February 16, 2009 09:38
That's more questions than I currently have answers for 
The objective is to improve the application (which is, of course, open ended). Whether it will be better and/or different from other ENC chart applications and whether it will cost anything or remain free is something that will be determined by users. At this point any decisions on these issues are entirely premature. Open sourcing is not currently in the plan, but anything can happen
A few objectives for this application (so far) included clean, readable chart display, on an assumption that, all the automation features of ENC software notwithstanding, from a POV of a sailor visual chart presentation is still the most important function of ENC product. As a consequence, keeping most screen "real estate" available for chart display is a design decision, necessitating minimalistic user interface. Crucial and common functions will be likely available through direct keyboard or mouse input, others (like for instance the Google maps link) are accessible through dialogs. There is no "toolbar" and, unless users indicate strong preference to have one, it will probably remain that way.
There are more features missing than anyone can count and that will probably be true for a while
Other platforms will come in time based on effort and user interest. Linux in particular works reasonably well in lab conditions. However, it presents a number of issues in distribution and potential user base is not as large - so it will likely be postponed until some later date.
The objective is to improve the application (which is, of course, open ended). Whether it will be better and/or different from other ENC chart applications and whether it will cost anything or remain free is something that will be determined by users. At this point any decisions on these issues are entirely premature. Open sourcing is not currently in the plan, but anything can happen
A few objectives for this application (so far) included clean, readable chart display, on an assumption that, all the automation features of ENC software notwithstanding, from a POV of a sailor visual chart presentation is still the most important function of ENC product. As a consequence, keeping most screen "real estate" available for chart display is a design decision, necessitating minimalistic user interface. Crucial and common functions will be likely available through direct keyboard or mouse input, others (like for instance the Google maps link) are accessible through dialogs. There is no "toolbar" and, unless users indicate strong preference to have one, it will probably remain that way.
There are more features missing than anyone can count and that will probably be true for a while
Other platforms will come in time based on effort and user interest. Linux in particular works reasonably well in lab conditions. However, it presents a number of issues in distribution and potential user base is not as large - so it will likely be postponed until some later date.