Due to a couple of bugs i am releasing 1.2.5 today.
Changes:
- removed ADVERTISING from the free release (finally, i hated that!)
- fixed a GPS startup time bug
- fixed annoying "reload last live track" messages when no old livetrack was there

Please upgrade and enjoy.
(will be released later on today on www.trackaway.org

Track@Way 1.2.4: Christmas Release...

Hi all!
After a few days of intense testing i feel ready to release Track@Way 1.2.4. This will be the "Christmas" Release, since it should be the last one before the end of 2011. As you might now, Track@Way 1 will go into bugfix mode only in 2012, i will be working actively on Track@Way 2.0 featuring some great news like OpenStreetMap/OpenCycleMap support, waypoint draggability, tracks storage. But this will come later on in 2012.

At the moment, here is the 1.2.4 changelog:
- fixed visualization bug making lat/lon unreadable when switching coordinate modes.
- fixed slow GPS updates on some circumstances
- Now you casn select the GPS update interval from the configuration (0: automatic, or up to 30 secs)
- Fixed random crash on sone Symbian^3 devices

Supporters will receive the updated release this morning. The website free version will be available by the end of the day on www.trackaway.org and OVI releases will follow after the usual OVI delays...

Stay tuned!
 UPDATE: given the abysmal results of over six months of advertising (0,09 euros of revenues) i decided to REMOVE all advertisement from Track@Way. I never liked it anyway, so enjoy and please buy the supporter release if you like it.

Roadmap to 2.0

Hi all!

i want to share here with you my toughts on the future of Track@Way and the roadmap to release 2.0....

Here are the features i plan to add for 2.0:
- Support for OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap (as a background layer, by downloading OSM XML files and on-the-fly rendering...)
- Support for a database of tracks: you will be able to load all your preferred tracks in Track@Way and always see them, like it's for maps now...
- Support for "active" tracking table, where you can tap and add/edit waypoints in much simpler way than now...
- Direct send SMS feature, because yes i would be happy to receive greets and thanks from you

What do you think? A time-frame at the moment would be march/april 2012 for a formal 2.0 release ready for OVI store and Android Marketplace... Meanwhile, beta releases will be available to supporters and others willing to be experimental...

Delay on 1.2.4

I am sorry for the delay in 1.2.4, but i am still struggling with a few things.
First of all, the external GPS cannot be manually selected from within Track@Way. Check this discussion no the subject: here this is a limitation of the current QtMobility architecture.

Then there is the seldom crash issue, which on my X7 creash Track@Way sometimes. Sometimes instead it works flawlessy for hours... so i am baffled and i cannot reproduce it properly.

But i fixed a minor visualization bug in the lat/lon label which now will resize properly when you change the coordinates format!

So stay tuned, 1.2.4 will come next week...

During the weekend tests i hit a bug in 1.2.3 which causes crash. I am investigating this before releaseing 1.2.4.
At the same time some users pointed the need to a fix to make the external GPS antenna easier to use (now you need to switch the itnernal GPS off). I will investigate this also and add to 1.2.4.

UTM bug...

Thanks to a kind user i found a bug in UTM coordonates visualization.
Instead of:

12 34 567E 12 34 567E
you see:
1234567 567E 1234567 567N

which is clearly wrong. This fix will be in 1.2.4 sometime next week.

Way ahead... news, Android and more.

While i am still waiting for Necessitas to get Beta (after which you will see an official Track@Way on Android Market) i am studing a few things.

One is direct support for OpenStreetMap / OpenCycleMap using libosmscout, i have just started looking into it right now. This would allow download of XML data and rendering on the device. While it will use up some CPU, it should greatly reduce network usage, which is cool specially while roaming...

also, i have come across (again) with GDAL which promises bo be able to remap raster images between projections... If any body is interested?

Track@Way 1.2.3 - RELEASED

Today i am releasing Track@Way 1.2.3.
This release includes some very important bugfixes:
- improved map calibration, now more accurate than before
- resolved all crashes on Symbian^3, enjoy!

You are strongly encouraged to upgrade.
Please NOTE this release will modify your maps configuration so that it will NOT be compatible anymore with earlier versions. Please backup your e:\FreeTrack\maps_storage\maps.cfg if you want to roll back later.

So, after being finally so pissed off with Symbian^3 issues regarding to the use of QPixmap i decided that the fastest way to proceed is to switch to the raster engine.
Honestly, it works good on S60v5, where is the only one available, and i only do 2d graphics anyway. So, why not? I tried it and, magically, all the graphical issues, glitches and even crashes are fixed. I was able to go back using QPixmaps everywhere for the map chunks and blcks...

Speed seems to be as good, at least not worse, so i am doing some more testing then switching back to raster for good!

Some more fixes...

Again, the map calibration is trouble. Again, due to the forced mapping of qreal to floats and not doubles.
This time i decided to compeltely rewrite the management of calibration points and premultiply them to avoid precision issues. This is transparent to the end-user.

Stay tuned for a new 1.2.3 soon...

Track@Way 1.2.2 released

You can find it here: www.trackaway.org

- map calibration fix
- startup speedup
- gobreadcrumbs.com updated API

note: this makes the stored maps not compatible with previous versions, please DO NOT rollback after this uograde.

GoBreadcrumbs.com API update...

The upcoming Track@Way 1.2.2 will include the www.gobreadcrumbs.com API upgrade from 12 november 2011.

Also, one more fix for the map claibration and a huge speedup in startup time when you have a lot of maps. This will make the maps configuration not backward compatible, so you will not be able to switch back anymore to a previous release.

Track@Way 1.2.1 RELEASED

TRack@Way 1.2.1 has been released today at 9:30AM (CET).
Changelog is the same posted yesterday!

Build for Symbian and Nokia N9 will be available shortly.

Almost ready for 1.2.1....

Finally, i got around fixing that annoying black map bug.
I am rolling out 1.2.1 within tomorrow.

Changelog will be:
- Fixed the black map (Ozi explorer / gmapmaker calibrated maps)
- Fixed the autosave feature: now it should work without annoying messages
- Fixed the navigation aids on the big compass
- Added an option to disable the grid on the tracking table
- Improved map speed on Symbian^3 devices

Bug detected...

Thanks to a couple of users i got aware of a nasty bug in the calibration code. It seems that after Track@Way 1.1.2 importing QMapMaker maps fails.

This is related, again, to the fucked up way Qt for Symbian uses qreal == float. This produced invalid matrixes, so i decided to fix it once for all. I have copied the Qt code for QTransforn and adapted it to use only DOUBLES.

Lets see how testing goes...

After the release of Track@Way 1.2.0 (almost there also on OVI store folks!) i am taking some time to let the new feature requests come in and eventually also new bugs.

I am thinking on how to go ahead from here, what to add first and so on... Stay tuned...

