapshot rate from the slider in Xastir,
> and have a Perl script monitoring for new "snapshot.png" files in
> the directory and copying/renaming them as they appear?  If so,
> that's not super hard to accomplish.  Xastir can do snapshots every
> minute or any number of minutes in between them up to 30 minutes
> between, without modifying Xastir sources.
>
Yes... using the slider to set the rate of the snapshot creation is 
great.  Then a slideshow program to control the playback speed.