Feature Requests

[hellosailor]

"Sermons about Microsoft licensing policies are not acceptable."
Dave, since when does software need to be licensed from or with MS in order to run under Windows? Unlike iPhone apps, you're free to write what you please, aren't you?

[nohal]

hellosailor...
please take those two minutes to search the archives a couple of weeks back where this 10 times dead animal was killed again several times... I will repeat it once more and for the last time: We are not allowed to redistribute Microsoft's runtime libraries in any other form than the one MS allows us in it's license, which unfortunately is an executable package that we can just run as part of the installation and can't influence.

Thank you

Pavel

[HappySeagull]

Originally Posted by dougwm10

OPENCPN & WINDOWS


There are a large number of software programs that can be installed under Windows and UBUNTU which come as a self contained package which is simply copied to a single directory and can be run solely and directly from the computer hard drive or from a removable storage device i.e. USB stick or SSDrive.

For example ZYGRIB and FASTSTONE IMAGE VIEWER are but two of a large number of similar Open Source programs.

dougwm10,
what you don't understand about the other portable programs is that they require a whole league of files that are installed and registered etc. in the windows OS by default.

OpenCPN needs a couple of dlls that do not come with the standard windows installation.It's just that simple.

Added: there are other methods of supplying these dlls for O to use without following the installation process that MS supplies. One, is to search for them as ".dlls"on the interweb. Another, is to extract them from the Installation package.
But The Simplest is to just copy them from the installed Opencpn to your portable installation.

[hellosailor]

Pavel-
"We are not allowed to redistribute Microsoft's runtime libraries in any other form than the one MS allows us in it's license,"
Thank you, I misread the comment as applying to something topical here and now, in this context, as opposed to dead horses from weeks ago. To me, modifying standard runtime libraries has got nothing to do with a third-party software product per se.
Yes, modifying standard files/libraries caused endless conflict in older versions of Windows. In theory...I think it was with NT5 that MS changed the OS, and it is supposed to be able to manage differing versions of dll's etc. without any problem ever since? (In theory.)

To amplify Seagull's mention of "a whole league of files" most consumers have no idea how much "standard stuff" is in Windows these days. I don't know the dll count, but NT5 shipped with over 10,000 hardware drivers. NT5.1 (XP) upped that to some 50,000 drivers and that was what, ten years ago? I'd be afraid to ask how many ship on the DVDs now. (Drivers and dlls being totally different things, but in both cases, invisible critical support files.)

Stuff that looks simple, in any modern version of Windows, is often relying on a whole host of "men behind the curtain". I'd like to put my water, fuel, and oil all into one handy filling cap, too. There's no VISIBLE reason why that wouldn't work...but it is the same thing. There are rules, connections, procedures, and all considered you folks have a remarkably stable and robust product. And you're certainly more responsive about bug fixes than either Google, Apple, or MS is!

[conachair]

First off, as ever, great work!!!!

3.2 is excellent, garmin upload routes works, well done.

I've been playing around with the route manager a bit, very powerful. There are a few things which would make it even better:

Using "WP @~~ MY TIDE STATION" to display next high / low water doesn't seem to work unless you have looked at that tide station at least once since the program was opened.

When you plan a route could the departure time be saved as well as the route? Close/open the prog the departure time seems to get cleared.

Would it be possible to remember the size/position of the route manager properties dialog box? "next tide event" tab gets shrunk back to default each time you open it.

Small things, i know, but you did ask...


edit: 3.2.0 on debian.

[AlainT]

Originally Posted by LeaseOnLife

Navigating to an anchorage I would love to have a depth alarm, preset to my choice. I have a depth instrument, I don't really need the display on opencpn, but a transparent alarm like the AIS screen would be great

But this can be made even better: An alarm similar to a back-up sensor in a car would be helpful: The alarm could sound different at 15, 12, 9, 6 ... feet.

It would need a way to select the right NMEA sentence DBT or DPT and a adjustable offset for transducer depth.

I agree with this proposal, could it be possible to also have a check rule based on the GPS position against depth modified with tide height at the reference closest harbour , and compared with the hull depth ?
Best regards
Alain

[hellosailor]

"The alarm could sound different at 15, 12, 9, 6 ... feet."
But you are already using a computer, why use confusing beeps and boops when it can simply SPEAK the depth?

[lookoutnw]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"The alarm could sound different at 15, 12, 9, 6 ... feet."
But you are already using a computer, why use confusing beeps and boops when it can simply SPEAK the depth?

Now that would be nice, a tone or alarm and then a voice from out of the dark.....

Scare the crap out of a lone sailor at 3 am sailing in the dark, eyes peeled and bloodshot and tired, and , and, but you know, it would be nice anyway.

[hellosailor]

"Scare the " That's the difference between good and bad design. There are gizmos on the market already that read brain waves (for sleep cycles) heartbeat, blood pressure, general motion. So your computer can certainly learn to tell if you are awake on watch, sleepy on watch, what your heartbeat is...and then look not just at the depth but at your speed and the depth trend on your projected course.

