ClayJar
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Posts posted by ClayJar
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Well, while I was finishing the fight against the giant oopsbug, I got Nocturnal to try out the real fix once it occurred to me. Well, it worked, and a couple more suggestions came up before the conversation was over. A bit of coding later and it's time for the next release.
New features in Watcher 0.1.28 include a state and/or country column (so you can sort by states and countries), the ability to change from miles to kilometers (and back, if you'd like), and just to have some place to choose your units, Watcher now has a real-life menu bar.
Grab the latest version at the usual spot.
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I found the bug in Watcher 0.1.27. It seems that in all the optimizations that I did since 0.1.26, I forgot to initialize the new much faster cache lists.
Sorry about all the trouble, but Nocturnal tells me that Watcher 0.1.27d actually *does* work now, and it's a lot faster than 0.1.26. (Hey, I can't break *everything* at once.)
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Actually, I already have the initial bearing calculation (it's how I find the direction for the distance-and-direction column). What I *don't* have is a good way of sorting by direction/distance.
Good is defined, in my mind at least, as an algorithm that sorts based on direction first and distance as a secondary characteristic in such a way as to keep caches that are near each other in the physical world near each other in the sorted list. Anyway, I'll have the filter by directions in there soon.
IN OTHER NEWS: Watcher 0.1.27d ('D' is for 'Dummy') is now up. Seems in all the optimisations, I forgot to initialize one variable.
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Actually, brdad (the official Watcher tester, bug lister, and feature requester) has had compass directions on the wish list for quite some time. So long, in fact, that a "filter by direction" feature is next on the list of features to be added.
Originally posted by Ozarktroutbum:I road tested this weekend and really liked having the info at hand. Only thing I'd like to see added is another column for sorting on direction. Like being able to see all the caches North or NW of the center coords.
(As for *sorting* by direction, I can't think of an algorithm for a direction/distance sort that would give logical sort results, which is why I'm implementing a direction *filter* instead of a direction *sort*. I've got a few ideas floating around in my head, though, and if any of them actually yield a logical direction sort, I may add it yet.)
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There are two distinct classes of GPX files: Those that include Groundspeak's geocaching extensions, and those that do not. The GPX files with Groundspeak's geocaching extensions come only from Pocket Queries.
Originally posted by Choachy:I simply downloaded 3 caches to easyGPS, saved the file with the 3 as blah.gpx. I open Watcher, it prompts for the file, I choose it, and the title bar says "showing 0 of 3 caches", while the main window shows "No caches to display".
Additionally, even if you start with a GPX file with Groundspeak's geocaching extensions, if you edit it in and save it from an application which does not support Groundspeak's geocaching extensions, the application will very likely ignore the additional data and not include it in the saved GPX file. EasyGPS can take waypoint information (from .loc/.gpx/whatever) and save it as a GPX file, but it will not have the additional information that Groundspeak's geocaching extensions provide.
I will update Watcher to detect the absence of the additional data provided by Groundspeak's geocaching extensions so that Watcher can reject the file instead of attempting to display a file that cannot possibly be displayed.
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Sometimes the small maps don't generate properly. IIRC, the hider can just edit the cache page (no need to change anything), and it'll generate the maps over again.
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If you're having problems and haven't e-mailed me the problem GPX files, feel free to do so. I'll take them and figure out where my bugs are. In fact, I suppose it's time I set up and error-reporting page (where you can send an error report with a description, version, and GPX).
Sorry about the bugs, but with your help, I'll have them cleaned up quickly.
Oh, and the IE too old message flies by for everyone. If your IE *is* too old, it stays there and lets you know. (I could not trace which particular files have which effects, so I had to take advantage of the fact that if your IE is too old, it won't update the page and the original message will just stay there.)
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Is that Watcher 0.1.27? (There seems to have been a bug, and I thought I fixed it in 0.1.27a, but if you have 27a, then I must have missed something more.)
Originally posted by CreagerStone Family:Watcher refuses to actually SHOW any caches, but it reads 365, so there must be a bug in EasyGPS. I'll download it again.
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You can send it to GPS@C___J__.com (fill in the blanks with the rest of my name). I'll take a look and get right back to you.