Track@Way 1.2.0

Today i am releasing Track@Way 1.2.0. It will be ready in a short while.

- Support for compass calibration
- Support for pinch-zoom in Tracking Table
- Support for pinch-zoom in map manual calibration
- Added option to hide/show the zoom buttons
- Fixed random black line on maps
- Fixed manual map calibration crash on Symbian^3
- Added navigation aids also on big compass
- Fixed navigation aids pointer (sometimes it was 90° off)
- Added alert sound when reaching a destination point
- Added option to enable or disable sound
- Added waypoints in tracks manager
- You can center a waypoint from the tracks manager
- You can navigate to a waypoint from the tracks manager
- Fixed stats not updating when chaning from leg to entire track

As usual, refer to www.trackaway.org for the downloads.

Getting ready for 1.2.0

Ok guys, it will be called 1.2.0 and will have a ton of new features:

- Support for compass calibration
- Support for pinch-zoom in Tracking Table
- Support for pinch-zoom in map manual calibration
- Added option to hide/show the zoom buttons
- Fixed random black line on maps
- Fixed manual map calibration crash on Symbian^3
- Added navigation aids also on big compass
- Fixed navigation aids pointer (sometimes it was 90° off)
- Added alert sound when reaching a destination point
- Added option to enable or disable sound
- Added waypoints in tracks manager
- You can center a waypoint from the tracks manager
- You can navigate to a waypoint from the tracks manager


and anything else coming up... It should be released sometime at the beginning of november. As usual, supporters will reveive a stable preview sooner.

If you purchased the supporter edition trough OVI please send me a private email to be added to the list.

I am thinking it will be called 1.2.0.

Anyway, i added the navigation aids also on the big compass in the GPS dialog....

Working for 1.1.3 or 1.2.0?

While OVI store is constantly offline or not working (thanks Nokia, as usual, i am wandering why i am here and not on Android Market...)...

I am working on 1.1.3 with the updated translations and some better working "pinch zoom" for your enabled devices. Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, i have already added compass calibration support....

OVI Store delays...

Due to some misterious delays in OVI store 1.1.2 will NOT be published on OVI store for many days to come. Unfortunately my certificate has expired and a new one has not been issued YET.

So, thanks Nokia...

meanwhile you can get it from the website www.trackaway.org (supporters please contact me directly)

Track@Way 1.1.2 official release!

I am happy to announce to you all the immediate availability of Track@Way 1.1.2
Features:
- added pinch zoom
- added "center map" button to center the Tracking Table on a map
- Fixed the "lat/lon" is not readable under some themes
- Fixed the GPS start button not readable with some themes
- Fixed moving on the Manual Calibration dialog...
- Added steepness graph and data in track statistics
- Added yellow dotted line to connect the tracking table to the last livepoint
- Improved pixmap management. While this could cause a slight slowdown in map display for Smbian^3 devices, it should also avoid the usual random crashes.
- Improved map calibration. Now for your maps with more than three points, calibrations should be more precise!
Android, Maemo and MeeGo releases (beta for Android) will be released later on this week.


Symbian installation instructions: Symbian install (OVI releases will follow in a few days as usual)
Android installation instructions: How to install on Android
Maemo/Meeo installation instructions: How to install on Maemo and MeeGo (Harmattan)

Release 1.1.2 is ready for testing...

I am happy to announce a quite significant speed improvement in map drawing...

The release 1.1.2 is now ready for testing: i will send it to anbody willing to test it out for a few days...

I have two more great improvements for 1.1.2:

1. Improved pixmap management. While this could cause a slight slowdown in map display for Smbian^3 devices, it should also avoid the usual random crashes.
2. Improved map calibration. Now for your maps with more than three points, calibrations should be more precise!

New features

So, this is the list of things that will be shipped with 1.1.2 as soon as i can test the pinch zoom:

Things which are getting updated for 1.1.2:
- added pinch zoom
- added "center map" button to center the Tracking Table on a map
- Fixed the "lat/lon" is not readable under some themes
- Fixed the GPS start button not readable with some themes
- Fixed moving on the Manual Calibration dialog...
- Added steepness graph and data in track statistics
- Added yellow dotted line to connect the tracking table to the last livepoint

Expect the release before 15 october...

Something is boiling under the hood...

I am working on adding multitouch pinch zoom support for you folks who have it on your phones...

I am also well aware of the crash bug in Symbian^3 but unfortunately i am STILL awaiting for the delivery of my new S^3 device, so please be patient for a few more days... Next week, i hope, i will fix it.

Meanwhile, i will try to work on some other enhancement requests ... so stay tuned!

While sometimes i am also busy with other things, i am not sleeping on Track@Way.

I am bitching with Nokia Qt SDK to produce a working release for MeeGo and Maemo. Its proving much more difficult than expected tough... i think i will take a few more time.

Anyway, Track@Way 1.1.0 should now be available (both supporter and free) from OVI store,... i hope!

Track@Way 1.1.0 is OUT!

Go grab it here: http://www.trackaway.org!
Symbian released NOW. Android will follow today, Maemo/MeeGo within a couple of days...

Enjoy!

please report bugs to http://trac.trackaway.org and check for support on http://forums.trackaway.org

Track@Way 1.1.0 is almost ready...

Ok guys... here are all the news about Track@Way 1.1.0 which will be released tomorrow (if no bugs are discovered today):

- Support for folder/multiple uploads
- Support for OZI Explorer ozfx3 and ozf2 raster map formats
- Improved zoom levels on the Tracking Table (16 levels, more detail and also more zoom-out)
- Minimum DOP set to 200 to avoid issues for some GPS devices
- Fixed the map_storage issue. Now you can put your maps there (even if its NOT recomended, its for caching only) safely.
- Removed annoying "save LiveTrack" dialog on livetrack start

Translations will need to be improved and corrected, as well as help, this will come in later releases.
I will also release an improved build for Android, still beta, due to Necessitas being still Alpha.

Getting ready for 1.1.0...

I decided to call the next release "1.1.0". This is because there is going to be two major features:
- Support for OziExplorer compressed map formats
- Support for importing entire folders of maps at once

Both features have been requested by many people...

Now, the first is already in place and working, just wait a bit until i fix the second one!

OziExplorer OZF map formats are now supported!

I have a piece of great news for you guys!

I have successfully added direct support for OziExplorer OZF2 and OZFX3 maps... So now you can load your maps directly.

This will be released in Track@Way 1.1.0 upcoming by this week!

Some news in the coming.

First of all, i am looking for a way to avoid the issue with placing maps inside map_storage...Second of all, i will add support for OZI maps (ozfx3 and ofzx2 files) thanks to the swampex library :)

I found out which is the most common error in using Track@Way: copying your maps to the map_storage folder!

