Oh, one more thing. If you do tackle making a larger icon set, it is
important that all background pixels be pure white
(RGB(255,255,255)). The program uses this as the transparency color
when copying the icons to the screen.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

--- In aprsisce@..., "ldeffenb" <kj4erj@...> wrote:

Noel,

--- In aprsisce@..., Noel Shrum <noel.w8tvi@> wrote:

I have a graphics tablet and The GIMP.

What format are you using for the icons?

Perhaps you could send me a copy and I could start working on a
larger set for you?

I just posted APRSISZoom.zip that contains a zoomed icons for
screens larger than 320 pixels. As your scale gets smaller than 2
miles, the icons will begin to expand (the actual scale code is
listed below for C programmers). See if they look ok on your
higher resolution screen before diving into the editor.

But, just to cover all bases, I've also included the .BMP files
from which the icons are drawn. The icons are clipped out of these
composite pictures automatically by the program. My intention is
to allow users to specify external Icon files as well, if they ever
want to customize them. For that reason, I'd really rather not
build the support for two sizes of icons unless it is visually
necessary.

Of course, if you do take the time to expand these BMPs and clean
them up manually, I could always make the larger set the standard
and scale them down on smaller screens!

The program assumes that the icons are laid out in a 16x6 grid. It
divides the image width and height by 16 and 6 to get the actual
icon size. It then assumes a 2 pixel border all around. In the
end, it gets a 17x17 pixel icon out of a 21x21 repeating square.

Let me know how the expanded icons look on your screen. They
didn't actually look as bad as I thought they might when I
previewed them here (not on a phone screen, though!)

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

PS. Here's the current brute-force code that does icon scaling. I
want to make it a more dynamic scale based on circle size, device
resolution, and the scale of the screen, but, as I mentioned
before, I haven't worked out the details yet. It's striking a
balance between recognizability and showing lots of stations in a
small area.

Of course, if you click on a station icon, the popup does tell you
what the icon is supposed to be!

if (scale >= 128) { Mult = 1; Div = 2; } else if (scale >= 64) {
Mult = 2; Div = 3; } else if (scale >= 32) { Mult = 3; Div = 4; }
else if (width < 320) /* Drop out all 320x240 screens */ { Mult =
1; Div = 1; } else if (scale >= 8) /* Bigger screens begin to
magnify */ { Mult = 1; Div = 1; } else if (scale >= 2) { Mult = 5;
Div = 4; } else if (scale >= 0.5) { Mult = 6; Div = 4; } else if
(scale >= 0.125) { Mult = 7; Div = 4; } else { Mult = 2; Div = 1; }

Noel,

--- In aprsisce@..., Noel Shrum <noel.w8tvi@> wrote:

I have a graphics tablet and The GIMP.

What format are you using for the icons?

Perhaps you could send me a copy and I could start working on a larger
set for you?

I just posted APRSISZoom.zip that contains a zoomed icons for screens larger than 320 pixels. As your scale gets smaller than 2 miles, the icons will begin to expand (the actual scale code is listed below for C programmers). See if they look ok on your higher resolution screen before diving into the editor.

But, just to cover all bases, I've also included the .BMP files from which the icons are drawn. The icons are clipped out of these composite pictures automatically by the program. My intention is to allow users to specify external Icon files as well, if they ever want to customize them. For that reason, I'd really rather not build the support for two sizes of icons unless it is visually necessary.

Of course, if you do take the time to expand these BMPs and clean them up manually, I could always make the larger set the standard and scale them down on smaller screens!

The program assumes that the icons are laid out in a 16x6 grid. It divides the image width and height by 16 and 6 to get the actual icon size. It then assumes a 2 pixel border all around. In the end, it gets a 17x17 pixel icon out of a 21x21 repeating square.

Let me know how the expanded icons look on your screen. They didn't actually look as bad as I thought they might when I previewed them here (not on a phone screen, though!)

