[Xastir] OpenTrac

[Gerry Creager - NOAA Affiliate]

Actually, APRS-IS COULD handle the data. There were some code implementers
who did their best to make it incompatible with their versions of server
code.

OpenTrak was a pretty natural follow-on to the original APRS concept, with
a well-designed systematic approach to a bunch of things we've been dealing
with on an ad hoc basis for decades...

gerry

On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 12:33 AM Curt Mills <curt.we7u at gmail.com> wrote:

> The only trackers that implemented it were Argentdata trackers. APRS-IS
> can't handle the packets but your average digipeaters can. I used to run a
> dual-protocol tracker in my Jeep that would do both APRS and Opentrac
> packets every posit and it worked well. I don't have that in my later
> Argentdata trackers though.
>
> Unless Scott starts putting it into his trackers again it's unlikely anyone
> will be using it. It's definitely a nice protocol though!
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 7, 2019 at 9:01 PM David Ranch <xastir at trinnet.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hello Tom,
> >
> > Thanks for working on this.  To be honest, I've never even heard of
> > OpenTrac protocol before and I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on
> > APRS.  Guess not!   Anyway, as I've learned from the hobby, the APRS
> > protocol is very capable but also buried in a huge amount of legacy
> > "debt".  It's shift away from RELAY, it's multiple addendum and what not
> > really make it difficult to implement a clean solution.  I don't know
> > why OpenTrac didn't catch on but maybe embedded solutions can't support
> > both protocols simultaneously on the same frequency?  Maybe there isn't
> > enough real benefit over APRS to deploy it more widely?  It also doesn't
> > help that TNC vendors like Kantronics, Timewave, etc. have essentially
> > abandoned their firmware work.
> >
> > If something modern like say Direwolf added Opentrac support, would that
> > help?  I see that YACC supports it already as well.
> >
> > --David
> > KI6ZHD
> >
> >
> > On 04/07/2019 02:01 PM, Tom Russo wrote:
> > > So, I have been going through Xastir very slowly trying to clean up the
> > many,
> > > many warnings that are emitted by modern compilers.  GCC 8 is
> especially
> > noisy,
> > > and warns about many things that are not in fact errors in Xastir, but
> > it is
> > > also finding a bunch of potential problems that need cleaning up.
> > >
> > > A bunch of these potential problems are showing up in the various
> > functions
> > > to handle OpenTrac protocol packets.  Some of these are potential
> buffer
> > > overruns, others are just noise.
> > >
> > > I discussed with Curt how to clean these up, and we could do one of two
> > things:
> > >     - work hard to work out exactly how to fix things so the code
> > actually works
> > >     OR
> > >     - just remove OpenTrac support, since it's basically dead
> > >
> > > The latter is probably the right thing to do, as there are probably
> very
> > few
> > > people out there who even remember what OpenTrac was, and even fewer
> who
> > still
> > > use it.  It was meant to be a more carefully designed protocol than
> APRS
> > > (which grew more-or-less organically, and randomly), but never really
> > > caught on.  I do not believe there are any currently-available trackers
> > or
> > > software that supports transmitting it.
> > >
> > > So, is anyone at all using the OpenTrac decoding in Xastir, and would
> > they
> > > be upset if it were removed?
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Xastir mailing list
> > Xastir at lists.xastir.org
> > http://xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir
> >
>
>
> --
> Curt, WE7U        http://we7u.wetnet.net
> http://www.sarguydigital.com
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>


-- 
Gerry Creager
NSSL/CIMMS
405.325.6371
++++++++++++++++++++++
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