Yes, its quite unclear and pretty confusing, but you user should NEVER mess with the map_storage folder. That is the folder where Track@Way will put your maps once you have loaded them... Not where you should copy your own maps.

I will write this as a sticky post on the forums and try to devise a better way to fix the issue... Any suggestions are welcome!

Release Track@Way 1.0.1!

This release fix all the bugs found out during vacation (and, i hope, also the memory leak on Symbian^3!)


Please check the release log: http://www.trackaway.org/index.php/dvlpmnt/releases

And go get it for your favorite platform here:http://www.trackaway.org

Enjoy!

effemmeffe kindly pointed to a nasty bug which cause Track@Way to crash hard and made it unable to reopen again. Thanks!

Its very difficult to trigger, you actually need to provide Track@Way with a very broken calibrated map... Anyway, the fix is rolled and will ship with 1.0.1 mabe already tomorrow...

At the same time, i am trying again to push Track@Way for N900 and N9/N950 to OVI store... lets see if it will work this time!

Post-vacations news...

Hi all!
i am back from vacations now, and ready to roll!

During the past weeks i have been intensively use Track@Way. Overall, i have been very impressed by the stability, but nevertheless i found a few bugs... which i have already fixed now. Just wait for the next release probably next week.

1. Fix crash on Symbian^3 due to insufficent heap size (pre-vacation fix)
2. Fixed "wipe filename" problem when saving a livetrack but "cancel" during filename input
3. Fixed "live track not active anymore" bug when saving livetrack
4. Fixed non transparent background behind waypoint names

This will be released next week toghether with a new try on OVI store...

Track@Way 1.0 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

As scheduled, Track@Way 1.0 stable has been released TODAY.

Please check the accouncement here: track@way 1.0

and download your relese here: Track@Way home page

OVI store releases will follow according to the usually slow OVI response times.

OVI store, you again...

Due to a certificate expiry problem, Track@Way will not be published on OVI store for a few more days.
Anyway, tomorrow i will release it on the web site at least.


Also, i have reorganized the web site. Let me know what do you think!

Track@Way first release almost ready...

After fixing the last two known fixable bugs (and quite minor as well), its time to paint a clearer idea of the first release of Track@Way.

Its scheduled for tomorrow, Friday 29th of July 2011, morning (CET).

This release will be avaialble over the Website and at the same time pushed on OVI Store. Given the usual OVI lag, my bet it will not surface on OVI until next week or next two weeks.

Anyway, on the web site i will be releasing:
- Track@Way 1.0 for Symbian and Symbian^3, free edition (with ads)
- Track@Way 1.0 Supporter for Symbian and Symbian^3 (paypal accepted)

- Track@Way 1.0 for Maemo5 (N900), free edition (with ads)
- Track@Way 1.0 Supporter for Maemo5 (N900) (paypal accepted)

- Track@Way 1.0 for MeeGo/Harmattan (N950, N9) free, no ads
- Track@Way 1.0 for Android (2.2+) free, no ads.

What's up...

Beside thinking of a port to WebOS (seems to be able to run Qt apps...)...

The weekend testing brought up some required fixes, and some translation updates.

At the moment i am almost ready to release 1.0 officiallly... But it would be lacking on translations. So i wait a few more days...

Track@Way beta 0.4 RELEASED!

For Symbian^3, S60v5, Android, Maemo5 and Harmattan!

Get it here: download Track@Way!

Release notes: Track@Way release info

News news

This is the plan: tomorrow (22/07/11) release of the last beta (called 0.4), then by the end of next week the first OFFICIAL release.

Not many languages will be supported at the moment... just English, Italian and Finnish. More to come later...


Some fixes:
- Fixed start livetrack button status
- Fixed maemo/harmattan default config file location
- Fixed kinetik lists dragging behaviour
- Fixed multiple satellites displayer bug
- Fixed the bug preventing to try again the breadcrumbs pin
- Fixed browser loading bar on browser startup
- Improved ability to click on browser (fix flickcharm)
- Added preliminary Finnish
- Added preliminary Italian
- Fixed dark background for labels on some themes

One more thing is to fix the FTWidgetList class which makes for the language config dialog a very hard to use dialog.

Maemo and MeeGo (harmattan) supported!

I decided to release immediately a beta for MeeGo and Maemo.

Go here:
http://www.trackaway.org/index.php/download/category/4-trackway-preview-releases

get them and try them!

Adding new platforms...

Ok, its not a big deal, but by friday i will release support for Maemo (Nokia N900) and MeeGo Harmattan (Nokia N9 / N950).

Maybe not many users out there, but it took me only a couple of hours to get working builds, thanks to Qt, so here they come.

Also, by the end of the week i will release one more BETA (0.3) which might as well be the LAST beta before a formal release next week. We will see!

What is boiling in the plate...

I have just released FreeTrack 1.3.40. This will be the last release for the FreeTrack series, except for major bugfixes if requested by the existing users.

Changelog:

• Upgraded screen orientation to support Qt 4.7.3.
• Remove "auto" orientation due to bug in Qt 4.7.3
• Fixed language crash on startup (certain phones/languages)
• Fixed "unable to start after first start" bug due to error in config file
• Some backports from Track@Way to improve tracking and speed
• Added InnerActive ads in free version

Everybody is urged to upgrade. OVI releases will follow given the usual slow OVI release cycle.

Some news...

After the second BETA release (quite stable!)...

Last friday i received the N950 Nokia gracefully lended me for development purposes and within a couple of days i intend to add support for Hartmattan. It should be just a matter of recompilation, so it whoulds not take too much.

Enjoy...

Track@Way 0.2: BETA released today!

The SECOND PUBLIC BETA of Track@Way has been released!

This release has some great new features and is to be considered full-featured. Future changes before the final release will mostly include bugfixes, improved cosmetics, refined layouts and the help system completed.
So, that's great in Track@Way 0.2?

• Improved drawing speed and battery usage.
• Added the capability to use non-satellites positionning methods, for phones with such ability.
• Improved and fixed most of the landscape layout and issues
• Improved support for smaller screens
• Added full help (in english only at the moment)
• Fixed a lot of smaller issues all around the UI
• Finally fixed the map ordering on the Tracking Table!

This release is out both for Symbian and Android. For Android, please also check the Android Installation and Infos!
NOTE (Symbian only): in order to use this release you must update your Qt libraries to 4.7.3, your QtMobility to 1.1.3 and install QtWebKit. You can find them here: Symbian^3 and S60v5.
NOTE: if you get an update error, please first uninstall the old release!

Sometime this afternoon i will publish Track@Way BETA 0.2. Lots of things: fixes and even some new stuff! Full help... and more!


Stay tuned...

Approaching BETA 0.2...

Friday, if all goes well, i plan to release BETA 0.2.

Its a huge bugfixing, plus a complete help system and some UI fixing...

