Some new considerations after some days in the wilderness. Menu button, DB potential corruption, georeference from Orux!

Hello Orux and hello all!

I spent five days in the mountains, in a location were there was (thanksfully!) power supply to recharge the phone, but no wifi and seldom any data connection.
I used a lot Oruxmaps, it was a very useful companion every day.

Here are some thoughts after this experience.

First: is it necessary to have a DB for tracks?
After trying to import several files and still getting an error, I used the (slow) network to browse for the error and I stumbled across the forum when Orux suggested that it could be a "database corruption". I deleted the database, and it all started working again.
That lead me to think: being a DB "corruptable", what is the reason why Orux use one? It wouldn't be simpler and less prone to errors just to use GPX files, while keeping in memory the current track? In this way every track would have its data "atomically made" and DB issues are less likely to appear.

Some other random thoughts. We experimented with some options, UI among those, and we discovered that in the old interface the "menu" button had a function. We prefer the new one, but we really miss the chance to bind "menu" to something useful, and that is something that let me quite astonished as a user since the very first days, when I was new to orux. I mean that, ALL users of any android program do hit that button. It ALWAYS gives access to a function or another. Tapping on it and seeing no results feels strange for a long time (feedback from others would be amazing here). Being the button there, would it be worthy to consider to bind it to some function? For instance, I find quite awkward to go to maps->settings->change orientation to switch orientation (something that I do quite often switching from when I am at home planning the trip and when I'm on the field). "Menu" could be bind to a... menu with the different orientation modes on the fly. That button would have a use and the user would have some less steps to get there.

Third.
We had plenty of paper maps (you know, the old ones ) and we used them to mark our way through waypoints on the offline maps we previously downloaded at home (but weren't as much as complete as the specific paper ones for the area).
"HOW COOL would it be to have the chance to take some high resolution snapshot to some map area and use Orux to reference them.

Yes! Why not?
In that way, we would be free to go around, find a refuge, discover some maps inside, and import them into Orux with some clicks to use the following day!
What about this idea? I know it could be quite big to implement, but it would be awesome to have such a tool in your pocket.

Last. Is Oruxmaps open source? I remember to have read that and I happily supported it for the very same reason (I also had my GF installing the paid version ) but so far I could not find the source code anywhere, so I'm wondering if I was wrong. And if it is not open source, why then?

Cheers!!

febs wrote:Hello Orux and hello all!

I spent five days in the mountains, in a location were there was (thanksfully!) power supply to recharge the phone, but no wifi and seldom any data connection.
I used a lot Oruxmaps, it was a very useful companion every day.

Here are some thoughts after this experience.

First: is it necessary to have a DB for tracks?
After trying to import several files and still getting an error, I used the (slow) network to browse for the error and I stumbled across the forum when Orux suggested that it could be a "database corruption". I deleted the database, and it all started working again.
That lead me to think: being a DB "corruptable", what is the reason why Orux use one? It wouldn't be simpler and less prone to errors just to use GPX files, while keeping in memory the current track? In this way every track would have its data "atomically made" and DB issues are less likely to appear.

Some other random thoughts. We experimented with some options, UI among those, and we discovered that in the old interface the "menu" button had a function. We prefer the new one, but we really miss the chance to bind "menu" to something useful, and that is something that let me quite astonished as a user since the very first days, when I was new to orux. I mean that, ALL users of any android program do hit that button. It ALWAYS gives access to a function or another. Tapping on it and seeing no results feels strange for a long time (feedback from others would be amazing here). Being the button there, would it be worthy to consider to bind it to some function? For instance, I find quite awkward to go to maps->settings->change orientation to switch orientation (something that I do quite often switching from when I am at home planning the trip and when I'm on the field). "Menu" could be bind to a... menu with the different orientation modes on the fly. That button would have a use and the user would have some less steps to get there.

Third.
We had plenty of paper maps (you know, the old ones ) and we used them to mark our way through waypoints on the offline maps we previously downloaded at home (but weren't as much as complete as the specific paper ones for the area).
"HOW COOL would it be to have the chance to take some high resolution snapshot to some map area and use Orux to reference them.

Yes! Why not?
In that way, we would be free to go around, find a refuge, discover some maps inside, and import them into Orux with some clicks to use the following day!
What about this idea? I know it could be quite big to implement, but it would be awesome to have such a tool in your pocket.

Last. Is Oruxmaps open source? I remember to have read that and I happily supported it for the very same reason (I also had my GF installing the paid version ) but so far I could not find the source code anywhere, so I'm wondering if I was wrong. And if it is not open source, why then?

Cheers!!

Hi, febs;

Thanks for your comments;

Why database and not kml/gpx files?

read a track of a database is 10-20X faster than parsing a xml.
in the database is much more information stored than in the gpx/kml file.

is possible that the database is corrupt, but mechanisms of protection:
- oruxmaps creates a back up database every xx days (configurable in settings)--> oruxmapstracks.db.backup
- you can configure OruxMaps to create a gpx / kml automatically when stop recording a track.

the menu button disappears in android >= 3.0. Program for all platforms is a problem. I prefer to use the menu bar for all those functions.

is very difficult to calibrate a map on the basis of an image. It would take many points of control, because the error would be great due to the deformation.

and OruxMaps is free, but not an open source project.

orux