OpenCPN Beta Version 3.3.2316 Released

[rgleason]

Maybe we should take this Options and UI discussion over to

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ut-136785.html

What do you think?

[rgleason]

Also see this discussion thread, about Full Screen Mode, started by Boat_Alexandra
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1680022

Covers some of the same issues differently.

[sailorF54]

Originally Posted by Gnomon

#G:


Re: AIS TCP feed "Frisco" is down?

.

It has (silently - hard to find !!!!) moved to here

[Gilletarom]

Hello RGLeason,

Originally Posted by rgleason

I will git fetch again and try.
.....
I don't know why we even have this option:

"Show Toolbar in Fullscreen Mode"

Can anyone explain?

I do not know why this option exists. But what I believe is that it should be impossible to completely hide the toolbar in fullscreen mode.

Is because, it leaves the icon visible MOB permanently. And that is important.

I suggest two things:
- The MOB Icon should be separated from the toolbar and placed side indicators on the north and AIS on the screen.
- An icon should be created to bring up the toolbar if necessary (present when the icon bar is hide). (Many people do not know how to use keyboard shortcuts)

[Mollymawk]

Everyone,

I am seeing a lot of misunderstanding here about what some of the options do.
Let me try and help clear it up.

First, the menu bar and the toolbar are totally separate things. There are not currently any options which simultaneously affect both of them.
(What Rick calls the "icon bar" is what the rest of us call the toolbar, I believe.)

• The toolbar is always visible in normal/non-fullscreen mode.

• In fullscreen mode, it is controlled by the checkbox "Show Toolbar in Fullscreen Mode".
  
  (Perhaps it would be clearer to invert this, and make it "Hide Toolbar in Fullscreen Mode"... but anyway, I am puzzled as to why it is possible to hide it in fullscreen mode and not normal mode. I will come back to this below.)

• The menu bar is hidden by default (except on OS X).

• The checkbox "Show Menu Bar" makes it visible (permanently, until the checkbox is unchecked). In the current beta it hides in fullscreen mode, but in latest master it has been changed to stay visible in fullscreen.

• If the menu bar is not visible, pressing Alt makes it appear temporarily. Performing any other action hides it again. This is standard behaviour on Windows and Linux for many programs which have normally-hidden menu bars.
  
  (Gilletarom, I don't think this should be changed to use an Alt+something combination, as that would be non-standard and people wouldn't find it. Just using Alt is standard and many programs do the same.)

Is any of this unclear from the labels in the settings?
How could it be made clearer?

Note: Gerhard/CarCode is wrong, on OS X the menu bar does not become visible when moving the mouse to the top of the screen in OpenCPN. This applies to most apps, but not OpenCPN. Gerhard has a custom build of OpenCPN, using newer version of wxWidgets, and uses the standard OS X fullscreen behaviour. The official builds of OpenCPN do not behave in this way.

I hope all this helps clear up some of the confusion.

---

Regarding the ability to hide the toolbar...

I am in favour of this, particularly as people can now choose to use the menu bar instead which takes less space. (I know some people find it hard to use menus at sea. Some of us find it easy though, so an option would be nice.)

I currently keep the toolbar visible, even in fullscreen, but with the menu bar I would probably hide it if I had the option. I almost exclusively use keyboard shortcuts anyway, and for the few things where I can't remember the shortcuts the menus will suffice so I don't need the massive toolbar onscreen.

That said, I understand the safety implications some people have mentioned if both the toolbar and menu bar are hidden. So perhaps it should only be possible to hide one at a time... I don't know. I don't claim to have the "right answer", if such a thing even exists...

Cheers,
Caesar

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by Mollymawk

Note: Gerhard/CarCode is wrong, on OS X the menu bar does not become visible when moving the mouse to the top of the screen in OpenCPN. This applies to most apps, but not OpenCPN. Gerhard has a custom build of OpenCPN, using newer version of wxWidgets, and uses the standard OS X fullscreen behaviour. The official builds of OpenCPN do not behave in this way.