So stay tuned, and wait happily :)

I did some testing on the BETA 1 and i am quite pelased.

There is only one "major" issue: DOP is miscalculated. So please set "minimum DOP" to 20 if you downloaded beta1.

I will update a fixed SIS later on, meanwhile, please be aware of this issue.

Track@Way 0.1: FIRST BETA to be released today!

Later on this afternoon i will be releasing the FIRST PUBLIC BETA of Track@Way. Tagged 0.1, this release has some great new features and is to be considered full-featured. Future changes before the final release will mostly include bugfixes, improved cosmetics, refined layouts and the help system completed.

So, that's great in Track@Way 0.1?

• www.gobreadcrumbs.com full track export and track search/import: not only you can send your tracks, but now you can also search for public tracks and download them on your phone!
• Landscape now supported (albeit some dialogs will still look unusable)!
• New HTML help system in place! Better looking help supporting also images and screenshots! (videos in the future?)
• Embedded WebKit support, no more need to switch to external browser for help forums and such!
• Now you can select your minimum DOP values, so you have the freedom to choose the precision of your GPS track!
• Fixed GPX save: now bearing and speed is actually caved (was not in alpha releases due to bug)
• Removed the "fix landscape/protrait" mode, since it is broken by Nokia SDK...
• Improved some layouts and icons
• Fixed some various bugs...

 So stay tuned, and enjoy!

UPDATE: At 15.30 CET today Track@Way BETA 0.1 has been released! Check www.trackaway.org for downloads and more info.

First BETA release coming SOON!

Guys,
i have been pretty busy rolling out an awsome Beta Release for you.

Its almost ready, so be patient, if everything goes well it will be out tomorrow (friday, 8 July 2011).

What will be in the beta release?
- full features are working
- landscape/portrait has been fixed (removed "force" buttons since they dont work with latest Nokia Qt), but not all dialogs works good yet, more work is required
- Added "ads". Sorry for this, but while in beta you can disable them from the configuration page (and they are very inconspicuous too, so dont worry, i hate them more than you do)
- Fixed quite some more bugs
- improved a few icons and layouts

So stay tuned, and be ready to download it!

What is going on...

Some great news for you...

I have added the track navigation. Now you can load a track and activete the navigation mode. On the tracking table you will be presented with bearing and distance to next point...

Also, i finished adding the dialog to change color of track legs, so now you can also do that...

What's more? I plan to use QWebView to make it easier to input the PIN number in breadcrumbs authentication...

So stay tuned!!!

www.gobreadcrumbs.com export working!

Ok, its been quick and easy, support for exporting tracks to www.gobreadcrumbs.com is implemented also in Track@Way now.

Next, support track search&retriaval...

The statistics page actually works well... Ok, the graphs are a bit simple and could use some navigation capabilities... But nevertheless, for a one day and half work it seems pretty neat so far!

Next, add BreadCrumbs support back, add track-import feature too, and start working for the 0.1.0 release (i hope before 10 july!)

Ok, i have written a first working version of the track statistic page...

It works, you can see a profile of altitude, speed, bearing and an overview of the track. Also, you can see some numerical values.

Stay tuned for more :)

News on the coming...

Hi all!
Ok, whats going on...

Waiting for some feedback on Track@Way 0.0.5 (where are you guys... al vacationing?), here what is going on.

I am going to add statistical displays for tracks (both livetrack and loaded tracks), and in the process of doing this i am adding back www.gobreadcrumbs.com track upload (and, later, download) support... And, at the same time, i will also add track following mode... So, stay tuned and expect the next release to be called "0.1.0", since "0.0.x" is now too small :)

Track@Way 0.0.5 Released!

This alpha release of Track@Way is stable enugh to be actually used!


Whats new over 0.0.4

• Added tool to convert between coordinates formats (decimal, degress minutes seconds, degrees minutes, utm)
• You can now choose which format you want to use for coordinates troughout Track@Way
• Tracking Table has been redesigned. Now its much neater and has a "declutter" option to reduce the amount of controls on the screen to maximize map.
• Maps are faster and now even loading 20+ maps over 4000x4000px is reasonably fast also on Nokia S60v5.
• Various minor bug fixes
• Fixed map not drawing when approaching longitude = 0
• Removed compass from tracking table if digital compass is not avaialble

Grab the release here: Track@Way releases

Also, for the Android release, check the following very important page: Android Installation

Releaseing 0.0.5...

Hi all...

So, today later on i will release Track@Way 0.0.5!

This release brings some interesting stuff...

- Conversion tool between format
- Selection of preferred formats (decimal, degrees minutes, degrees minutes seconds, UTM...)
- Totaly redesigned tracking table
- declutter option for the tracking table

And some more stability improvement!
It is production ready (but still expect some bugs!) for maps and tracks...

Just stay tuned!

Coming next: support for Breadcrumbs export...

Ok all!

I have been silent, but some great stuff is boiling in the pot here.

1) Completely revised Tracking Table, with a "clutter/declutter" option to show more or less stuff on it...
2) Customizable Tracking Table, you can drag and drop all the items on it where you most like them (work in progress)
3) Completely new lat/lon input and output method... Now you can select which format you like the most: DDD.DDDDDD, DDD.MM.SS, UTM both for input and for visualization!

The point 2 still require some work, so i dont know if i will release a working 0.0.5 by this week, but expect it for the begnning of july anyway!

The roadmap then will see me add support for www.gobreadcrumbs.com, then improve the help system and, hopefully, start with some localizations (if you want to help, please drop me a note, a comment or write on the forums (forums.trackaway.org)).

So by the end of July a first working release (at least for Symbian, since the Android port still have some significant troubles with non-working inputs and such).....

FreeTrack 1.3.34 is out!

FreeTrack 1.3.34 has been released right now!

Please go to: http://www.trackaway.org/index.php/download/category/1-stable

Fixes the files not visible under gray themes and the wrong timestamps in GPX files for certain time zones.

While the Android post still has some major issues (the virtual keyboard not opening, random crashes and so on) i am going to release Track@Way 0.0.4 right now.

This has some fixes and widget relayouting, mostly. Nothing serious, but since i will not be able to post updates for a while i wanted to make sure you have the latest release.

Tomorrow i also plan to release FreeTrack 1.3.34, fixing the timestamp error and the gray themes issues...

So stay tuned and enjoy!

Track@Way is working on Android now!
If you like to test it, just drop me a message and i will send the APK to you. At the moment i still wait a little bit for a formal release until i get some positive feedbacks, since on my Ideos the screen resolution is too limited.

Anyway, i just fixed an annoying bug in loading date formats from GPX files and i want to rework on the Tracking Table, improve it and make is more cool than now. That and a new icon to differentiate from FreeTrack and i will make a first "beta" release on the Android Market and OVI store, just to test the waters....

Big news ahead...

Unfortunately this week i will have very little time to work on Track@Way...

But nevertheless i have great news for you!

The Android port is working! Still some work needs to be done, so i am not releasing until probably next week... But anyway, thanks to the amazing work done by BogDan Vatra and the others at Necessitas, Track@Way 0.0.3 works on Android 2.2!

Unfortunately 2.2 is the minimum requirement due to QtMobility requirements at the moment...

Track@Way 0.0.3 FULLY USABLE release today!

Go here:
Track@Way 0.0.3 download

and enjoy!

This release brings ful MAP support and its completely usable for tracking!

enjoy and report any issues, please!

Almost ready for Track@Way 0.0.3...

Guys, the maps works!
I am rewriting the help system now, because i want to make the first release (without www.gobreadcrumbs.com support) during June.

Next step will be to add support for www.gobreadcrumbs.com, both to export tracks and also to IMPORT tracks using their cool API.... and i hope to release this too before the end of June.

Meanwhile i will keep fixing bugs (there seems to be one with tracking? its not clear to me) and adding help and refining the UI!!!

So stay tuned, Track@Way 0.0.3 with maps support will be released within the next two days!

Given the good results of yesterday, today i am adding the manual calibration.

The idea is to show the map and let you "drop" a new claibration point on it. Then you can interact with it using your fingers: drag it around, tap and edit it... It should be fun...

Some great news...

I have been silent for a few days... because i was hardworking for you guys!

I finally fixed the new map system... Its great, and i am going to test it on my 5800 right now. Unfortunately, i broke by C7 so i have to wait until i can fix it. But anyway, the 5800 is as usual a great test-bed.

Now you can load as many maps as you want and display them... its fast, its good, enjoy!

Stay tuned...

And on my 5800 it works great! Its quite fast and its nice to see ALL your maps on the screen at once without having to reload them each time! I really like this.

Now i am adding some stuff, like manual calibration, map enabling/disabling and such... Lets say i plan to release a 0.0.3 Technology Preview by 31 May 2011....

Update: i added also support for deleting loaded maps, edit the map title, and enabling/disabling a map. The next thing needed is support for manual calibration...

I finally localed and fixed an annoiyng bug in Track@Way 0.0.2 which lead to slowness...Yes, QDialog is definitely BROKEN on Symbian^3... So i implemented my exec() slot and now it is back fast as usual.

I am working on improving the maps too, i had some good ideas on a double cache which sdould let you display an unlimited number of maps on screen damn fast...

... but since i will be in vacation for a couple of days, you will have to wait :)

Adding map support...

Work is progressing well.

I am adding map support and its taking much less than expected. Ok, i am mostly copying code from FreeTrack just making the minimum changes to overcome the most significant limits and add the new functions. But i want to add map support quickly, then improve next.

Stay tuned...

Update: while there is still a LOT to optimize, i am very proud to annunciate that MAPS WORKS!!!

Well i expect to find more quirks and bugs, but at least on the emulator, maps works!

Now, to real device testing...

Stay tuned...

Ok, on the device it is working... but on Symbian^3 is incredibly SLOW.... much slower than S60v5???

Two new releases in one day!

Yesterday i released both FreeTrack 1.3.32 and Track@Way 0.0.2tp!

FreeTrack 1.3.32 finally fixes the "unable to calibrate map in landscape mode" and removes some links which where forbidden by OVI store (sites which had some advertisement unaccepted by OVI). So go get it from www.trackaway.org and enjoy!

Track@Way Technology Preview 0.0.2 instead its a big leap forward for Track@Way. The LiveTrack is now again usable, GPX can be imported and exported, waypoints are back, and you and also NAVIGATE to a waypoint... Autosave is back too, so you can actually USE Track@Way now, but it still lacks the map.

The tracks created by Track@Way are already much better than FreeTrack (thanks to DOP calculations!!!), so if you like you can use both at the same time, FreeTrack with the map and Track@Way tracking...

Now, this will be a "long" weekend due to my electoral activities in my home city, so be patient but rest assured i will spend a lot of time thinking on how to start working on maps, which are the next big step i am going to add...

(i also got some ideas on routes, but this will be another time)

My tests yesterday where very much positive. So i decided to add one more thing to the upcoming TP0.0.02...

Waypoint navigation.

You will be able to select a waypoint and Track@Way will help you navigate to it by showing direction and distance to it!

Consider it to be "experimental" at the moment, and it will only work for LiveTrack waypoints. But its a start!

Since yesterday TP0.0.2 is working. I am working on fixing many small glitches, so that friday i will update an usable version.

Stay tuned...

Toward Track@Way TP0.0.2...

I have good news...

So far the LiveTrack with support for multi-legs is ready (expect lots of bugs...), and loading/saving GPX is again operative. Now output is GPX 1.1 (not 1.0 anymore) and all custom tags are managed as <extensions>. Also, DOP is properly saved and precision is an extension, now.

I have also rigged a "preliminary" version of the TracksManager, so you can load extra tracks and see them.

Some more debugging and some new icons, and you should have the 0.0.2 release by friday!

Ok, as of today i plan to finally fix load/save the LiveTrack. Yesterday night i also added (finally) back the drawing of the LiveTrack on the Tracking Table!

I still need to fix the waypoints list and edit dialog... so some more patience is required.

Anyway, stay tuned.. because next week the Track@Way 0.0.2 Technology Preview will be released!

Today i have updated the LiveTrack dialog, now it will show legs and waypoints too, and some info on the track.

I found out some bugs in autosave management, so i need to fix those. Also, i need to axtivate the waypoints dialog page (right now its always empty), then i need to write/copy the QPainter code for drawing on the tracxking table following the new more Qt-style approach.

Stay tuned...

Ok guys...
GPX files now loads! Some testing is required, but the load section works. I got misleaded and had to rewrite most of the code. Anyway now its simple enough that i like it and it "seems" to be working...

Next step is to support GPX writing...

What is going on...

I am rewriting the GPX load support...
Its taking some time, unfortunately, since i hit a couple of other problem that i am fixing too...

So stay tuned...

Post Easter update...

Hi All!
even if i did not update this blog all over the Easter break, development is proceeding. I am in the final stages of redefining the Live Track page and a new layout for TrackAway which will make things simpler and easier to access.

Live Tracks now support "legs", so you can split your track in separate sections, each one with its length and (in the future) statistical data. The new Live Track now support autosave and multiple legs.

I have also redesigned a bit the UI approach. Now there is not anymore a "selectior" dialog where all the buttons are located. On the botton of the screen there are five buttons to access the five main areas:
- GPS page
- Live Track
- Track list
- Map manager
- System buttons (screen orientation, quit, minimize...)

The buttons will be "live" so they show tracking status / gps status like today.

