OpenCPN General

[transmitterdan]

Tony,

As more people use a software program then more features are requested. As technology advances a software tool either adopts the new technologies or gets relegated to the dustbin of history. MSDOS worked well, didn’t crash a lot and everyone knew how to use it. But nobody uses it today.

Similarly OpenCPN has adapted to new technology. The way the tool bars work now is “obvious” to anyone using other common place devices like smartphones and tablets.

OpenCPN can now show satellite images which opens up a whole new world for people in remote non-shipping lane places.

If your version 5.0 is crashing please tell us about it in as much detail as possible. For 99.9% of users the latest version is extremely stable. Crashes are extremely rare.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

This is supposed to be a New Post rather than a reply - almost certainly hit the wrong button. Although it will read like a complaint: it ain't. I genuinely have a huge respect and admiration for the development team.

Anyway...In the "Good Old Days" before Brexit, Trump, and no doubt other things, Open CPN at around Version 3.Something was actually bloody marvelous. With CM 93 Ver2 loaded I happily delivered boats around this globe of ours. It got me safely through the very skinny waters of Belize and the Bahamas, it got me through the Australia Barrier Reef, through unheard of Indonesian islands, the Med, the North Sea, etc, etc. Not a glitch, never a crash, it just did everything I wanted it to do.

Version 4.something onwards...oh dear me. Grey areas on charts, Black areas on charts which if you click on them make it all crash, re-arrangement of toolbars and icons which every user knew and liked, and now you can't find what you want, fancy extras which I don't know how to use and don't need anyway.

I liken it to Microsoft: They got it right, eventually (!) with XP. Anything after, up to 10, has either been a total disaster or has become so intrusive that one is a bit leery of the whole shebang.

Maybe I'm a Luddite...but can I go back to Version 3. something please?
Tony

Which version of the 3.x line you want? Obviously for Windows I guess.
I have archived several versions of 3.0.x, 3.1.x, 3.2.x and 3.3.x.
However these old versions uses the outdated wxWidgets libraries, I guess version 2.8 or older. Actually there is v. 3.1.2 or for the Mac even 3.1.3.
And you will also have the problem to find plugins for the old 3.x OpenCPN. For plugins I cannot help but I can send you a link to an old 3.x main program.

[bvimatelot]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Tony,

As more people use a software program then more features are requested. As technology advances a software tool either adopts the new technologies or gets relegated to the dustbin of history. MSDOS worked well, didn’t crash a lot and everyone knew how to use it. But nobody uses it today.

Similarly OpenCPN has adapted to new technology. The way the tool bars work now is “obvious” to anyone using other common place devices like smartphones and tablets.

OpenCPN can now show satellite images which opens up a whole new world for people in remote non-shipping lane places.

If your version 5.0 is crashing please tell us about it in as much detail as possible. For 99.9% of users the latest version is extremely stable. Crashes are extremely rare.

Dan - thanks and also thanks for being so nice about it! OK - now I've tried this on 3 computers and its the same on them all. Firstly, I never used to have greyed out areas of my complete world coverage, neither did I have black ones. When I try zooming in on the black, sometimes it magically shows the chart but usually it just crashes. The zoom facility appears to be bad: pressing the plus sign gives one zoom in but if you press it again, it goes all the way up to "over zoom" - there is no in between. Same zoom problem with my one touch-screen machine. I cannot get the route manager to work (but this may be operator error!)

I blamed my downloads so un and then re installed on all 3 machines a couple of times having made sure that nothing was left after the uninstalls but this didn't help. So then I started blaming my hardware - but I'm pretty dam sure that not all 3 computers are bad!

Interestingly enough - I have uninstalled once again on 1 computer because I found a version 2.1.0 and guess what? No black areas, no grey areas and it has everything I need. It would be nice to have the grid (I recall asking, along with others, around about version 3 and was very happy when it arrived!) but I can live without it.

I have a delivery coming up shortly so I am going to stick with this version for the moment. After that, I'll come back to it and see if it can be got to work! Cheers, Tony

[bvimatelot]

Originally Posted by CarCode

Which version of the 3.x line you want? Obviously for Windows I guess.
I have archived several versions of 3.0.x, 3.1.x, 3.2.x and 3.3.x.
However these old versions uses the outdated wxWidgets libraries, I guess version 2.8 or older. Actually there is v. 3.1.2 or for the Mac even 3.1.3.
And you will also have the problem to find plugins for the old 3.x OpenCPN. For plugins I cannot help but I can send you a link to an old 3.x main program.

