[aprssig] New icon images (process summary)

Thu Aug 28 12:13:21 EDT 2014

Quite honestly several folks have over the years created symbols. It would
be nice if we as a group created a shared repo with symbols containing both
raster and vector formats and corporately maintained them.

Greg

On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 9:42 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:

> Yes, give me your ideas, and we can add them to the list.  Then the actual
> icon files can be updated.
>
> I will apply two general rules  of common sense to add them to the
> definitions list:
>
> 1)      Is it a good idea, which will see general use?
>
> 2)      Will it also make sense on older systems (base symbol with a
> meaningful overlay character)?
>
> 3)      Or is it just using up symbols space, making a lot of work for a
> lot of people, with little benefit to all.
>
>
>
> Then with respect to updating various ICON files, I will let the authors
> agree who is making what changes to what data base so that we don’t have
> multiple incompatible versions and the effort is organized.
>
>
>
> I know that Hessu is investing a massive effort in the symbol set for
> APRS.FI and trying to generalize it.  Let’s let him speak up on his
> effort, and then see how that trickles down to the UI data base and so on.
> I think APRS.FI is the elephant in the room, so lets see what he has to
> say.  I admit, I cant keep track of the details.
>
>
>
> Someone did give a good summary once as to how many different base symbol
> sets there are,  IE… a lot of clients use the UIVIEW symbol files which is
> great for commonality.  But I do not know all the others.
>
>
>
> Maybe someone can summarize once again a list of the fundamental ICON file
> sources, and lets work on those at the source.
>
>
>
> *** NOTICE *** That to make all this work, in 2007, we made a fundamental
> change to a lot of weather symbols to consolidate them and free up all this
> BASE symbol set.  That has to be done first.  Has it been done?
>
>
>
> For example,. Original APRS had completely different symbols for Rain,
> Snow, Freezing rain, drizzle, Blowing snow, Sleet, etc.  Since 2004, all
> PRECIPITIAION gets one “base symbol” and then the type of precipitation is
> indicated with an OVERLAY.  Thus giving us 36 different types of
> precipitation and freeing up at least a half dozen of BASE symbols for
> other  uses.
>
>
>
> Read about it in this in the bottom half of the
> http://aprs.org/symbols/symbols-new.txt
>
>
>
> Has this movement of most weather symbols to overlays been done in all
> clients?  Once this has been done, then that frees up 11 new BASE symbols
> times 36 each or over 390 new potential symbols (but ONLY with 11 BASE
> symbols for backwards compatibility.).
>
> Nailing down these last 11 new categories will be critical and will lock
> us in.  So these need to be very judiciously chosen.
>
>
>
> So far, we have not needed to use ANY of these, because I have been able
> to map almost all new ideas into existing base symbols.
>
>
>
> Bob, WB4APR
>
>  *From:* aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] *On
> Behalf Of *andrewemt
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 28, 2014 11:08 AM
> *To:* TAPR APRS Mailing List
> *Subject:* Re: [aprssig] New icon images
>
>
>
> Bob,
>
>
>
> So if I submit a proposal for symbol assignments to you and update the
> UI-View icon files to match and send them to Steve for posting, would that
> at least get things rolling?
>
>
>
> Andrew, KA2DDO
>
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
> Date:08/28/2014 11:04 (GMT-05:00)
> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] New icon images
>
> Actually, the symbol space has been opened up form the original 100 or so
> to thousands (by judicious use of "overlay" characters on a basic set of
> symbols.  This is backwards compatible.  Those with older systems see the
> base symbol with the overlay character, those with newser systems "can"
> see any new specially drawn symbols that matches that unique combination
> of base symbol and overlay.  See some of the examples on
> http://aprs.org/symbols.html
>
> Follow the link to symbols-new.txt and you will see several of these
> expansions.  As many as a dozen different symbol definitions for some of
> the basic symbols.
>
> The PROBLEM is that now it takes a massive effort by software developers
> to render actual images to match these new definitions.  And to keep
> current, which is a daunting task.  But at least the "symbol space" is
> available to contain these thousands of new possibilities.  In other
> words, I accommodated it in the spec and simply passed the buck to the
> code writers...
>
> Bob, WB4APR
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org
> <aprssig-bounces at tapr.org>] On Behalf
> Of Steve Dimse
> Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2014 9:08 AM
> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] New icon images
>
>
> On Aug 28, 2014, at 5:57 AM, Andrew P. <andrewemt at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Uh, isn't that why Kenwood makes firmware upgrades available on their
> website?
> >
> The original Kenwoods have to be opened and programming cable soldered
> onto the circuit board to update the firmware. The circuit board was a
> design that Kenwood had developed but never released for the Japanese
> market. It was obsolete even before it was released in the late 90s! After
> its release there were so many bugs Kenwood had to issue one, but it was a
> headache, you either had to send it to them or go to one of the few
> hamfests to which they sent techs, in which case they could flash it while
> you waited. I'm sure they are not going to do that again!
>
> > In any case, what is the mechanism for proposing symbol code assignments
> for these meanings, and which meanings are important enough to get added?
> >
> The APRS Working Group, which these days is down to Bob. I suspect he does
> not want to open the floodgates as there have been many, many proposals
> over the years of individuals that wanted a symbol, and of course there
> are only a few unassigned. Unless it is something with widespread ham
> appeal I suspect he isn't going to act.
>
> I think a backward compatible extended symbol space is your best bet, then
> everyone can add all the symbols they want.
>
> Steve K4HG
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