This is coming up much more tidier and easy to access.

Give me some more time to work on refining things... Also i need to implement support for full GPX format. After that, i will release a new TP 0.0.2 which will be, at least, usable but without maps.

Stay tuned... my guess is this release should be sometime before 16 May.

I am back in support mode...

So FreeTrack 1.3.30 might as well be released by this week (if tests are ok, it will be released on the 21/04/2011), i hope!

What is puzzling me is the "open load map/track" on screen rotate. Right now i cannot pinpoint the source for that... It seems that some extra slots gets called on screen rotation, but why? Some on-device test is mandatory here...

Got it!
Under some circumstances i did not "delete" the loadmap/loadtrack dialog box, which lingered in the back of the application... popping up when the screen is rotated! Now its fixed.

What more... i have also fixed the "aligned points" bug when using calibrated maps having all the three points on a line...

This is going to be quite some new release!!!

As an update... i was quite pissed off by having ALL the map cache showing up on my image gallery... so 1.3.30 will rename all "jpg" chunks to "ftc", so they are not picked up by the image gallery. Dont worry, you "old" cache is still good... If you rescan it, it will be "renamed" to the new cache, otherwise everything will just work...

News...

Not much work today... except that i hope i was able to greatly improve speed on Symbian^3 devices...

Stay tuned for tomorrow...

Progress...

Progress is fun...
Compass seems to be working properly (on phones which HAVE a compass)...
and the new satellite map&list is quite cool!

I am improving the controls, which is needed, specially to properly support all kinds of themes.

Stay tuned!!!

Ok, finally the new 1.3.28 has been published, both supporter and free. It was about time! What was slowing it down was the C7 Astround, which apparently DOES NOT SUPPORT Qt CONTENT.

And how on earth am i supposed to know since its a C7 device?

Well, anyway...

On the development side i added support for Compass... and finaly created the hg repository for TrackAway!

Check it out at:

hg.trackaway.org/index.cgi/trackaway i will commit before evening...

Status update...

I wanted to give you some updates.

1- OVI Store: magically somehow the Supporter China edition has been published. Its a mistery, since i just resubmitted the exact same SIS that failed. Anyway. All the others are still waiting QA on the new C7 Astound device.

2- Localizations: Euskaria has been updated, so Simplified Chinese. So i will soon package a new chinese version to be published as soon as the "official" free version is published too.

3- Development: i am testing the new configuration setup, which is quite neat: more clear and better sorted. Next will be testing the "satellites" stuff and create a nice sat display widget...

Stay tuned!

As usual, some misterious and strange happened with OVI store.

The new Supporter Lite edition has failed because "the app links to external stores and this is forbidden by the agreement". Instead, Supporter and free versions are passing with no remarks. Note that as usual those are all the SAME build.

Of course FreeTrack does not have ANY reference to any "store" whatsoever, just a link to www.trackaway.org...

Why is OVI always so erratic?

Anyway, you shuold be quite exited because development is proceeding fast (albeit a LOT of work will be required for Track@Way 1.0)... i am adding calculations for DOP to improve precision of points and also a dedicated saltellite info page which will show you all the satellites currently in use! I, at least, am excited...

Something very bad...

Unfortunately something very bad happened. The latest OVI store published FreeTrack is seriously broken and will NOT start on most phones. I am pushing quickly a fixed 1.3.28 but given the slugginesh of OVI store process do not expect an update any time soon.

I am really sorry. Meanwhile you can download the latest 1.3.28 from www.trackaway.org and enjoy a couple of serious bug fixes!

Development progress...

The idea of chaning TrackPoint to GPS_point, which will be derived from QGeoCoordinate AND discard all the drawing code its proving to be good. Also this is a good apportunity to stop using QPointF to store lat/lon, due to the annoying limit of using single precision on ARM which leads to serious precision limits.

So far so good... stay tuned!

RIght now i am investigating if using GPSBabel for GPX read/write is a good idea...

Serious bug in 1.3.25 (OVI store)

A serious bug has been discovered in release 1.3.25 from OVI store which, on some phones, make the app crash almost on startup.
A new 1.3.27 is in the way, meanwhile please download 1.3.26b from www.trackaway.org!

Being a bit fed up with working with other stuff, i am back coding for Track@Way release 1.0 (which was previously called FreeTrack release 2.0)....

Right now i started working on replacing the TrackPoint classes with a GPS_point class which is DERIVED from QGeoCoordinate. The idea is to go a bit more Qt-like (am i crazy?) and create my own derived QPainter and put all the real drawing code in there.

So the TrackPoint is now simply a GPS_point...

New release and many news...

Hi all!

Today i have RELEASED FreeTrack 1.3.26!

The most important news is support for time and distance based tracking methods! Now you can track points based on elapsed time or walked distance.... Enjoy!

Meanwhile, i have been moving all pointers from OVI store and from the Google Code web site to the new web sites:
http://www.trackaway.org
http://trac.trackaway.org
http://forums.trackaway.org

There is also some news from the Android port... It has been started! Right now, its 100% experimental and also, its stopped. Yes, i need to wait for BogDan Vatra to release the next SDK for Necessitas before the QtMobility libraries will be portable to real devices. So for now, i can tell you that IT COMPILES out of the box (amazing job BogDan and friends!) but i am still unable to deploy it.

Stay tuned...

So far... its good!

FreeTrack is approaching 11.000 downloads!

It might not be much compared to Android numbers, but there are many facts that make me think its a LOT under Nokia OVI Store.

For example, this week FreeTrack is n.6 best seller (most downloads) app! (at least for Nokia 5800, probably for all S60/Symbian^3?) in the Sports category!

Anyway, i will soon publish another 1.3 release featuring:
- updated translations
- added a small circle to mark the current position more clearly
- some minor twichtes.

I am trying to build the android development environment, and so far i am installing qt-mobility... lets see...

Anyway do not despair: soon the next development cycle will begin!

What's new...

So far i have been busy setting up the new site:
www.trackaway.org

the forums:
forums.trackaway.org

the Trac:
trac.trackaway.org...

While i did no coding this past week, much have been paved for the new development round...

stay tuned!!!

Future of FreeTrack

I am giving my toughts about FreeTrack future...

Right now release 1.3 is out and is collecting many suggestions and support... and from this feedback its clear to me that this software has to go forward and become something more.

It is assured that this is free-software and its released under GPL... this is to clear out any doubts from anybody's mind!

Anyway, i come to some conclusions:
1- FreeTrack is a bad choice for a name
2- A dedicated server with all kind of cool stuff is required
3- OVI store is mandatory as far as Nokia support
4- Support for Android is also mandatory (given Nokia choices)
5- Some parts needs to be rewritten

So, lets analyze one by one

Freetrack is a bad choice for a name

Who likes it? I dont, too much, because it dound cheap. Moreover, Free Track is abused and there are other projects out there (within completely different context) which share the name. This forced me to use QtFreeTrack in many situations, which leads to confusion with FreeTrack, wuich is the real name.

So we need to move from FreeTrack name... And we come to this new awesome name: Track@Way, track YOUR Way the Way you Want!

What do you think? Does it rings more than FreeTrack, uh?


A dedicated server with all kind of cool stuff is required

It comes easily that, moved away from FreeTrack name, this project needs its own space on the web. Google Code is cool, very easy, a great starting point... but we need forums, a full trac with milestone support... a REAL web site for a bit of show off... and some more ideas i am churming on in my mind (like showing off some FreeTrack, or Track@Way, functionalities online).

So i got the domain (trackaway.org), got some good and cheap space (afterall, i didnt make not even enouogh money to cover for Nokia's initial fees back then when i registered, so its not like we can spend money right now)... and applied some of my sysadmin skills.

Now we have forums, experimental trac, HG repository up and running... while the actual move to this trac and hg repo will take some time, the forums are already hitting some traffic and i expect more after, with new 1.3.25 release, the link will be also on the app itself.


OVI store is mandatory as far as Nokia support

I dont like this too much, but there it is: today either you are on a app store or you are out. And we are on OVI, and this is good. Download rate is pretty impressive (for OVI store at least), and so it will always be supported even if the "cut" they take from the SUPPORTER releases is simply a theft and make me wonder.

Supporting OVI is a bit a pain, but its necessary. As a side point, shall we support also Nokia N900? Its a relaly SMALL market and a diying one too, so is the effort worth it? let me know what do you think.

Support for Android is also mandatory

So basically Nokia said Symbian is dead and Qt is dead-in-the-water as far as Nokia entire future. Very good (please tell me which is the idiot i can metaforically shot to, for this decision), this has the only meaning that FreeTrack is dead within one year unless Qt gets actively ported to some other mobile device and FreeTrack too. Because no way i am rewriting all the codebase to some C#, ObjectiveC or whatever.

Luckily some great guy (and not only him) called BogDan Vatra is working actively on a good Android port of Qt, which is already working with apps in the Android market (so much for the slowliness and awkwardness of OVI store)... So we just need to wait for QtMobility to be a little bit more "ready" on Android and we can have an Android port too.

This port will pose some interesting challenges: like real multi-resolution support (now its there, but never tested), multi-device support and so on.


Some parts needs to be rewritten

The biggest area which needs much more work is the map area. I want to have a "map repository" inside FreeTrack (Track@Way), so that you "import" maps, and they are automatically available at each restart. You do not need anymore to "load" them, you just "see" them. Some way to sort between maps which covers the same area is required tough, and also some map management to manage inported maps, cache and so on. Its a lot of work, but very important and thats where i am going to go as soon as possible.

Also, the track code needs to be rewritten. It has to be exploded in differen classes, made more robust, more easy to unterstand, better overall...

Well, many things needs to be done. I would also like to implement a class to manage all different ways to express cohordinates... And use it troughout FreeTrack (Track@Way)...

So a lot of coding is required. Put this toghether support for Android... and there you have a Track@Way 1.0 with enough juice to rock you out of your mind!

So...

What do you think? I need your feedback and your inputs guys...

New 1.3.24 release

Today i am releasing FreeTrack 1.3.24.

Main bugfix and enhancements:
- added language selection from config dialog
- improved gpx save speed
- improved breadcrumbs export
- added links to the forums
- added warning when opening maps with invalid filenames

go get it!

News news news!

Hi All!
just to let you know that there is a bright new forum here:

http://forums.trackaway.org

This and more great news will be coming...

Slow progress... but progress...

Hi all!
i have been oberated at work recently, so not many news here so far. This does not mean that development or progress has stopped tough... I am refining many ideas, and i can assure you there are many big news coming up...

Right now 1.3 is consolidating (1.3.23 on OVI right now) always more bugfree than before. Your feedback is flowing great, and so ideas and new suggestions.

The only thing i can anticipate right now is that there will be a dedicated forum soon...

Take care...

New update on 1.3

Guys,
thanks to your important feedback i fixed three bugs on map calibration:
1- latitude loaded with incorrect sign for WESTward latitudes
2- map calibration incorrect when two points are vertically aligned
3- some manually edited cal files would not load

I have released it as 1.3.22 on the web site and will release shortly on OVI too.

Status on Release 1.3

After finding one more bug (and fixing it on the web site release), FreeTrack 1.3 is officially out.

On OVI Store things are a big more complicated as usual. The free 1.3 release is still at 0% progress while the SUPPORTER release is at 99,3% done since two days.

This means that maybe the SUPPORTER release shall be out by this week, while the free release wont be out until at least mid-march.

Sorry guys! By the way, i have no idea why OVI is publisinh the supporter first, since i have commited to QA after the free release.

Anyway, meanwhile get it free from the website!

FreeTrack 1.3 is OUT!

Hi all!

thanks to the many of you who supported me and gave feedback, FreeTrack 1.3.14 is officially out! ITs not a beta anymore, its the real thing!

Soon also on OVI, i hope.

Updates on FreeTrack...

I am quite busy at the moment, but i keep working on FreeTrack to reach the goal of releasing 1.3 by the end of this month.

Latets news are:
- solved a bug in reading PNG images
- added a "progress" dialog when loading autosaved files
- improved management of huge tracks overall. Now managing over 20.000 points should be pretty fast
- Updated french, chinese, dutch and italian translations
- Added preliminary polish translation
- Added support for OZI explorer MAP files with UTM calibration points inside

So, stay tuned for the RC1 by friday...

ps: due to the latets Nokia news, i started looking into android-lighouse which is a port of Qt to Android. I do not want to abandon Symbian but i guess its time to keep the eyes open and start porting to other architectures... Since i do not want to get rid of Qt, this excludes automatically Windows Phone7 and derivatives.

FreeTrack BETA11

I am ready to release FreeTrack 1.3 BETA 11!

It is the final beta including the graphics.

Enjoy!

Some good news...

So people...

yesterday i actually FIXED the map bug, this time i can double confirm it.

So on top of the nasty floating point precision problem (which i solved by multiplying by 10000.0 all the values and dividing the results) there was a second, ever worse, problem again linked to a bug in Qt. When assigning the proper coefficient to the QTransform, on Symbian the resulting matrix would be wrong.

I solved it by calculating the inverse matrix instead, then "inverting" it. It works!

So, whats now? I plan to rewrite the filedialog to support KinetiK scroll, then issue 1.3.0 BETA 11 and start a two weeks worth test campaign. I will be traveling to the US too, so, its good for some extended testing abroad.

Stay tuned!

Map bug fixed, for real...