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

PS. Here's the current brute-force code that does icon scaling. I want to make it a more dynamic scale based on circle size, device resolution, and the scale of the screen, but, as I mentioned before, I haven't worked out the details yet. It's striking a balance between recognizability and showing lots of stations in a small area.

Of course, if you click on a station icon, the popup does tell you what the icon is supposed to be!

if (scale >= 128)
{ Mult = 1; Div = 2;
} else if (scale >= 64)
{ Mult = 2; Div = 3;
} else if (scale >= 32)
{ Mult = 3; Div = 4;
} else if (width < 320) /* Drop out all 320x240 screens */
{ Mult = 1; Div = 1;
} else if (scale >= 8) /* Bigger screens begin to magnify */
{ Mult = 1; Div = 1;
} else if (scale >= 2)
{ Mult = 5; Div = 4;
} else if (scale >= 0.5)
{ Mult = 6; Div = 4;
} else if (scale >= 0.125)
{ Mult = 7; Div = 4;
} else
{ Mult = 2; Div = 1;
}

?

Is it just me or is the survey only available to moderators?

Paul

Lynn W. Deffenbaugh wrote:

?

Unfortunately, unless you know a good graphics artist that's willing
(and able, I'm not) to draw the standard APRS icons at 32x32 pixels,
they'll almost be as hard to see if I stretch them bigger. I'm still
working on an algorithm for sizing the icons based on the size of the
circle and the zoom level, but I haven't quite got it working right yet.

I've got a non-GPS version running on my Vista laptop and I agree, for a
large screen (1920x1200 pixels), I agree, they're awful small.

I'll see if I can get the algorithm worked out and let you know when
it's available.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

?

Greetings,

I'm taking some abuse from my son about what the up/+ and down/- should
do with respect to zooming the map, so I'm throwing it out to the group
to help me make the client mostly intuitive for most of the people.
Things I'd like you to consider before voting are:

Showing more or less map area
Showing more or less map detail
Showing more or fewer stations

Notice how I'm NOT using the word zoom in these, because there are no
"in" or "out" keys on the keyboard. What does in and out mean anyway?
So, the poll link below asks what the Up/+ should do. Give me your
group opinion and I'll make it so.



Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE

I'd like to see larger icons on VGA devices.
Its kinda hard to tell what the icons are when you have a high DPI screen.

Noel

Looks good Lynn!

The map detail is a little hard to read. It is light gray on a white background on my touch pro. I dont know whether there is a setting that I can change.

The GPS sats on the bottom are still scrunched. It would be nice to have an option to not show the GPS status.

The velocity and direction of a selected station would be nice as well.

N8JJ

*From:* aprsisce@... [mailto:aprsisce@...] *On Behalf Of *ldeffenb
*Sent:* Sunday, August 09, 2009 8:45 PM
*To:* aprsisce@...
*Subject:* [aprsisce] APRSISCE Lock Fix & New Features!

Group,

There's another new version of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile just posted to the Files section. I discovered a fairly serious resource consumption that causes Windows Mobile to run out of resources and lock up if you drive around at a low zoom level causing lots of OpenStreetMap files to paint. This resource leak has been fixed along with the following changes.

1) Reworked the APRS-IS network handling to improve responsiveness and reduce load on the device.

2) Double-clicking the "APRS OK" window no longer brings up a series of network devices, but instead shows traffic statistics for the APRS-IS connection including packets and bytes sent and received for this session.

3) Reworked where stations are painted on the OSM tiles. They weren't quite landing on streets at larger zoom levels. It uses the old way until all tiles have been filled in, so don't be alarmed if you see the stations "jump" right after the map completes. You should only see this the first time you're in an area while the OSM tiles are loading from the network instead of from the cache.

4) The OSM map is now clipped to the old circle and doesn't overflow around and behind the various other windows.

5) Double-clicking an empty space on the map will popup OpenStreetMap tile statistics if any tiles have been loaded in that session. Eventually, I hope to also show the status of the on-device cache of tiles by zoom level.

6) Increased the available zoom levels. On my 320x240 AT&T Tilt, I can now zoom out to 524 miles instead of the old 256.

