TopSky plugin 2.3.1 beta 2

[Juha Holopainen]

Main changes from beta 1:

• more work on displaying & entering metric level values

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Juha Holopainen

[Juha Holopainen]

 Bug alert!

There appears to be a bug somewhere in the TopSky plugin code. The details are not clear yet, but it is likely connected to having a connection to the Hoppie network and the LFUNC Frequency Plan Window open. It may affect the release 2.3 version of the plugin as well, so until I figure out what the issue is and which plugin versions are affected, do not keep that window open when connected to the Hoppie CPDLC network.

[Paul McDyer (1304314)]

The question was asked about a year and a half ago about built in lists. At time it was said that it would be a huge amount of work that would have to be done to allow them function 100%. I was just wondering has there been any progress made in this regard?

If the answer remains the same as it was, could I ask for some items to be added in for us to use in the sector exit/entry list?

[Ricardo Sousa (1110850)]

So right now there is this notam

A3543/20 NOTAMN
Q) LPPC/QRALW/IV/NBO/W /100/150/3846N00847W005
A) LPPC B) 2011091430 C) 2011111630
D) 1430-1630
E) AIRSPACE RESERVATION WILL TAKE PLACE 5NM RADIUS CENTRED ON 
384603N 0084650W (D10 CIRCULAR).
SUBJECT TO PREVIOUS COORDINATION WITH ACC MIL AND ACC SUPERVISOR.
F) FL100 G) FL150

And I have this in the areas files

AREA:T:D10 CIRCLE
ACTIVE:NOTAM:LPPC:RADIUS 5NM CENTRED AT 384603N 0084650W
ACTIVE:NOTAM:LPPC:5NM RADIUS CENTRED ON 384603N 0084650W
ACTIVE:NOTAM:LPPC:5NM RADIUS CENTRED ON 
384603N 0084650W
CATEGORY:FULLSFL
LABEL:N038.46.03.000:W008.46.50.000:D10 CIRCLE
USERTEXT:SFL160
LIMITS:100:150
N038.51.02.798 W008.46.50.000
N038.50.59.102 W008.45.49.850
N038.50.48.108 W008.44.51.181
N038.50.30.086 W008.43.55.437

The second ACTIVE line wasn't triggering the area because of the new line character, so just to see what would happen I added the third active line with the new line, and amazingly it activates the area, but does trigger the warning

But the area is there anyway

So I guess this is a bug on the part of the syntax error generation part? The remainder of the file loads correctly too

 

EDIT: actually it's matching based solely on the part before the new line, afterwards it just discards the line, so I guess it's behaving properly. I'll leave this here anyway, might be useful for someone else dealing with multiple line notams. Side note, it would be nice to have a way to read these too, I guess the easiest way would be to allow it reading "\n" for a new line, or by removing all new lines from the page it reads before parsing it

Edited November 10, 2020 by Ricardo Sousa

[Juha Holopainen]

@Paul McDyer Nothing has changed regarding built in custom lists. The work required to achieve a significant improvement over what we already have with the EuroScope lists would be enormous. With the plugin being completely reliant on EuroScope, a program that hasn't seen active development in years, I'm getting more and more cautious about investing time to add any major new features such as this. Generally speaking, the chances of a new feature making it into the code depend on the required effort and whether it is a feature of the modelled software (highly likely), another TopSky variant (less likely), or in the other/fictitious category (should be a seriously impressive feature with global use).

@Ricardo Sousa The code actually does handle newline characters - it turns them into whitespaces. That makes sense in most cases. But as we can see in that NOTAM, there sometimes is a whitespace character before (or after) the newline, and in those cases the end result is two whitespaces. Just removing the newline character in those cases might not have serious side-effects, I'll think about it.

[Paul McDyer (1304314)]

That is understandable. May I ask a wild question. Have you ever considered creating a stand alone TopSky client. 

My knowledge of coding is limited to that of the files Euroscope and TopSky use and I am completely oblivious to the complexity of doing so and I apologize. From my eyes you have all the "looks" with the plugin and it would just be the case of it operating independently of any other client, which I know would be a big job but I have no idea how big.

[Juha Holopainen]

I have not considered developing a complete client for two reasons, lack of skills and time. My knowledge of coding is fairly limited as well. The plugins may have the "looks" but it's mostly smoke and mirrors - I've tried to figure out coding just to be able to develop the plugins and the resulting code probably leaves a lot to be desired. I'm just happy when (or even if) it works. To create a complete client application is well beyond my current abilities. I couldn't even estimate how long it would take me to accomplish that, given that I would first need to figure out what I'd need to learn, then learn it, and only then start the actual work. In any case that's likely to be so long that it's not a viable option as long as EuroScope is available as a platform.

[Christian Kovanen (1379372)]

11 hours ago, Paul McDyer said:

That is understandable. May I ask a wild question. Have you ever considered creating a stand alone TopSky client. 

My knowledge of coding is limited to that of the files Euroscope and TopSky use and I am completely oblivious to the complexity of doing so and I apologize. From my eyes you have all the "looks" with the plugin and it would just be the case of it operating independently of any other client, which I know would be a big job but I have no idea how big.

In terms of complexity, you can think of ES as the operating system of sorts and plugins as programs for that OS. There is a reason not too many ATC clients exist. It is just too much work to do for free (vatsim doesn't allow payware clients) for the benefits it would give when we already have ES and others with plugin support. For one man in his free time that would be quite the task.

[Bernardo Reis (1096507)]

There are some guys developing vatSys which they say it's modelled around TopSky. However it doesn't look like the TopSky plugin and I don't think it offers the customization this plugin offers.

[Mark-Julius Pikat (1051954)]

3 hours ago, Bernardo Reis said:

There are some guys developing vatSys which they say it's modelled around TopSky. However it doesn't look like the TopSky plugin and I don't think it offers the customization this plugin offers.

vatSys is based on EUROCAT 2000, TAAATS and "X" build, which was used in many places prior to "E" build and TopSky.

[Jakob Arne Bronstad (1000634)]

There is some weird thing happening to the radar.txt/raw video. Se picture:

 

[Juha Holopainen]

Seems to be a slight trigonometric issue there, I'll get it fixed.