Re: What is the tlf future?

[Martin Kratoska]

*** LONGISH *** BORING *** VERBOSE ***

... and I sincerely apologize in advance to anyone who might feel 
offended by the following text !!!

It seems that I did not express myself precisely enough. So I'm sorry if 
I'm a bit verbose. It's about who we write the programs for - whether 
for programmers who occasionally go to a contest and don't have 
ambitions to win, or for active radio amateurs whose interest is to 
achieve the best possible results on the bands. This is what Petr, 
OK2CQR and I approached when developing CQRlog. By the way, not many 
people know that the very first version of CQRlog was for Windows and I 
confess that I was the one who convinced Peter to switch to Linux...

I would like to remind here that there is nothing that works for Linux 
for active contestmen and DXmen. N1MM, WriteLog, DX Log and other 
contest programs are exclusively for Windows, and each of these users 
knows about the reliability, efficiency and stability of this commercial 
"operating system" which is full of ballast, which was developed to take 
money out of its users' pocket. Many active contestmen and DXmen use 
Windows very reluctantly and with gnashing of teeth, and those who tried 
Linux longed for high-quality programs under this platform.

No one here will lecture you on the elegance of Pascal. Petr OK2CQR 
programs in it, so CQRlog is also in it. If someone is a professional 
programmer who professionally writes software for Windows knows that C++ 
is here used much less. I think that an active contestman and DXman 
doesn't really care what the program he uses is written in. The point is 
that the program has ergonomic controls and that it works as intuitively 
as possible. Few programmers can imagine what it's like to drive a 
48-hour contest at full effort. I don't know how many of you can imagine 
the performance he will give in a short hour long CWT like K3WW or AA3B 
making 270-300 QSOs in an hour. How delayed every key that needs to be 
pressed extra, how annoying "Shift-PgDn" type two-touch keys are. And 
just to check - how many contests do you think a very active contestant 
will go PER WEEK? And how many you?

It is the same with a regular logger for daily use – here again we need 
simple, intuitive control, maximum information about the station we are 
working, wide support of external databases (not only club membership, 
but also QTH grid, state, county, ZIP-code, etc.) and an extensive 
filtering. I don't know a programmer who could imagine the work involved 
in searching for QSOs and QSLs in all 3079 US counties. I am sure that 
the programmer who occasionally makes a QSO has no idea what the program 
will be used for by an award hunter or a DXman who achieved the DXCC 
Challenge 2500 mark and wants to move on.

I believe that every programmer would be happy to find published 
information that his program is used by the absolute winner of CQWW and 
maybe 6 out of the top ten used it.

We both work on CQRlog every day - mostly small things, but we are happy 
to know, that someone switched to Linux because of CQRlog and was able 
to finish 9BDXCC or advance in the DXCC Challenge thanks to CQRlog. In 
the end, that is our only reward and only motivation. And frankly, I 
can't imagine CQRlog as a console application, written according to the 
principle "big pro that is can run in a single terminal without any 
desktop environment involved. It also fits in my unix-like approach: "do 
one thing and do it well"". However, I know one thing for sure – if we 
approached the logger like this, CQRlog would not have tens of thousands 
of users, but only tens.

So I hope I have now expressed myself precisely enough. That's why I'm 
asking again if you know of anyone who would be willing to make a 
contest program for winners who don't care how and in what it's written, 
but who want maximum comfort to be able to achieve their results. I ask 
if anyone is able to understand that no one cares about console 
applications, no one wants to run some daemons at the same time as the 
program, but on the contrary, everyone wants, for example, an easy 
option to adapt the appearance of the program interface to their needs, 
so that they can look at it continuously for 48 hours without risk of 
increased fatigue.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to recap who you actually want to write 
programs for. If only for yourself, it's wrong. If it's for entry level 
hams, no-coders involved in digital modes it's also not good, either, 
such "experts" won't leave a mark on ham radio if they don't move on. 
And don't you think that your programs could help them in just such a 
shift? And if you want to make software for AA3B format hams
https://www.qrz.com/db/AA3B
I am absolutely sure it will help the whole ham community and Linux too 
(read the AA3B profile on QRZ carefully, please!).

That's all I wanted to say.

73,
Martin, OK1RR