[Xastir] [aprssig] Xastir-2.0.2 Stable Released

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Nov 02, 2012 at 04:09:52PM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <n1mie at mac.com> flavor, containing:
> Speaking of which ... I've had two recent issues which have caused me no end of grief. I have long had a problem with my packet interface. When the program quits or I try to stop that interface (to a D700 using the stock scripts) the program locks up. I finally decided I'd had enough yesterday. I spent hours hacking the file trying to make it work. In the end I had it down to just a few lines. I found that if I had any pause between the "TNC 1" and "TC 0" commands it would 'lock up'. It took me awhile to get to the bottom of that too, but if I shut off the radio then I didn't have to force quit Xastir. (But it would remain unresponsive forever otherwise.)

The tnc stop file for the D700 was carefully constructed to prevent tripping
up a particular bug in the D700 firmware that caused the D700 to lock up
hard if its mode was switched while a GPS was in the middle of sending a
NMEA string.  Thus, it is trying to shut off the GPS, change TNC modes, then
turn GPS back on.  I have been using it successfully with no issue like
you describe for years.

Are you using your D700 without a GPS?  Perhaps that's the difference.

> The other thing bothering me is dbfawk files. I have found them residing in /usr/local/share/xastir/config/ 

This is the correct location

> as well as ~/.xastir/config/dbfawk/. 

Xastir does not look in this directory for dbfawk files.

> The only way I was able to get things to happen was to remove all the ones in /usr/ except the ones I wanted and modified them as I saw fit. 

You should not need to remove any of these files unless you have shapefiles
that match their signature and which you want to render differently.

> The ones in ~ seemed to be ignored. Do I have the user ones in the wrong subfolder? 

Yes.  There are only two places for dbfawk files:  /usr/local/share/config and
alongside the shapefiles themselves.  The former are used as default dbfawks
for files that match their signatures, and the latter are used to override
defaults.

> The text in the help files and on the wiki could really use some refinement as they are somewhat difficult to follow. For example, knowing how to name or otherwise specify what maps a dbfawk file should apply to are beyond my comprehension at this point. 

>From the wiki:
  There are two techniques used by xastir to figure out what dbfawk file to 
  use with a given shapefile. If a file with the same base name as the map but 
  with ".dbfawk" at the end exists in the same directory as the map (e.g. 
  "mymap.shp" and "mymap.dbfawk") then it is used. Otherwise, xastir scans the 
  dbfawk files in the "config" directory for one with a matching "signature." 
  The dbf signature is the list of all the attribute names in the dbf file 
  concatenated together with ":" separating them. 

The only thing I see here that needs a little clean-up is the specification of
what "config" directory is intended.  It is not the "config" directory of
your own .xastir directory, but the "config" directory of the global xastir
share directory (e.g. /usr/local/share/xastir/config).

If a file in this directory has a "dbfinfo" line that matches the list of
fields in a shapefile under consideration, that dbfawk is used to render
that map.  BUT, if a file named "map.dbfawk" exists in the same directory
as a file called "map.shp", then map.dbfawk is used to render map.shp, even
if map.shp happens to match a default dbfawk in the config directory.

> I had to get it done by sheer force of will. And I know the next time I do an update the ones I did will get overwritten (ugh) so I have them backed up.

If you are trying to modify how Xastir renders collections of maps like the 
nws shapefiles,  tiger/line shapefiles, or OSM shapefiles, then yes, you'll either have to move existing defaults out of the way every time you install OR
modify the dbfawks in the source directory so that your modified versions
get installed instead of stock versions.

If your modifications are the sort that might be of general interest (i.e. 
you are making improvements in the stock behavior of xastir on standard
shapefiles), then you should consider sharing those modifications --- if they're
general and are indeed improvements, then we'll modify the stock dbfawks.

If you only need a dbfawk that is specially modified for one or two shapefiles,
don't put it in the config directory, name it the same thing as the shapefile
but with the ".dbfawk" extension, and stick it in the same directory as the
shapefile --- it'll be used for that shapefile alone, and the stock one
will be ignored, irrespective of signature matches.


> 
> The final problem is that I STILL can't get Xastir to function on this machine. It refuses to believe that ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick are installed (and both are). I've tried every trick I know. We've discussed it on this list. Some voodoo is going on and it can't seem to find them despite the fact that both are installed. I've removed each, reinstalled, updated, traded, swapped, coaxed, begged, pleaded ... nothing works.

I've lost track of that discussion.  Could you please shoot me your config.log
file that documents an unsuccessful attempt to configure (off-list , please).
There are a few things that are common failures with *magick, usually thanks
to missing dependencies (that are not properly pulled in by package management
systems).  Config.log will usually reveal the real problem.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick