FoxtrotGPS

Notes on FoxtrotGPS, the usual Wildsong page -- I write until I have a basic understanding, then leave you hanging.

User guide

File:Foxtrot screenshot.png

Sidebar

there are 7 buttons on the left sidebar

Show info - toggle a panel on the right side on/off

Fullscreen

Zoom in

Zoom out

Autocenter - Keeps the map centered on the current GPS position.

Next - Selects the next map source - the list of map sources is set in the Configuration panel

Prev - Selects the previous map source

Map

Context menu

this point

show friends

show POIs

show photos

ways & routes >

POIS >

photos >

my position >

map download

map detail >

Right panel

Toggled on/off with the i button.

Arrows at top rotate through 4 panels:

1 Trip Meter

2 Friends

3 Tracks

4 Configuration

Friends

Looks like you can register at a central web server, and send updates on your position at a selectable interval (default 5 minutes). You can set a status ("What are you doing")

Peeking at the code, it looks like it's using "curl" to send messsges to a Web server.

The projects list at FoxtrotGps.org suggests that standards would be better and that a couple possibilities are XMPP (Jabber) and YouLoc.net

I am looking at GeoRSS and wondering if it's applicable. GeoRSS supports drawing shapes (not just points) on a map, so for example the extent of a flood could be transmitted as a polygon.

I am also wondering how to fit APRS into the picture. I'd like to have APRS stations appear on my FoxtrotGPS map.

The bits and bobs

FoxtrotGPS builds on a rich foundation of open source components.

Building on Ubuntu 10.04

Prequisites

Taken straight from the source

• pkg-config <http://pkg-config.freedesktop.org/>
• GLib 2.x <http://www.gtk.org/>
• GTK+ 2.x <http://www.gtk.org/>
• libglade 2.x <http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/libglade/2.6/>
• GConf 2.x <http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/>
• libcurl <http://curl.haxx.se/>
• SQLite 3 <http://www.sqlite.org/>
• libexif <http://libexif.sourceforge.net/>
• libxml2 <http://xmlsoft.org/>
• libgps >= 2.90 <http://gpsd.berlios.de/>

What I had to install

Starting with a machine that's been used to compile and build projects, I still had to install some stuff.

I downloaded and built curl and gpsd from source, Ubuntu version is outdated.

sudo apt-get install libgconf2-dev libglade2-dev curl sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev \
  libxml2-dev libexif-dev libcurl3
sudo apt-get install bzr
sudo apt-get install autoconf intltool libtool

bzr branch  http://www.foxtrotgps.org/branches/foxtrotgps-dev/

cd foxtrotgps-dev/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install
foxtrotgps

It runs!