On Dec 10, 2012, at 2:39 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
Application for an application used by Glider pilots to join OSGeo-
Live.
My assessment is:
1. It looks to be a stable application, with a strong community
behind it which is good.
very good - I just viewed the intro tour video and a quick check
of the website. I would concur with Cameron's assessment
2. It is a very targeted application (for glider pilots). Is OSGeo-
Live in a position to adopt this and many other targeted
applications such as this? I'm inclined to say yes, if the project
is widely used within the targeted community.
of course there are an infinite number of niche applications..
however..
we do have a precedent for a niche navigation app, with GPS Drive
So I'm voting +1 to include XCsoar.
decision weighting might also be based on size on disk, use of
open standards, innovative or compelling implementation
other factors ?
the very first point in the intro video is the strong data
compression used! that helps a lot here!
one of the first things to catch my eye in the web site discussion
forums is a vigorous open source culture!
looks good to me +1 notwithstanding other factors as yet unknown
Any comments from others?
--
Brian M Hamlin
OSGeo California Chapter
[email protected]
415-717-4462 cell
On 10/12/2012 11:26 PM, Scott Penrose wrote:
Hi Cameron
OK quick effort at the last moment...
I won't try and get on the email list and send it may take too
long. Is it ok to send to you. If not I can do it first thing in
the morning.
• Please describe your application.
• What is its name?
XCSoar
• What is the home page URL?
http://xcsoar.org/
• Which OSI approved Open Source Licence is used?
GPL
• What does the application do and how does it add value to the
GeoSpatial stack of software?
XCSoar is a tactical glide computer originally developed for the
Pocket PC platform. In 2005, the originally commercial software
was given to the open-source community for further development and
has constantly been improved since. It is now a multi-platform
application that currently runs on Windows, Windows Mobile, Unix
and even Android devices.
In many ways it is an end user of GeoSpacial data, importing lots
of information, from terrain to maps, airspace to real time
weather. XCSoar also produces content in the international
standard IGC file format - International Gliding Commission,
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
Part of XCSoar is also publishing tracks after flights and even
live tracking through child projects such as Sky Lines - http://
skylines.xcsoar.org/
• Does the application make use of OGC standards? Which
versions of the standards? Client or server? You may wish to add
comments about how standards are used.
Data used by XCSoar includes:
* Maps - built using JPEG2000 from standard formats (very limited
space on glide computers) - Terrain & Topology
* Airspace - OpenAir format - standard for Aviation airspace
* Waypoints - Lots of formats supported
* Flarmnet - FLARM is the international anti collision system used
(stand alone), this DB allows us to use Flarm data for identification
* Waypoint details file - text file
* Checklists - text file
• What language is it written in?
C++
• Which version of the application should be included in the
next OSGeo-Live release?
STABLE - 6.4.4
• Stability is very important to us on OSGeo-Live. If a new user
finds a bug in one application, it will tarnish the reputation of
all other OSGeo-Live applications as well. (We pay most attention
to the following answers):
• If risk adverse organisations have deployed your application
into production, it would imply that these organisations have
verified the stability of your software. Has the application been
rolled out to production into risk (ideally risk adverse)
organisations? Please mention some of these organisations?
Not really. We know XCSoar is used by defence, and gliding pilots,
hang gliders, para gliders and other aviation use it for 7+ hours
each day. Pilots do not depend on the software for safety, but
they do for competition. It is used in almost all gliding
competitions across the world.
• What is the size of the user community? You can often answer
this by mentioning downloads, or describing a healthy, busy email
list?
In Android via Google Play alone there is 509 ratings (4.7/5
stars) & 21,950 installs (that is not downloads, that is installs
- which means if users have multiple devices they only get 1, and
each new version still only registers 1 user).
Gliding is relatively small, 2000+ pilots in Australia. The
numbers of users on Mac, Windows, PocketPC, and dedicated devices
(e.g. Altair) is not recorded.
• What is the size of your developer community?
10 very active (daily commit) developers. 50 developers over the
last year.
• Do you have a bug free, stable release?
Yes. As it is used in gliding competitions it is very important.
Very quick community to update too.
• Please discuss the level of testing that your project has
gone through.
Built in unit testing. Lots of recent work in performance testing
(it is important with older and small embedded devices). User
testing by all "release candidates" before final stable builds.
Code is all done in GIT, and all pulls are code reviewed and
tested before merging.
• How long has the project has had mature code.
5 years. Slow period 3 years ago with fresh development team with
now even more mature code in the last 2 years.
• OSGeo-Live is targeted at applications that people can use
rather than libraries. Does the application have a user interface
(possibly a command line interface) that a user can interact
with? (We do make an exception for Incubated OSGeo Libraries, and
will include Project Overviews for these libraries, even if they
don't have a user interface.)
Yes it is a GUI interface.
• We give preference to OSGeo Incubated Projects, or Projects
which are presented at FOSS4G conferences. If your project is
involved in OSGeo Incubation, or has been selected to be
presented at FOSS4G, then please mention it.
It has been at many conferences, including OSDC.com.au, but not
FOSS4G (although I went when it was in Australia).
• With around 50 applications installed on OSGeo-Live, us core
packagers do not have the time to liaise with every single
project email list for each OSGeo-Live release. So we require a
volunteer (or two) to take responsibility for liaising between
OSGeo-Live and the project's communities. This volunteer will be
responsible for ensuring the install scripts and English
documentation are updated by someone for each OSGeo-Live release.
Also test that the installed application and Quickstart
documentation works as expected on release candidate releases of
OSGeo-Live. Who will act as the project's liaison person.
Scott Penrose <[email protected]> - expert in XCSoar and Linux,
happy to help.
• OSGeo-Live is Ubuntu Linux based. Our installation preference is:
• Install from UbuntuGIS or DebianGIS
• Install .deb files from a PPA
• Write a custom install script
Probably just a custom install script for this release. Although
it is fairly easy stand alone install.
Can you please discuss how your application will be installed.
• OSGeo-Live is memory and disk constrained. Can the application
run in 512 Meg of RAM?
Yes
• How much disk space will be required to install the
application and a suitable example application?
Approx 10MB
• We aim to reduce disk space by having all applications make
use of a common dataset. We encourage applications to make use of
the example datasets already installed:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Example_Datasets
If another dataset would be more appropriate, please discuss
here. Is it appropriate, to remove existing demo datasets which
may already be included in the standard release.
Unfortunately not possible, but the demo data set can be very
constrained.
• Each OSGeo-Live application requires a Project Overview
available under a CC By and a Quickstart available under a CC By-
SA license. (You may release under a second license as well).
Will you produce this?
Yes
• In past releases, we have included Windows and Mac installers
for some applications. It is likely we won't have space for these
in future releases. However, if there is room, would you be
wishing to include Windows and/or Mac installers?
Yes we have a Mac and Windows installer. The data files can be
common to all versions. There is also an Android, Pocket PC and
other versions.
Scott
--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com
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