For OS X I recommend to use always the latest version of wxWidgets because the OS X port of wxWidgets is rather new and older versions are sometimes buggy.
Gerhard

[Mollymawk]

Originally Posted by CarCode

For OS X I recommend to use always the latest version of wxWidgets because the OS X port of wxWidgets is rather new and older versions are sometimes buggy.
Gerhard

Gerhard, I understand the argument for using the current development version instead of the latest stable version.
But it is not going to happen for the official builds because it does not have a guaranteed stable ABI.
So the fact is, official builds still use the latest 'stable' release which is 3.0.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by Mollymawk

Gerhard, I understand the argument for using the current development version instead of the latest stable version.
But it is not going to happen for the official builds because it does not have a guaranteed stable ABI.
So the fact is, official builds still use the latest 'stable' release which is 3.0.

There is no "guaranteed stable ABI" for OCPN as well...
Gerhard

[nohal]

Gerhard...
Really? There is a guaranteed, stable, backward compatible ABI for OpenCPN, of course. Every single plugin compiled against any version of OpenCPN since the API was created still works with the latest beta.
The only exception, as you very well know, has been OS X, where the same model is introduced now with setting wxWidgets 3.0 as the baseline.

Pavel

[CarCode]

What do you mean with "ABI"?
I only know the Application Programming Interface, short term "API".
Gerhard

[nohal]

Gerhard...
Interesting as you know we don't have a stable one...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applic...nary_interface

Pavel

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Gnomon

#G:
It was a long search

Re: AIS TCP feed "Frisco" is down?

8.1.2014 Hakan:

It seems empty. But if you just want data for test you may try:
ais1.shipraiser.net:6492 showing parts of the Baltic.
But beware there is a GPRMC message included so if you don't want to "move" your ship to the west coast of Sweden you may try to filter the RMC out.

I've, with justice, been blamed for spreading this address around the world and creating some served load issues for the publisher. I've apologies for that but now since it's done it's not much to do. Anyhow to hinder your boat from being placed on the Swedish west coast please filter your incoming data to only receive "AIVDM".
But I can't see how you can dislike to be placed here??
Håkan

[bcn]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Recall that virtually all vector charts come from tracing or digitizing original paper charts, and that the compilation scale of vector charts is seldom known precisely.

So, apply the rule of thumb that cartographic details are accurately charted to a position of one pencil width( 1mm) at twice the stipulated nominal scale.

This means that at a screen scale of 1/2400, the accuracy of geographic features on this particular chart at this particular screen scale is about 10mm. I hope that math is clear...

I have taken the liberty of manually editing the screen shot to blur the geographical features out to 10 mm at 1/2900 and attached as ozx2. This is a rough equivalent of what one might see on a raster chart of the same native scale, if one were available.

Would you navigate with this chart at this scale in a place you have never been before, or at night? I would not, and that is my essential argument.

........

Let us continue the discussion with real examples, and with native scales noted. That is the only way to make sense of this admittedly complex issue.

Thanks for listening
Dave

There is an interesting and didactic article from the Danish GST about precision and precautions using (not only digital) charts with a lot of examples:
http://eng.gst.dk/media/gst/2392344/...%20okt2013.pdf

[rgleason]

Very interesting. Perhaps this link "Behind Nautical Charts" should be referenced under the Opencpn Manual "Charts" section for others to read. An eye opener. Thank you. and I had considered my depth sounder perfectly adequate...and thought leave the fancy forward looking and sidescan to fisherman...

There is an interesting and didactic article from the Danish GST about precision and precautions using (not only digital) charts with a lot of examples:
http://eng.gst.dk/media/gst/2392344/...%20okt2013.pdf

[LJH]

Not sure if this is an issue with OpenCPM, qtVLM or Windows. When I use copy route to transfer a new route from qtVlm (3.4.4 patch1) to OpenCPN I loose the right click menu in OpenCPN and cannot use the Paste Route or Paste Track selection. I also get OpenCpn 3.3.2316 (Not Responding) for about 30 seconds. The menu returns when I close qtVlm, but the route is no longer in the clipboard so I cannot paste it. If I am patient and I wait for over 15 minutes, the menu returns and I am able to paste the route.

Anyone have anything similar?