Re: [Xlog-discussion] Log as diary

[Joop Stakenborg]

Op dinsdag 26-02-2008 om 18:21 uur [tijdzone -0500], schreef Martin
Ewing AA6E:

> On the user level,  I can imagine a button or menu item on the xlog 
> panel that says "Add Special Remark" (or some such).  It could bring up 
> a simple text box for you to type an arbitrary note.  Then a "Save" 
> button enters the text (with date/time) into the database.  (You choose 
> the db technology!) The "New Special Remark" pane could be an 
> alternative to the "New QSO" pane.
> 

Sorry for the late reply, recovering from a flue attack.

Okay, but we already have a remarks field in the log which we could use
for this. I am thinking of using a special callsign (e.g. NOTE or TAG)
to tag a QSO for 'Special Remark'. This way we don't need to add an
extra field to the QSO Frame or an extra menu item.

> Now, how does the log viewer panel look with this feature?  It shows 
> QSOs as usual, but a special remark needs to show between QSOs, if not 
> in a separate pane for remarks.  It could be a text line that crosses 
> the usual QSO columns, and shows in a distinctive manner - italics, 
> green color, whatever.  It's probably enough to show the first text line 
> of the note.  If it is longer, you would select it for viewing bringing 
> up the full text entry/edit dialog, which would let you read, edit, or 
> delete the remark.
> 

The QSO list is divided into a number of columns which can not be
altered once it is configured. You can add/delete columns (which the
log-editor does), but when displaying the list they have a fixed number
of columns. However, colorizing a QSO in the list is no problem.

We could display it when double-clicking the QSO in a special window,
but it would also be visible through the remarks field. The tagged QSO
would be ignored when doing an export.


> The remark entry wants to be keyed by creation date, most likely, and 
> should be sorted along with QSOs by date.  Nice, but not essential: an 
> ability to search on contents.
> 

Okay, no problem.

> As you suggest, you could use a pop-up like word processors do.  You 
> could annotate a QSO and indicate by a colored flag or asterisk. (Or 
> possibly between QSOs.) Click on it and you can view, edit, or delete 
> the note.  The advantage is that it needs little screen space and it 
> minimizes the violence to your current layout. However, I'm not so much 
> interested in annotating a single QSO (although that could be useful) - 
> I want to say that I installed a new antenna, or something like that 
> that applies to many future QSOs.
> 

Yes, I can see the reason for adding this. It would be quite helpful.

> Even though it sounds fairly simple, I know this might be some work.  I 
> just wanted to put the idea out there for consideration.
> 

Thanks for the suggestion. Feel free to comment on my idea  for
implementing this into xlog. 

> 73 Martin AA6E
> 

Joop PG4I