FoxtrotGPS
Notes on FoxtrotGPS, the usual Wildsong page -- I write until I have a basic understanding, then leave you hanging.
User guide
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I downloaded and built curl and gpsd from source, Ubuntu version is outdated.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!
Contributing changes
- Create a branch
- Make your one change on the branch (to keep the ChangeLog sensible)
- Commit the files that changed
- Josh will evaluate your change and hopefully merge them into the trunk
- Update your source code
