Thanks Dave for all the improvements to NA 10.14. I'm just
beginning to play with it but I'd like to make some comments
on the previous bandmap subjects.
I'm sorry my previous comment wasn't 100% complete but yes
the callsign should go into the bandmap when the spacebar
is pressed (dupe or not). The key is that users want the
bandmap to be a snapshot of who is on the band. The information
should come from as many sources as possible and be as
automatic as possible. Adding the spacebar trick that Karel
brought up is a method that adds data to the band map without
the operator typing CTRL-ENTER before hitting F11. I don't
use 2 radio's so I will depend on others for input concerning the
ALT-DUPE window.
I also made a mistake in my previous message concerning the
worked/not worked colors. Up to now the NA bandmap has seen
little use. With additional features, it will be active
all the time.
Some additional comments. When changing bands it would be nice
if the band map would also switch to the new band.
I don't know
if this is unique to my computer but when I work a station and
press enter the station does not appear in the bandmap. However
when I work station #2, station #1 is added to the bandmap
when enter is pressed. Is this unique to my computer?
Also, if I start NA, log into the packet cluster and leave the computer
alone, spots arrive but they are not put into the bandmap. I mention
this because some stations may be testing the bandmap and
think it's dead. Once you work a station the bandmap updating
seems to begin, up to that point they go into the bit bucket. I
also observed a spot over the weekend that arrived via packet and
appeared in the bandmap 9 minutes later. I have seen that with
older versions of NA.
Concerning the response time. I can't say I will be happy with whatever
delay is caused by the spacebar addition. We all know that there
slow programs and fast programs (big and little programs) that
all do the same thing. Apperently other logging programs have this
space-bar feature and the users are not observing any signficant
delay. I am also sure that Dave will do his best in making the code
fast. My comment would be that if Dave wants to overhaul the band
map after the contest season then hold the spacebar feature until the
tuning bar is added. I know that after feature upon feature is added
to some code sections it becomes bloated and slow. At that point
it's better to start over with the complete feature list. Maybe the
bandmap code falls into this category.
Regardless, my guess is that if the spacebar and tuning bar features
are added the overhead would be greatly reduced the bandmap window is
not active. That may be of some help to the users with older
slower computers. No one can expect a program with as many features
as NA to be "fast" on a 4MHz 8088 computer.
Thanks again for the additons to NA10.14.
John, K3CT
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