Originally posted by Frank and Peggy:Watcher lists 80; EasyGPS lists 17. I'll send you a copy of the file. Where should I send it?
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Well, by the time I got to Watcher 0.1.26, it was overdue for a bit of tweaking. Well, I did a bit of tweaking (and a few bugfixes (and a little updating)) and a new, faster version is here now.
Get Watcher 0.1.27 at the usual spot.
(Incidentally, it's up to .27b right now. I *think* that takes care of that "(showing 0 of ___ caches)" bug... sorry about that.)
[This message was edited by ClayJar on January 26, 2003 at 06:48 AM.]
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How many does Watcher say it has?
If Watcher gets it right, then it's a bug in EasyGPS. If you'd like, you can send it to me and I'll figure out what's wrong with EasyGPS now and send them a bug report. Plus, I can send it back to you working.
I've got to send them another bug report on their broken supposed-to-be-an-XML-parser, anyway, so another bug won't hurt. (I don't call it an XML parser, because, by definition, it's not. It's pretty close to one, though, and once they fix the bugs, they'll be able to call it one.)
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Well, here we go again. One more version before the Superbowl. This one covers one of the vintage suggestion box items for Watcher. See, I didn't forget after all.
New in Watcher 0.1.26 is a "marked" or "watch" list. You can now flag the caches that you want to hunt in the future, or you can keep a list of the caches you want to keep in your PDA and just load, filter, and export your new GPX files with the same list. Also, you can now mark caches as found/ignored/marked on the main cache list page.
Anyway, go get it at the usual place.
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You need to do the folowing:
DELETE your copy of EasyGPS. (Many people have problems if they don't delete [or at least rename] the old one first.)Download the latest version of EasyGPS(If you're using Windows.) Download and install the latest version of Watcher.(That last one will show you the vastly superior capabilities of GPX, if I *do* say so myself.
)-ClayJar (Watcher programmer)
[This message was edited by ClayJar on January 25, 2003 at 01:13 PM.]
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You get GPX files from the Pocket Query Generator (one of the great features you get for being a supporting member of Geocaching.com).
Originally posted by Leek:Excuse my ignorance, but how do you generate the GPX files to feed this application?
With GPXView (for PocketPC 2002), Watcher (for Windows), gpx2html (for anything with a web browser - PocketIE, Plucker [for PalmOS], or whatever), and GPX Spinner (for twiddling things), Pocket Query GPX files are quite worth the investment.
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Well, Watcher 0.1.25 is out now. It's got a good number of changes in the core code, but more importantly, it's got a nice new addition to the dates...
If you hover over any date, you'll now see a tooltip with the years, days, and months since that date. (So, if the cache was last found a year, nine months, and two days ago, and you mouseover the date, it'll say "1 year, 9 months, and 2 days ago.")
Get it at the usual spot.
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- March 15-16
- March 22-23
Anyway, I think March 14-16 (some of us will show up early, I'm sure) is a really nice weekend. Plus, we can all spend Saturday bewaring the ides of March. First person to make a Roman-themed cache wins a two-minute head start.
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Well, one last update before I rip Watcher's internals out and do a major retrofit, so why not make it a good one. (I hope I can finish the rewrite in short order, but it is quite extensive.)
Watcher 0.1.24 features the ability to filter by cache container (i.e. "size"). If you want to find all those urban micros, you now can. (If you don't, well, you can turn them *off* now.) Several small bugs (both important and unimportant) were also fixed.
Get it at the usual site.
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Well, if you thought that last night's update was neat because you can turn off columns, you'll *love* tonight's. Now you can turn off a BOATLOAD of columns!
New features in Watcher 0.1.23 are... well... there are columns for hider (the placed_by nickname and the hider's geocaching.com name), coordinates, cache size, hidden date,... you get the point. (Oh, and you can sort by hider(s), sizes, hidden dates, and so on.)
Get it at the usual spot.
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(Hehe, anime joke. Sorry.)
It would definitely be a bit more of a hike to camp at one (or more) of the backcountry camps at Chicot, so we may want to just re-camp where we camped last time. It's not *that* much difference, driving-wise, and there's certainly a whole lot more room.
