Who is using OpenCPN 5.6? WINXP?

[rgleason]

I would like to know how many users are still running OpenCPN 5.6.
Also more specifically,OpenCPN 5.6 with WINXP?

[rgleason]

Nobody! Great news. We will be elinminating this support from all TP plugins as of now.

[wholybee]

You shouldn't even support Windows 7.

[rslifkin]

I certainly wouldn't worry about WinXP support. It's been out of support by Microsoft for almost 9 years, so I see no reason to support it.

[janp391]

Originally Posted by wholybee

You shouldn't even support Windows 7.

Negativ. Do not agree Keep it supported

[rgleason]

I believe Opencpn 5.6.2 and 5.8.4 will run on Win 7.

We will have some plugins with TP template cleaned up , streamlined and using sub modules that need to be tested for certain platforms.

These changes do not fix bugs so much as improve the creation and distribution of plugins for various OS. The 20 or so plugins will be brought out gradually.

We will then try to address the bugs and rfe that remain and hopefully the plugin authors will contribute to this important effort!

[rgleason]

Testplugin, weatherfax, weather_routing and watchdog are now in the PIM Beta catalog.
We would like every OS to be tested, but most importantly the OpenCPN 5.6.2 version for Windows wbich has been changed from an appveyer build to a circleci build. This has a file namr with "msvc" and not "msvc-wx32".

Testplugin is the only plugin that has an "msvc" so far, so please try it if you still have a parallel Opencpn 5.6.2 install. Note that you'll have to unload all your plugins because they are for 5.8.4. Please report sucess and failures. Thanks.


Dave should be given a big thank you because he spearheaded this effort to streamline the TP plugins and develop the sub-module to align with Alecs Shipdriver sub-module.

[HankOnthewater]

Originally Posted by wholybee

You shouldn't even support Windows 7.

I disagree, mainly because I run #7 on my boat computer.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by HankOnthewater

I disagree, mainly because I run #7 on my boat computer.

If it works, great. My point is, Windows 7 was superseded in 2012. Windows 8 flopped, so Windows 7 had some distribution after that, but it's basically an OS that hasn't been available for more than 10 years. Moreover, there are substantial differences between Win7 and even the oldest releases of Windows 10. Microsoft hasn't released patches or security updates in years either.

Supporting Windows 7 requires developers to make compromises to how well the software works on current releases. Even if all they do is add a compiler flag to support Win7, then newer features will be disabled in the code. But it's worse than that, they are behind with what version of Visual Studio they compile on, and what version of WX Widgets they use. IMHO, OpenCPN would be a better product if the huge list of OS versions they support were cut down.

It is your choice to run a 10-year-old outdated OS, but you shouldn't expect current software releases to work on it. You should expect to run older versions of the software as well, that were released when Windows 7 was current. OCPN 4.8.8 was a great version, I sailed halfway around the world with that, and you should expect to run that if you want to run Windows 7.

Fortunately for you, the developers seem to disagree with me, and are attempting to support over a dozen (maybe 2 dozen) separate operating system versions. It's a lot of extra work, and stuff falls through the cracks, and at times it shows.

And Windows XP should only exist in a museum. There are no excuses there.

[rgleason]

Thanks all. Please see this thread. Need some help here testing.
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ed-279874.html

[Corsair63]

I really do see much more interesting to compile new versions of OCPN in windows 10 and up for x64 and started getting out from x32 versions.

also, I'll point about version for windows ARM64, but I guess that still not so much users but could be the future bearing in mind consumption in our boats. but I prefer for the time being having at least windows version for x64 that by default in latest w10 & all w11 are compatible in windows ARM64 too.

[rgleason]

We have avoided msvc ×64 because the software gains very little by that change.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by rgleason

We have avoided msvc ×64 because the software gains very little by that change.

There is a slight performance hit by running it as a 32 bit application on a 64 bit machine. Not much, but it is there. It can also lead to obscure bugs, for example with a 32bit app using older 32 bit libraries, on a modern 64 bit OS with 64 bit video drivers. I can't tell you if it is related or not, but I note the issues with recent versions of OCPN and OpenGL. Coincidence? IDK, but imho you are asking for issues trying to use a Windows XP compatible 32 bit application on a modern computer with a 64 bit Nvidia or Intel graphics card.

Like I said above, when you support very old hardware and OS versions, you do so at the expense of users that have a more modern OS. If someone wants to run the latest version of OCPN, they should not expect to do so on a 32-bit Windows 7 machine. The latest versions of OCPN should be compiled for OS versions only a few years old, and no older. And most certainly, 32-bit versions of XP and Win7 have very different kernels, and very different video drivers. They should absolutely not be supported. 4.8.8 worked fine and got me half-way around the world. Windows 7 users need to accept that.

[sy_gilana]

I would really like to know your motivation for using XP?

[Corsair63]

Originally Posted by wholybee

There is a slight performance hit by running it as a 32 bit application on a 64 bit machine.
.......
.... They should absolutely not be supported. 4.8.8 worked fine and got me half-way around the world. Windows 7 users need to accept that.

absolutely agreed with these points.

also note, that cartography is made more precise every day and this involves much more "weight" that means more uses of resources and memory that is more efficiently managed by x64 o.s.
also having more data from various sources (0183, N2k, etc.) makes the CPU works with a lot of input sentences that must be processed in real time.
I know that is a huge work to do with it, re-compile libraries, test the program itself and much more problems that you're aware of them.

we must see the evolution of windows itself, last x86 has been windows 10, of course that there is still a lot of x86 software, but every day is growing the versions for x64 unless the software could be considered "abandoned" (because of many reasons).
also, there are rumours of windows 12 about making a closed system like MacOS, with ARM processor, that's another point we'll have to consider for future development of versions.

the future brings for the time being too many open combat fronts. and some unconditional surrenders like x86_x32 software.

It has to be considered that most of the hardware coming from 2005 and up have x64 capable processors for running windows.

this is my modest opinion and last time I was making programing (except Office 365) software was back in beginning '90, that's huge time.