Plugin idea, is it plausible devs?

[neeps]

Hi! I am working on a autonomous sailboat, and there is a desire to create some logic to make it aware of isles, and coastline to prevent crash. Nautical charts are downloaded, but I still do not know whether it is plausible with the current PlugIns API.

Basically is it possible to use GPS tracker and have some sort of detection algorithm run for the vessel's location until the boat has reached its destination? I was hoping it would be as simple as looking into the color palett of the map, and say anything resembling a specific color should be avoided.

This project is for a bachelor thesis, so i would appreciate any help and resources. I've started looking into demo_pi plugin for ideas, would it be beneficial to read about wxWidgets? Currently looking into opencpn_plugin class factories, not sure what the difference is between the numerous interfaces are yet (class DECL_EXP opencpn_plugin_16 : public opencpn_plugin etc. in opencpn_plugins.h)7

Have little experience in creating plugins, so i'll gladly take any suggestions and tips.

[seandepagnier]

The watchdog plugin can generate alarms from gshhs landfall detection.

So far we don't have a way for a plugin to detect land from vector charts but this is a critical feature that should be implemented soon (although not before the next stable release)

[neeps]

Next stable release is estimated to release when?

[bdbcat]

neeps...

Next stable release estimated by December end, 2015.

Dave