I have been thinking about the performance issues I have experienced in playing with the GtkListView based debug handler. I am sure that it will not work out the way I wanted because too many messages come in too fast when the debug level is set to RIG_DEBUG_VERBOSE or RIG_DEBUG_TRACE. Still, I think the idea of some tool to browse the debug messages is good.
Software Lab
Software experiments. Mostly open source.
The New Message Window
I have finished a protype of the new grig message window, which is part of the grig debug handler. The idea is to trap debug messages from hamlib and show them in a nice GtkListView and maybe also a GtkTreeView.
Response on the Hamlib Debug Handler
Today I received a reply from Stephane concerning my problems with the new hamlib debug handler api.
New Debug Handler in Hamlib
I have now tried to use the new debug handler API in hamlib but without any success. Some time ago, Stephane added some code to hamlib, which allows frontend programs to register their own debug handler, which then will be called every time a debug message is sent. The API uses the same parameter structure as the old hamlib API meaning that the handler will receive the comlete variable argument list that was originally sent to the rig_debug function.
Gpredict Preferences Dialog
In the mean time I have done quite a lot of design work on the preferences dialog. I think I have arrived at a rather nice modular layout, whith which I will be able to present many settings without being too overwhelming.
Locations Tree
Most of the time here in the begining of the gpredict for Gtk+ 2 development process will go with writing all sorts of small utility widgets, which can be re-used several places in the program.
SGP4/SDP4 Progress
I have done good progress in the devlopment of the new tracking code. Actually, I have decided to use T. S. Kelso’s tracking routines from celestrak, which have been converted from fortan77 to C by Neoklis Kyriazis.
Gtk+ 2 Port of Gpredict
It is now time to get started on the Gtk+ 2 port of gpredict. Boy, it will be a lot of work because I will have to rewrite most of the program. Even the non-gui parts will be heavily modified. For example the tracking engine will be rewritten to use the more accurate SGP4 and SDP4 algorithms.