My vote's for Evangeline, and let's get a date set so I can schedule myself. NOT the 1st (I'm tied up) or 15th (can't camp that Friday night, since it's Valen's Day), but other than that, I should be flexible.
Anyway, let's make the call.
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Well, for once I'm proud to announce that, thanks to a full afternoon and evening of coding, Watcher can now do even *less* than before!
The one new feature in Watcher-0.1.22 is (finally) the ability to select which columns to display. So, if you don't give a hoot when a cache was last found or last not found, you can turn those off to save space. Every column is hideable, but of course, you have to have at least *one* there, or it'd be hard to list the caches. (This feature was a prerequisite of several requested features, so chances are I'll have to work some more this week... and I was planning on sleeping and stuff!)
Oh, you can go download the latest version from the usual area.
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Well, I'm not using it since I have no way of using it. (I don't have a PocketPC, much less 2002.) I'm really interested in what it does, though. Incidentally, what's it written in?
(I'm curious. I'm not to the point I can get a new PocketPC, but I'm certainly always thinking of things for Watcher's present and future.)
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Well, there. Nothing like a good day off's work to finish up a nice spot of coding. Thanks to a bit of grunt work, I can now proudly announce Watcher 0.1.21 is ready (or not, but here it comes).
The feature list is short, but at least it's a nice list. Watcher now features found and ignore lists, and they apparently even work. (The lists are stored in a simple XML file in the directory from which you run Watcher.) Anyway, it should be working, so try it out and post comments here or in the geocaching chat.
Download it from the usual site.
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Watcher is built with various Internet Explorer components, and so, anything that the IE web browser would do (or the MSXML library does) will show up in Watcher.
Originally posted by BigBirdNL:One question: why is Watcher trying to access the internet at startup? (to IP 127.0.0.1 Port: 33xx, where xx is changing).
Is this an intended- or a viral-function?
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Distance from home? Check. ID? Check. Cache name? Check. Distance from any cache? Check. Found? Check. Difficulty? Check. Terrain? Check. Hider? Nuts, but it *is* on my TODO. Direct PDA output? Not yet.So, it looks like Watcher does almost everything you listed, but only on Windows PCs. You'd need to use one of the several methods of converting the GPX you'll export from Watcher into either a PalmDoc, HTML set (for PocketIE, Plucker, or AvantGo), or other PDA format. Still, I guess I'm not doing too poorly on my GPX application, eh?
Originally posted by Sissy-n-CR:Once the GPX crunching programs get more mature, I'm sure you'd be able to sort the caches, not only by distance from your home, ID, or cache name, but also by distance from any cache in the file, found or not found, the ones you own, difficulty, type or size, and yes, by placer/owner.
(I'm in the early planning of making "plugins" to convert to PalmDoc, HTML page(s), and even direct uploading to GPS receivers, but that's a bit far off right now. At least the other programs can fill in very, very nicely, albeit with a bit more work.)
Suggestion for promoting membership...
in Website
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...but perhaps we could use a bit more advertising.
The Pocket Query function is the very definition of incentive. As the set of GPX tools matures, it becomes more and more and *more* valuable. For my part, I can say that I am adding as many useful features to Watcher as I can (as fast as I can, too), and with each new feature, more people are finding the things they really wanted. Just last night I added a sortable state/country column and the ability to switch between miles and kilometers (both at the request of a geocacher in Denmark... that was cool).
I've refrained from pushing Watcher too much so far, since it's still in a very fluid state. Many (most?) of the early adopters are having the time of their geocaching lives using Watcher with their Pocket Queries, and when you throw in GpxView for PocketPC 2002, gpx2html (works great for PalmOS if you add Plucker), GPX Spinner for whatever you want, and GPSBabel for converting GPX to practically whatever file format you can think of, I'd say that Pocket Queries are *quite* the killer app of membership.
Perhaps I should consider creating some "GPX for Geocachers" overview documentation, once the next few Watcher features are finished. Then we can point people to one place for a quick, but thorough, overview of all the reasons they probably *do* want to spend a little money supporting Geocaching.com, since the rewards of contribution are indeed so many and so great.