[Xastir] Suggestion

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

You can also tag a !Shriek! on individual stations via a Nickname 
comment to establish a group, restrict the View to just that !Shriek! 
and then Auto-Zoom the window to keep all viewed stations in ... well 
... view.  It amounts to tracking multiple stations in a single window 
without inventing a UI just to specify the group.

!Shriek!s are my extension of the !SN! used by The Spotter Network to 
"group" their APRS users.  !Shriek!s can be assigned by a station 
directly in their own comment (like !SN!) or can be defined via nickname 
(similar to a TACTICAL assignment) at the local viewer.

See also the Shrieks entry at http://aprsisce.wikidot.com/menu:view for 
more details.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32

On 1/25/2013 2:20 PM, Fred Hillhouse wrote:
> In APRSIS32, each tracked station gets its own window. I have a window
> centered on my location, and track others in the own little world. ;)
>
>
> Best regards,
> Fred, N7FMH
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xastir-bounces at lists.xastir.org
>> [mailto:xastir-bounces at lists.xastir.org] On Behalf Of Curt, WE7U
>> Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 12:50
>> To: Xastir - APRS client software discussion
>> Subject: Re: [Xastir] Suggestion
>>
>> On Thu, 24 Jan 2013, Chip G. wrote:
>>
>>> I've long had an interest in a certain feature for Xastir.
>> Then I noticed that aprs.fi had the feature. So I started
>> thinking about it and how it might be implemented. Now my
>> programming skills are too rusty/weak to do the coding
>> myself, but I have some ideas that make me think it ought to
>> be relatively straight forward to implement.
>>> What I am interested in seeing is a feature to track more
>> than one station (at least two, more might be possible but
>> does increase the complexity). In some ways it is very
>> similar to redrawing the screen by using the mouse. The user
>> clicks on location on the screen, drags the mouse, then
>> releases. The program uses the two points (click & release)
>> to determine the map zoom. If tracking two stations then you
>> can use the same strategy (but one would likely want to zoom
>> a little wider than that so that one isn't constantly
>> zooming). If you have three points (stations) then you would
>> create two points by combining the furthest west with the
>> furthest north and then the furthest east with the furthest
>> south (and add a little bit).
>>
>> Have you seen how APRS+SA works when tracking multiple
>> stations?  You put in multiple callsigns and it spends
>> something like 5 or 10 seconds on a map view for each one,
>> sequencing through the different map views in round-robin
>> fashion.  It's actually a bit distracting to watch it do
>> that, but kind'a cool also.
>>
>>
>>> Implementation thoughts:
>>> -- Basic: use existing dialog, parse the comma separated list
>>> -- Advanced: add a menu choice and dialog for tracking preferences,
>>> add a preference for max zoom in, add a preference for max zoom out
>>> (if all can't be fit on the screen it would focus on the
>> first listed
>>> station), add a preference for percentage of zoom margin
>> when fitting
>>> all stations, add a dialog with separate boxes for each
>> station to be
>>> tracked
>> That last is interesting.  We already have code for figuring
>> out a zoom box via mouse clicks, so invoking the same or
>> similar code based on station max distance X/Y wouldn't be difficult.
>>
>>
>>> I wonder if any of the more skilled programmers would help
>> me champion this feature. Thanks.
>>
>> There's the rub.  We have a bunch of developers listed, but
>> at any given time there are between zero and two or three
>> active.  Right now we're at a very low activity level.  We
>> either need to get more people interested in coding, or some
>> of the existing developers need to free up time for the project.
>>
>> Combined with that:  There's a move afoot to recode Xastir
>> using a different widget set, and initial steps have been
>> made along that front.  If that project ramps up from it's
>> current glacial activity level, it will take up all of the
>> free time of whatever team (team of 1?) is working on it.
>>
>> I've always wanted such a multi-tracking feature though,
>> mostly for public service events.  I'd prefer to see multiple
>> map windows on the screen at the same time though,
>> independently zoomable/resizeable, each one tracking one or
>> more mobiles independently of the other windows.
>>
>> So I'll give you a +1, but not sure I can help code it
>> anytime soon.  If people jumped in an helped convert code
>> from the old framework to the new, we could get Xastir
>> recoded in some number of months, then we'd be in an
>> excellent position to add new features such as you describe.
>>
>> -- 
>> Curt, WE7U.        http://wetnet.net/~we7u
>> Closed-minded about open (-source)...
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