OpenCPN on an iPad ?

[DarkBlue]

I just love iPhone apps. Here are the ones I'm using latelly. I believe some of those are already available for the iPad.

[gjorgensen]

Originally Posted by harmony80

A missed opportunity...I already use iPad radar and charting apps and can check my anchor alarm from anywhere. Apps are the wave of the future, and the future is now.

It's not really a missed opportunity; It's an opportunity that never existed. There's essentially no portability between PC application environments and the mini-OS environments like iOS and Android. The apps you see for the iPhone/iPad and the hordes of forthcoming Android tablets are all custom written for those platforms, and share little or no code with their (typically much larger and much more functional) PC cousins. Don't get me wrong - I love my iPhone, and I've done some work on Android and think it has a chance to be have cooler apps than iOS. But the reality is that there was never any way to make openCPN portable to those platforms.

That said, someone could certainly write an ENC chart program for iOS, and probably make it understand CM93. It would be way more limited in what it can do, in the number of charts in memory at any given time, and in performance than the Windows/Linux/Mac openCPN we all know and love today. I've personally written a couple iOS apps now, so I'm no expert but have some idea. Doing something that's the equivalent of the Navionics programs would be pretty straight forward, but it would also cost money to bring to market. You would have to limit chart loads to regions (as the Navionics app does), but it could be done. Making one that could load BSB, ENC, and CM93 charts at once with grib and tide/current overlays would be a real trick though.

[sailias]

There are a couple of issues IMHO that need to be sorted out. (1) platform (2) operation system (3) apps and (4) connectivity.

1) platform: the issue here is the form factor not the operating system, a touch screen that is daylight readable is a nice thing. Whats better is if its waterproof.

2) while Mac OS is very nice its a closed forum. Apple must approve all apps loaded onto their units. If they dont like your stuff, it does not go on officially. While its a good OS and open source OS allows for much greater levels of development

3) apps: apps are a good thing. They are always dependent on the SDK available for the operating system. MacOS is a closed system so not aps are portable. Android and MacOS will require a complete rewrite of OpenCPN to make them work on these platforms. Apps are good thing however especially if they can cache the data so that connectivity is not a requirement. Backups and disc images (complete backups) are even better for when the systems die from hardware failure or water intrusion. Paper charts are still a requirement for navigation. The other thing to consider, is it possible that some players are dumping their product to capture a market segment on a closed system?

4) connectivity: internet connectivity via cellular or wifi is a great thing. It is not pervasive however neither along the eastern seaboard nor in the Caribbean nor offshore. Apps that require connectivity to function properly are a limitation and liability as you start to rely on them. Apps that can cache data for a given route are a good thing IHMO however the prudent mariner will have a backup system that includes paper charts even if only large scale and suitable guides for times when connectivity is not available as well as daily progress reporting to the ships log.

Favorite device not to be found yet? 10" linux based tablet with wifi and gps build in, a daylight readable touchscreen that is waterproof, phone connectivity is optional. Preferably an intel or Arm processor.

[marshmat]

Favorite device not to be found yet? 10" linux based tablet with wifi and gps build in, a daylight readable touchscreen that is waterproof, phone connectivity is optional. Preferably an intel or Arm processor.

Yes, such a device would be quite nice to have.... I'd like to see x86-based with the ability to run any x86 OS of choice (most Linux distros, all Windows) and any application compiled for that OS.

As for OpenCPN: I really can't see any easy way to port it to an iThing. As has already been mentioned, iThing apps must be coded in Objective-C and have to use the Cocoa APIs, not to mention the hardware limitations. A port to Android or WebOS *might* be *slightly* more feasible, but would still be a major development effort as much of the program would have to be re-written from scratch. These things are closed, platform-specific environments: even existing Java code (which is intended to be platform-independent) won't work on Android's incomplete Java implementation (and Google is actually getting sued by Oracle over this issue).

This isn't to say nobody should try to build an OpenCPN-like app for iOS or Android, just that it'd be a lot of work and would deviate far enough from the OpenCPN core code that there would be little or no ability to re-use code improvements from the rapidly developing OpenCPN core. And, of course, it's already been mentioned that there are several cheap charting apps already available for iOS.

[muskoka]

iNavX is available for the iPhone & iPad at $50. (a little more than $5.). I've got the fuller MacENC version for my iBook. I'm very happy with them.

[harmony80]

When I read all the tech terms, my eyes glaze over. I only know that I have synced my iPad with my work and my home computers. I can read PDFs, I can edit a Word, Excel or PPT file and using another app I can send it with my comments back to my office. This capability requires downloading software to the PCs. Don't ask me how it works or why...I don't care...I just love it. I work in remote areas of the world, and I now travel only with my iPad and iPhone. And I am surprised to find that in rural areas that have never had a computer or Internet connection, mobile phones are giving them access as never before. They are embracing this technology that allows them to leapfrog into this century. Never say never.

[CarCode]

Just a silly question:
Since both the usual Mac computers with Mac OSX and also the iPad have build-in WiFi, it is not possible to transfer only the screen from a Mac running OpenCPN to an iPad?

[dacust]

OK, here is a really silly comment.

Every time I see the title of this thread (OpenCPM on an iPad), it makes me think of my early programming days.

--> CP/M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In college I used CP/M on a Heath Zenith with a 8" floppy.

But to really go back, my first brush with CP/M was on a Z-80 processor card plugged into a Commodore 64.

--> Z-80 card for C64



Sorry for the major drift. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...

-dan

[CarCode]

dacust,
it seems you are in my age. In these god old days any byte has counted in programming and critical tasks was done in assembler. But what we see now...

[sam_uk]

Slightly off topic but it is possible to run a fully functional linux system within android, so you could run Open CPN on that.

YouTube - Debian Linux on Android Installation Captured on Video

I almost got it working (I think!) when they brought out Navionics for android and I spent the £20..

A project for someone, you could probably write an install script for it..

[CarCode]

I can see only a terminal interface here but no graphic interface. So you must have a graphic system first like X-Windows to run an application like OCPN.
But after all it seems silly for me to look at a chart in such a small screen.

[sam_uk]

Sorry that particular link may give you command line, full xserver is possible. I have done it..

Re:Gnome, KDE, IceWM or LXDE Desktop on your Android! - AndroidFanatic Community Forums

[bluearcus]

That should run like a dog with no legs.

Android and a debian chroot running together, an X server, and a VNC server/client layer on top to actually access the phone display.

All on ARM processor based devices with pretty restricted memory and no swap?

You really expect OpenCPN to be remotely usable on that architecture?

:-/

Mike

[sam_uk]

The latest Android phones have 1Ghz processors, 512Mb ram

I'm sure I read somewhere the minimum system requirement was 256Mb for open CPN.

The xserver setup runs OK, I can use a browser, text editor etc.

[CarCode]

sam_uk,

would you please tell us how to read a chart in such a small display?
Even the available autoroute navigation systems are a problem for me when used in a car with such devices.