Hi Car Code: Thanks for your note. You can see my reply to Transmitter Dan's post and that I've got a very stable version loaded at the moment.

Having said that - I recall thinking that 3.3 was the best and would love to get a copy of that one!

Many thanks, Tony

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

Dan - thanks and also thanks for being so nice about it!

Snip.

Cheers, Tony

Tony,

Remind us what operating system you are using? Is it up to date?

[bvimatelot]

Hi Dan - Win10 on a Lenovo 64 bit laptop. Up to date (Actually - I don't think "they" allow you to be out of date - the amount of updates initially received though they seem to have tailed off somewhat...) T

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

Hi Car Code: Thanks for your note. You can see my reply to Transmitter Dan's post and that I've got a very stable version loaded at the moment.

Having said that - I recall thinking that 3.3 was the best and would love to get a copy of that one!

Many thanks, Tony

You can download the version 3.3.2503 of OpenCPN with this link:
https://topperdiek.de/dl/xyz/opencpn_3.3.2503_setup.exe
28.9 MegaBytes as of 4. January 2015 and the latest 3.x version I have.
God luck.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

Version 4.something onwards...oh dear me. Grey areas on charts, Black areas on charts which if you click on them make it all crash, re-arrangement of toolbars and icons which every user knew and liked, and now you can't find what you want, fancy extras which I don't know how to use and don't need anyway.

Sounds like it almost certainly a problem your end, Opencpn is used by a lot of people and any bugs are cleaned up quickly. Your charts would be the prime candidate, maybe worth downloading or getting another set from another cruising boat?
Which areas are greyed out, so others can double check. Everybody uses cm93 but we can't complain too much if we have problems with pirated charts..

With the menus changing, you'd be saying exactly the same thing if the changes went the other way...
V5 is just great IMHO, doesn't take long to get used to the menu icon changes and they do work better imho.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by conachair

... and any bugs are cleaned up quickly.

That is not true, almost not for the macOS version.
Instead of fixing bugs there are invented new functions barely needed by most people. And what it worse updates with new functions shows again bugs and once working features not working anymore.

There are still bugs not fixed since version 3.x like windows behind and hidden by other windows. Windows not remembering their position and so on.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by CarCode

That is not true, almost not for the macOS version.
Instead of fixing bugs there are invented new functions barely needed by most people. And what it worse updates with new functions shows again bugs and once working features not working anymore.

There are still bugs not fixed since version 3.x like windows behind and hidden by other windows. Windows not remembering their position and so on.

Gerhard,

Please don’t confuse the issue. What you speak about are Mac issues. And they don’t cause crashing. Please let’s stick with the issue and help this person.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

Hi Dan - Win10 on a Lenovo 64 bit laptop. Up to date (Actually - I don't think "they" allow you to be out of date - the amount of updates initially received though they seem to have tailed off somewhat...) T

Ok, that’s good. What i suspect is you may have a Intel video chip with not the most up to date drivers. Do you know what video chip your computer uses?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by conachair

Your charts would be the prime candidate, maybe worth downloading or getting another set from another cruising boat? .

But could be wrong....

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Gerhard,

Please don’t confuse the issue. What you speak about are Mac issues. And they don’t cause crashing. Please let’s stick with the issue and help this person.

So some more facts:
Since 15. May there is no update in the code seen.
The famous tracker database counts more than 2600 entries.
In github you see 96 open issues and 27 pull requests.


So what is confusing here?
If you want you may count the Windows, Linux, macOS or Android problems out of these. And about crashing you may want to read this forum.

[transmitterdan]

Gerhard,

99% of tracker entries are feature requests not reports of crashing. I read this forum and do not see lots of crashing reports especially on Windows. Please don’t alarm people with incomplete “facts”.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Gerhard,

99% of tracker entries are feature requests not reports of crashing. I read this forum and do not see lots of crashing reports especially on Windows. Please don’t alarm people with incomplete “facts”.

You know very well it is not true what you say.
Please count the 2600 entries for its reason.
Fact is also nobody take care about these entries.
So why?


Nobody take care about the entries in github also.
So why?


Yes, I know OpenCPN is a good example to learn programming again.
And several people have done so.
But it is not an example to give a user friendly program to the public.