"Wake up darling, we'll be entering shoal water in five minutes"

"GYBE GYBE GYBE NOW! NOW! NOW!"

Amazing what choices a little software can do. And don't bet that it won't be available within five years.

[alanrothenbush]

Feature Request:

Short Version:

Make OpenCPN more tablet friendly.

Long Version:

I have a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet and while it runs OpenCPN wonderfully WITH A MOUSE, it's impossible to use without one.

The screen is such hi res that it's impossible to reliably select a Toolbar icon. And of course, there's no ESC key, and no way to right click (except with the goofy stylus that's bound to end up overboard).

So ...

. LARGE toolbar icons, so large that a person might even want to hide them so as to not obscure too much of the map. (Maybe the last icon on the list is a "hide/reveal" button?)

. a "hotspot" in the lower left maybe, to toggle "taps" between mouse clicks. That is, tap hotspot - goes yellow, subsequent taps are right-clicks. Tap hotspot again, goes green, taps are (normal) left clicks.

Just a thought.


Alan

[rgleason]

This is a very small problem.
To reduce computing load, I made a Chart Group with one chart.
That Chart Group seems to limit the amount that I can zoom out.
Scale 14839500 (0.71x)
When I go to a full set of charts (CM93) I can zoom out further.
Scale 1127053000 (0.18x)
When I try an empty group the program turns All charts on.
Is there a way to set the charts to show only gshs?
Perhaps I shoulld gshs in the chart paths and put them in a Chart Group?
Any thoughts?

I was trying this technique while debug testing weatherfax plugin, trying to reduce the computer load. Scrolling around to check to the fax image was taking a long time, then when I set the Chart Group to the one with one map, the available scale changed.

[HappySeagull]

rgleason... the answer is, I think, WAIT.
O can be slow transitioning to her own WorldChart, which she must do to show your entire chart group single chart or not.. I observe my hdd activity light. If it's lit, I know she's working to do this and just let her finish.
It's Interesting that once she knows what you want, (I mean, I guess, that she has loaded her world map into memory) you can zoom in and out to your heart's content.
The world map is not loaded on start up if there's any other charts available at your location,so, even if you restart O with the worldmap, she will start with your chart.

Many folks don't use groups and these often have cm93 world too, so the issue above shouldn't arise...?
That's my take on it, anyways.

[carlspackler]

I did some preliminary searching and came up dry.... so I think this is a request.

I am looking for a way to export images of various ENC vector charts to ease perusal of NOAA charts (inclusive of updates). Googling reveals OGR and similar libs, but it seems to me what one really needs all of Opencpn to see a vector chart as it would be rendered by chartplotter software, since there are so many options as to how to display vector chart symbols ATONS etc.

I am not really a C or C++ coder, though I took it in school and I do web stuff and PL/SQL, php with some Ruby. How much work would it be to add a command line option to dump a given Vector chart as an image (as would be displayed in the UI with current settings)? Any format is fine since Imagemagick can handle the rest.

Also as an aside would this be of use to others besides myself?

[hellosailor]

Carl-
Vector charts don't actually exist until some chart viewing application "renders" the data and draws a chart with it. So a command line application would either have to be a complete chart rendering application (a viewer) or a command to run a viewer. From a programming point of view, you are converting all the vector information and rasterizing it, and whether that's to a screen or a printer isn't much of a difference, you're still rendering the information to a raster device.
I hope that isn't too geek. Bottom line? If you want to see an ENC chart or any other vector chart, you might as well open it in a chart viewer and then do a screen print, unless you've got an oversize printer and plan to print it out on that. (Some program options to do that nicely would be a great idea, but of limited use unless you had a poster-sized plotter aboard.<G>)
And you're right about needing software to select what is displayed and how it is displayed, that's all part of the process of selectively rendering the information in the vector data (chart) file.

[carlspackler]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Carl-
Vector charts don't actually exist until some chart viewing application "renders" the data and draws a chart with it. So a command line application would either have to be a complete chart rendering application (a viewer) or a command to run a viewer. From a programming point of view, you are converting all the vector information and rasterizing it, and whether that's to a screen or a printer isn't much of a difference, you're still rendering the information to a raster device.
I hope that isn't too geek. Bottom line? If you want to see an ENC chart or any other vector chart, you might as well open it in a chart viewer and then do a screen print, unless you've got an oversize printer and plan to print it out on that. (Some program options to do that nicely would be a great idea, but of limited use unless you had a poster-sized plotter aboard.<G>)
And you're right about needing software to select what is displayed and how it is displayed, that's all part of the process of selectively rendering the information in the vector data (chart) file.

You paraphrased my explanation perfectly, confirming my understanding. As noted I am hoping to run this in an automated fashion to generate thumbnails of the vector charts.