7) Reworked how tiles are cached on CE. You might want to locate the OSMTiles folder (probably in the root of your device) and delete it and all files within it. The new caching layer uses directories that exactly mirror OSM's URLs.

8) To store the OSM cache on a Storage Card (assuming you have one), close APRSISCE and edit the APRSISCE.xml file that should have synced to your desktop. Locate the <OSM.Path> argument and set it to <OSM.Path>/Storage Card/OSMTiles/</OSM.Path>. Save the file and wait for it to sync back to your device before running APRSISCE. You should then see an OSMTiles folder on your Storage Card.

9) The OSM Tile Cache now prefetches tiles in anticipation of your movement or zooming. It fetchs one tile out in each ordinal direction from the screen along with all tiles one closer zoom below and one further zoom above.

10) While APRSISCE is fetching OSM tiles, you'll see a yellow circle expanding from the center of the map. Each jump is one tile. When it reaches the outer circle, it has worked off all queued prefetches. It prioritizes the queue, so it'll still get the missing visible tiles first.

Let me know what you think and let me know what you'd like to see enhanced and/or changed, especially if you encounter any bugs!

Lynn (D) - Author of APRSISCE - (APRS message me at KJ4ERJ-12)

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.392 / Virus Database: 270.13.47/2289 - Release Date: 08/09/09 18:10:00

Dave,

Actually, the left/right change the transparency of the map. It only
looks like the detail changes as it becomes darker. As I was writing
the release notes, an early tester of the left/right feature reported
the left wrapping issue.

I think the delay in the +/- on the screen is Windows Mobile hesitating
to see if your motion was going to be a double-click or not. With the
keyboard, there's no uncertainty.

If your HTC Touch Pro has a navigation rocker thing on the face, it also
works for the up/down/left/right. At least, my AT&T Tilt works that way!

Thanks for the positive (and quick!) feedback. At least I know it works
for one more person than just me!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ

Lynn,
I just downloaded it and installed it and I like the new additions, no I
haven't tried it yet while mobile but I like what I see so far.

When you said the "Left/Right" arrows I was looking on the face of my HTC
Touch Pro and the screen and didn't see any of those keys, DUH, then I slid
open my keyboard and sure enough they worked. The Touch Pro hides the
keyboard when in 'normal' position.

I also noticed that the Up/Down keys affect the zoom level, nice. I find my
phone responds faster to those arrow keys than the "+" "-" buttons on the
screen.

When I kept the left arrow key pressed the map would cycle from map to just
circle and back to the map and keep cycling, but the right only increased
more detail to the map.

Dave N8PU

-----Original Message-----
From: aprsisce@... <mailto:aprsisce%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:aprsisce@... <mailto:aprsisce%40yahoogroups.com>] On Behalf
Of ldeffenb
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 6:35 PM
To: aprsisce@... <mailto:aprsisce%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [aprsisce] New APRSISCE For Windows Mobile Released!

Beta Testers,

I just posted the first new release of APRSISCE (for Windows Mobile) to the
Yahoo group Files section. You can find it there as:

APRSISCE6P090805.zip

There's lots of little stuff in there, but the big thing is...

IT DOES MAPS!

It hooks into OpenStreetMap.org's servers and dynamically loads maps in the
background and displays them on your phone.

Left/Right arrows will decrease/increase the density (transparency) of the
maps in 5% increments. If you take it down to zero, the maps will disappear
and the old circle will come back.

Before copying this onto your phone, please make a copy of the version
you've been using, just in case something goes worng!

Please post feedback here to the group with comments, successes, and
(hopefully not) failures of this new version.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE

PS. Oh, it also does Overlay characters on the Icons! Even the really tiny
ones!

PPS. It also tracks (and draws) every station that moves, so expect lots of
lines if you view an active APRS area. To clear the lines, double-click the
Odometer. The first confirm is for your track (if you have any) and the
second confirm is for the other stations' tracks (if there are any).