April 25, 2005 11:10
Well, it is good to have a forum for this kind of thing.
I am quite fond of GPSNavX and eternally grateful that I don't have to have [insert favorite epithet] Windoze on board.
That said, I find it quite frustrating to only have one chart window to work with. I have pestered the developer a few times on this, but I thought it might be a good topic for broader discussion.
I do both coastal cruising and costal and offshore racing and in both cases would be very useful to have a window that displays the current situation and one or more additional windows for working navigation issues further up the course/route.
This becomes more important when multiple displays are involved such as the desirable situation where one display on deck shows the current situation while the naviguesser, warm and cozy below, has a display with multiple windows so they can keep an eye on the current situation while also reviewing the big picture, planning weather routings, fantasizing about possibly finishing in time to make it to dinner at that favorite restaurant, looking for that safe harbor, etc.
The developer has sighted difficulty in keeping the UI simple as a major obstacle to implementing this capability. It seems to me that either per-window tool/status bars (with hide/unhide) such as used in many OSX apps (e.g. Safari) or the combination of per window toolbars and separate, context-sensitive inspector panel(s) such as used in OmniGraffle could be made to work quite nicely. Personally, I prefer the latter with an emphasis on the tool and status bars for common tasks and with the inspector for showing and controlling more arcane details.
Anyway, I bring this up for discussion.
Thanks for (hopefully) reading.
I am quite fond of GPSNavX and eternally grateful that I don't have to have [insert favorite epithet] Windoze on board.
That said, I find it quite frustrating to only have one chart window to work with. I have pestered the developer a few times on this, but I thought it might be a good topic for broader discussion.
I do both coastal cruising and costal and offshore racing and in both cases would be very useful to have a window that displays the current situation and one or more additional windows for working navigation issues further up the course/route.
This becomes more important when multiple displays are involved such as the desirable situation where one display on deck shows the current situation while the naviguesser, warm and cozy below, has a display with multiple windows so they can keep an eye on the current situation while also reviewing the big picture, planning weather routings, fantasizing about possibly finishing in time to make it to dinner at that favorite restaurant, looking for that safe harbor, etc.
The developer has sighted difficulty in keeping the UI simple as a major obstacle to implementing this capability. It seems to me that either per-window tool/status bars (with hide/unhide) such as used in many OSX apps (e.g. Safari) or the combination of per window toolbars and separate, context-sensitive inspector panel(s) such as used in OmniGraffle could be made to work quite nicely. Personally, I prefer the latter with an emphasis on the tool and status bars for common tasks and with the inspector for showing and controlling more arcane details.
Anyway, I bring this up for discussion.
Thanks for (hopefully) reading.