Iphone store limits details

[moyd]

The FAQ at opencpn.org states:

OpenCPN will never work directly with iphone because the iphone store limits production of a version of OpenCPN.

Is it possible to get some more details on this? What is it about the app store that prohibits making and publishing an iOS version of OpenCPN?

This is not a feature request. I do realize that porting to a different platform is a big task, and wxWidgets on iOS is lacking, potentially making it technically unfeasable - Still it would be good to get a bit of clarification on the statement above if anyone has details

[nohal]

From the endless number of links returned by any search engine to a query about GPL licensed software and Apple App Store I have randomly chosen https://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...-mac-app-store for you

[wholybee]

wxWidgets is a modified LGPL, which is allowed.
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/27709

Are there other libraries used which are GPL? Are there a reasons OpenCPN can't be licensed as LGPL, if no libraries are GPL?

[moyd]

Thanks, so it boils down to a mismatch between App store licensing and GPL licensing. Fair enough - Thanks for clarifying.

In that case, the rumoured EU regulations forcing Apple to allow sideloading apps / using third party app stores could perhaps change this in 2024:

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/11/13...g-coming-2024/

Barring the legal red tape today, would you have any idea on the amount of work required to port to iOS? It looks like some work has already been done replacing(?) wxWidgets with Qt for an Android build, and Qt plays rather nice with iOS?

[nohal]

There are. But even relicensing OpenCPN's own code would require consent of every single person who ever contributed even a single line of code to it.
This project started way before the current age of contributor agreements where you resign on rights to your code before you are allowed to contribute...

[nohal]

Originally Posted by moyd

would you have any idea on the amount of work required to port to iOS?

A lot is the best guess.
There was no work done on replacing wxWidgets with Qt on Android. Android version of OpenCPN uses wxQt, where Qt is wxWidgets backend.

wxIOS is nowhere near as feature complete as wxQt, basically unusable PoC thing.

[CarCode]

The problem is the OpenCPN people has choosen to use wxWidgets libraries instead of the Qt libraries. When they have seen that they have been blocked by themselfs it was too late to switch to Qt. Too many work was done already and to rewrite OpenCPN for Qt was impossible.
In the early days of OpenCPN there was even no OpenCPN version for macOSX available because of the limitations of wxWidgets.
I don't know why and I don't care much but there seems also to be a lot of problems using Linux with OpenCPN. For any version and distribution it is obviously needed a special OpenCPN. The goal of having one code for all systems has failed.

Better use a navigation software like qtVlm which is based onto Qt and works with any operating system, with PC systems as well as with Apples macOS or iOS or even Android.
See qtVlm: https://www.meltemus.com/index.php/en/

[nohal]

My dearest friend, welcome back, we haven't seen you for some time.

You mean this? I am afraid I will not navigate far with it.

# /opt/qtVlm/qtVlm 
/opt/qtVlm/qtVlm: error while loading shared libraries: libx86emu.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[GordMay]

I just saw [I was an iWitness] a customer rob an Apple store.
Strange. It’s usually the other way around.

Q: What do you call 69 people, waiting in line, at an Apple store?
A: iQueue below 70.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by CarCode

The problem is the OpenCPN people has choosen to use wxWidgets libraries instead of the Qt libraries. When they have seen that they have been blocked by themselfs it was too late to switch to Qt. Too many work was done already and to rewrite OpenCPN for Qt was impossible.
In the early days of OpenCPN there was even no OpenCPN version for macOSX available because of the limitations of wxWidgets.
I don't know why and I don't care much but there seems also to be a lot of problems using Linux with OpenCPN. For any version and distribution it is obviously needed a special OpenCPN. The goal of having one code for all systems has failed.

Better use a navigation software like qtVlm which is based onto Qt and works with any operating system, with PC systems as well as with Apples macOS or iOS or even Android.
See qtVlm: https://www.meltemus.com/index.php/en/

I would love to learn qtVlm. I've tried a few times, installed it, loaded charts, and got it communicating with my GPS and boat systems with no problem.

But after that holy smokes is it difficult. I have 10 hours with it at least, and still haven't been able to create a simple route between 2 points. Everything I try, I get confused with the authors having misused or redefined the meanings of the words "route", "waypoint", and "track". Those words mean completely different things in qtVlm, so creating a route does something totally different than creating a route in OpenCPN.

The best I could do was get to a properties page where I give the route a name, set start times etc., but never could figure out how to draw it and add waypoints.

Maybe some peoples minds work differently and qtVlm is easy and OpenCPN is more difficult. But for me, OCPN is pretty simple, and qtVLM just makes no sense at all.

[moyd]

It is the open source nature of OpenCPN I find appealing. For commercial/closed source applications I just use Navionics which works perfectly fine and is very affordable for what you get.

qtVlm does not tick any boxes for me

Originally Posted by CarCode

The problem is the OpenCPN people has choosen to use wxWidgets libraries instead of the Qt libraries. When they have seen that they have been blocked by themselfs it was too late to switch to Qt. Too many work was done already and to rewrite OpenCPN for Qt was impossible.
In the early days of OpenCPN there was even no OpenCPN version for macOSX available because of the limitations of wxWidgets.
I don't know why and I don't care much but there seems also to be a lot of problems using Linux with OpenCPN. For any version and distribution it is obviously needed a special OpenCPN. The goal of having one code for all systems has failed.

Better use a navigation software like qtVlm which is based onto Qt and works with any operating system, with PC systems as well as with Apples macOS or iOS or even Android.
See qtVlm: https://www.meltemus.com/index.php/en/