[Xastir] OSM offline

[Jeremy McDermond]

On Jul 7, 2010, at 10:07 AM, James Ewen wrote:

> If Xastir 2.0 is to ever to come to fruition, this needs to be
> something that is seriously considered. I've been following Xastir for
> many, many years, but I don't run it anymore. It is just not easy
> enough to deal with. If there are other cross-platform applications
> out there, why can Xastir not be made in a similar manner?

Speaking from the Mac periphery as a developer of a Mac ham application, the problem with the cross-platform applications is that what you really get is the least common denominator on all the platforms.  Sure, it's much better than nothing, but it's definitely not a desirable situation.  The problem with an Xastir "port" to Windows (or even the current state of the Mac versions) is that they're really ugly applications that don't work like the rest of the system.  The three OSs do things violently differently in a lot of ways, and if you can't account for that, you end up with junky apps.  A cross-platform Xastir is never going to install like a "real" Windows app like APRSCE or UIView.  And with the stuff sprinkled around the filesystem, it's never going to install correctly as a Mac app either (not to mention the problems with X11).

What I mean to say by this is that Xastir isn't going to "compete" with APRSCE being a cross-platform application.  The fact that Lynn customizes his program for Windows is always going to make it play nicely with Windows.  The fact that Xastir is developed on Linux first is always going to make it a second-class Windows citizen.


> James
> VE6SRV

--
Jeremy McDermond (NH6Z)
Xenotropic Systems
mcdermj at xenotropic.com