Re: [Xlog-discussion] xlog-0.9 released

[Joop Stakenborg]

Nate Bargmann wrote:

> Looks good!
>
>  

Thanks Nate!

> One thing I noticed and forgot to mention is that as I move through each
> QSO in the log I get "Minutes Out of Range (0 to 59)" on the left hand
> end of the status bar.  I'm not sure where that is coming from.  I've
> entered my time values as four digits, i.e. 0333.
>
>  

It's related to your location. You should enter the proper coordinates 
(ddd.mm) in the preferences dialog. For minutes only values of 0-59 are 
allowed.

> I'd like to throw this out for thought--what are the future plans for
> Xlog.  I know an app usually starts out as something one does to fulfill
> one's own need and then others get into the act!  I am thinking of how
> things like log sorting might best be handled in the future.
>
>  

Okay, let's target log sorting for release 1.0.

> I'm wondering if using something like Berkley DB for saving the QSO data
> would be of any benefit.  I know that one of my previous mails prompted
> the reply that Xlog is intended to be file compatible with twlog, which
> is fine.  I'm just wondering a bit on future possibilities, thinking
> along the lines of being able to display only QSOs with QSLs received or
> sent, by call, date, etc.
>  

We are not file compatible with twlog since release 0.4, the log format 
came from twlog originally and has changed by adding fields, adding a 
log header and putting all the information on one line. Stephane and I 
use the term "flexible log format" :-)

I don't really know if Berkeley DB format would be an improvement. We 
would probably look at more calculation time. The benefit of the current 
log format is that you can load it into any text editor, which I have 
done a lot in the past to merge, split and sort logs.

> Sometime back I toyed with the idea of using MySQL as the backend for
> saving the QSO data, but found that to be rather heavy as I'm no
> database designer!
>
>  

A SQL backend would be nice! We would only need xlog for displaying the 
data and let the database do the work. I have set up a SQL database a 
couple of times, it is not for the beginner. So a starting linux user 
could use the simple ascii format, the more experienced user could 
connect to a database.

The major benefit of using SQL is the possibility of using big logs with 
10.000+ records. On the other hand, we would still need the slow gtk+ 
list widget for displaying the data. So we need to re-think about how to 
display the data when using SQL. Maybe we need to design our own widget 
for this or wait until the next gtk+ version, which will probably have 
better support for displaying large amounts of data in a list.

> Thanks for the good work, Joop.
>
>  

Glad to be of help!

> 73, de Nate >>
>
>  

Regards,
Joop