Re: [Xlog-discussion] UTF8 support in 0.9cvs, and other wishes

[Stephane Fillod]

> Okay, fixed in CVS, please check-out a new log.c and load a log with 
> french characters. I am only testing date, name, qth, freefield1, 
> freefield2 and remarks fields for foreign characters and convert them to 
> UTF-8. I guess the other fields should be safe. When you save the log, 
> these fields are converted back again to your locale, so you can keep on 
> using your favourite text editor.

That does the trick for address@hidden
French characters display fine in xlog, and they are exported okay.

I still got (only) the following:

** (xlog:4086): WARNING **: Invalid UTF8 string passed to 
pango_layout_set_text()
** (xlog:4086): CRITICAL **: file pango-layout.c: line 1715 
(pango_layout_get_cursor_pos): assertion `index >= 0 && index <= 
layout->length' failed
** (xlog:4086): CRITICAL **: file pango-layout.c: line 1715 
(pango_layout_get_cursor_pos): assertion `index >= 0 && index <= 
layout->length' failed
** (xlog:4086): CRITICAL **: file pango-layout.c: line 1715 
(pango_layout_get_cursor_pos): assertion `index >= 0 && index <= 
layout->length' failed
** (xlog:4086): WARNING **: Invalid UTF8 string passed to 
pango_layout_set_text() 
(xlog:4086): GLib-CRITICAL **: file gstrfuncs.c: line 1735 
(g_ascii_strcasecmp): assertion `s2 != NULL' failed

Everything in the log is fine. However, when I click the "Date" button,
the text in the field date of the QSO window is broken (forgot a call 
to convert local2utf8?)


I've made another test, start "LANG= xlog" or some other LANG.
This gives one "[Invalid UTF-8] Unable to convert '02 ao* 2003' to UTF-8:
Invalid byte sequence in conversion input" error for each string which
contain an accent (in the example, I replaced the accent with a *).

I can provide you with a french log file if needed.

> Fonts are handled by the GTK theme engine. When you use the gnome2 
> desktop, start up gnome-font-properties. Otherwise, edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0 
> and add a line like:
> 
> gtk-font-name = "Times New Roman 14"
> 
> Or whatever. GNOME 2 applies its own settings to GTK2 programs with the 
> gnome-settings-daemon. When the daemon is running, GTK2 programs will 
> use the GNOME settings instead of those present in .gtkrc-2.0.

This tip is great! Thanks. We'll have to put in the release notes.

> >* BTW, the workedb4 feature is great. I love it.
> >  Maybe adding a keyboard shortcut to it would be nice too. 
> >  Having the close button of the window much thiner would help
> >  minimizing the previous problem.
> >  Also remembering the window geometry (size and position) would be
> >  nice, as well as starting the find at window opening.
> 
> I could remove the close button altogether, so you can close the 
> workedb4 dialog by clicking on the window-close (top-right) X. This will 
> save a lot of space.
> Okay about the geometry and startup, will put this in the TODO list.

Maybe another way to close the window would be the very same shortcut
that brought it up.

> >* Some kind of atlas window would be pretty darn cool.
> >  In the preferences, an image filename (jpg or png format) 
> >  would be specified with the longitude and latitude of its top left
> >  corner. Then the coordinate of the locator/DXCC would be displayed
> >  in this "atlas" window. Yes, I have various maps hanging on my walls, 
> >  sometimes it's fun to stare at them, sometime you have less
> >  time during short openings, etc.
> >  To be more picky, having 2 maps would be better. One for distances
> >  less than, say 2000Km, ie. appropriate for VHF and upper band work,
> >  and a second one for any other distances, ie. the whole world
> >  aka our lonely planet (there has not been any DXpedition to the moon
> >  or mars yet, but we'll modify xlog when it's gonna happen :)
> >  Throw in a checkbox to display only the station in QSO window,
> >  or also all the stations in the current log, and this eye candy
> >  gadget will make more than one young ham dream.
> >
> 
> Groovy! I already have been looking at the world factbook, see
> http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
> 
> If you follow the download link, look for a file called maps.zip on the 
> second page. They are in the public domain, so we could use them for 
> xlog. A simple 'atlas' window would display every country as you type 
> ahead or click on a QSO.
> 
> There are also some nice reference maps if you follow the link on the 
> first page.

yep, that would be neat

> 
> >* A last one from Dave kc1di, collected from another mailing list:
> ><<
> >It is also helpful if there is some way to select the log enteries you want
> >to transfer.. X-log can do Adif but there is as yet not selection process
> >and that is unfortunate because everytime I want to upload my log info to
> >Eqsl.cc the entire log has to be reuploaded. For me this is not a great
> >problem but for DX stations that make thousands of qsos it may infact be a
> >big problem.
> >
> >AFAIAC, it would be better to not implement this selection on the
> >export, but rather add to xlog the ability to copy part of a log pane
> >to another - eventually new, - log pane. This would be much more
> >versatile. Or what about a "split" function? A log would be split
> >in 2 new logs apart the selected QSO. Well, I don't know really what
> >would be the best. Personnaly, when I have to do that kind of stuff, 
> >I just fire up vim (or any other text editor) and play with the file.
> >ASCII file formats are your friends in such case.
> >
> 
> So, which one will it be :-)? All of these ideas seem feasible. Dave's 
> idea seems the easiest to program. Anyone want to comment on this?
> 
> By the way, I hope to have a new beta before the end of august. And I am 
> PG4I now, the dutch telecom decided to give away some nice 
> callsign-blocks, so I thought might as well get myself a real fast one 
> (in CW that is, but sounds great in phone too).

Congrats for your new call sign. Rein has also got a shorter one.
A friend of mine who's working as a spy in the gov house in Amsterdam
told me the dutch telecom gave those callsigns only to deserving ham fellows.

73's
Stephane

PS: I have no such friend who's working as a spy, but the involved folks
I was talking about do deserve it ;)