Hi all!
Well, sorry for being silent... but i had been quite busy fixing... the map offset bug!

Now, its fixed for real. The problem was due to the way Symbian handles floating points (= in software, mostly)... It had a sistematical error which i was able to fix by multplying all the lat and lon values by a fixed constant (1000000.0), then de-multiplying it.

So, stay tuned for BETA 11 soon enough!

Also, thanks to a far away supported i got aware of a bug related to negative cohordinates which is now fixed...

Map bug fixed, i hope?

After a LOT of studying and thinking,. i hope i finally fixed the bug with the map being drawn with incorrect offset. As you know, its due to the specific BUG in Qt code for Symbian S60v5 drawing, so its hard to bypass.

Anyway, since the bug is triggered by scaling the painter of less than 1, i fixed it by removing the scale from the painter and "scaling" the image before painting it.

Its a bit slower, unfortunately, but it seems to be working... I will release a 1.3.0 BETA 10 today with the fix for your testing.

The Map Problem

Ok, i am hard-working on this one...
The problem is due to my use of a very simple "projection", actually too simple! This, of course, introduces a "distortion" which become bigger as latitude increases or decreases. The solution? I am still studying the problem, but it might seems to be to implement libproj4 in FreeTrack and select a suitable map projection (proably an equal-area cylindrical projection?)...

Time to fix the map drawing bug...

As some of you already know, there is a very annoyng BUG in map drawing (again, due to the same old bug in transformed qpainter) which introduces a "traslation scaling" on the map...

Its time to address and try to fix it...

New UI improvements

Ok guys,
yesterday's work brought a few UI changes (improved status bar, moved LiveTrack buttons to switcher page). Today i am fixing the rotation. Everything works fine in auto-rotation, but in "fixed" there are some problems. It looks like that Qt is delivering a fucked-up size when manually rotating the screen via Symbian call...

Update: it took me quite some effort to fix this rotation issues... Thanks to the quite messed up Qt-Symbian compatibility... Anyway, now it works great. I also fixed most of the text strings, so in a couple of days the translators will be able to start working!

New week...

Last weekend i used 1.3.0 BETA9 and come up with this nice lists of things to change/fix:
- remove background from help icon
- make so that FTPushButton draws differently when its disabled
- LiveTrack does not reload title, description, color and size
- set green as first color for tracks (my preference...)
- Make status bar two lines think in portrait to have space
- when closing switch page, go to last used page
- move livetrack buttons from GPS to switch page for faster access

This is what i will be working on this week, tighether with finishing help texts and similar stuff...

Getting ready for 1.3.0 BETA9

Hi all...
i finally fixed properly the new cool FTWidgetList, it works great also on the phone now.

I have moved the speed calculations under a flag in the configuration page, so you can disable it if you dont like it!

I will release a beta 9 today, with so many UI improvements you are not going to recognize FreeTrack at all!

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA 9 just released! Go get it...

The challenge..

... today, is implementing drag&drop swapping and deleting of items in the new FTWidgetList widget!

When you tap for longer than 0.5sec  a widget you will get into "moving" state... Then you can move the widget before or after another or move it to a "dutbin" icon to delete it...

This is the idea...

Update: ok people...  i got it working! Its still a bit "rugged", but it works! You can reorder the widgets with drag&drop, and you can drag the widget to delete! Still a lot to do to have it working "nice", but its all fine-tuning.

Tomorrow i will release a BETA 9 with all these new UI goodies...

New UI on the way

Yesterday's work has been good, i like the resulst but there is some tuning to fix.

Anyway, today i am replacing QLabel with an incredibly simpler FTLabel and i plan to work on a cool kinetik enabled widget list...

Update: i managed to create my own FTLabel which is light and neat... i really like it! Also, i am working on a more complex FTWidgetList, something that let you do kinetik scrolling and drag&drop reorder on a list of widgets... The most difficult stuff is sorted out and at least the scrolling and adding is now working...

Today...

I have been quite busy... but not inactive!

I am hard-working on the new user-interface. Today i have fixed the new cool "kinetik scrolling" text viewer which i am in the process of deployng all around FreeTrack...

Next steps will see a custom widget also for lists (with kinetik scroll too!) and more!

Some testing done during the weekend on the field made me ralize that there is a bug in the drawing code, still. I like to blame this bug again on Nokia and the bad Qt drawing bug on pen's < 1, but anyway, i need to fix it again.

This time i will try to change approach. TrackTable will calculate the required transformation (Scale+Translation) but after that, it will not be applyed to the painter. Instead, the matrix will be passed to the paintLayer functions and THEY will have to apply it to the points to be drawn. This in theory could lead to some more slowlyness, but afterall there shouldnt be more calculations than having the matrix applied to the painter... We will see.

Update: the new track drawing code seems to be working pretty nice... Why didnt i tought about this before? Well, now its done... And i am working on the map drawing code.

Update: done also for the map drawing... And tested on device: looks nice and its also faster!

Now i am adding support for UTM imports on IMP files.

Update: Everything works not so bad... I am going to release BETA 8 soon...

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA8  has been released NOW! Go get it! It has the new great drawing code!

Stay tuned!

Testing in progress...

I spent some time yesterday testing the latets code and i am quite happy with it.

So, besides minimal fixing and improvements (like bigger icon for the waypoints...) all i will now do is implement a new help interface. I want to develop a custom widget to substitute the incredibly AWFUL tab widget (QTabWidget) which really really sucks on Symbian (slow, difficult to use, unfit for the screen interface...)...

Update: i wrote my first custom widget! (not true really, but for this scope yes)! Its calle FTPushButton and (as now) just replaces a QPushButton displaying a QIcon. It works great, its very lightweight too! I am replacing it in FreeTrack to let you test in in Beta 7 which, i hope, i will be releasing shortly, for your enjoyment over the weekend!

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA 7 has been just released! Go grab it and test over the weekend! Your feedback is as always very much appreciated.

After BETA6

AS you know beta6 is out.
Doing some testing i found out a couple of nasty situations where the WaitDialog will get into a loop reloading itself, which is NOT good. So today i rewrote some of that code, improving also a bit the speed, and added a couple of nice things that crossed my mind.

Like, now, you can import IMP (CompeGPS/TwoNav) calibration files for maps and loading a map will automatically import any MAP or IMP file already existing if they have the same filename as the image file. Cool, uh?

Now back on tracks, i will keep working on the missing graphical goodies.

Update: after a lot of work i finally found out hot to print the waypoint name on the tracking table. Its simple.. how stupid i was! You just need to get the correct point to write it in screen coordinates:

  QPointF orig_pos = position * painter.combinedTransform();

Then you reset the painter transformation:

    painter.setTransform( QTransform(), false );

And, last, just print the text:

    painter.drawText( orig_pos + QPointF( 6.0, 6.0), name );

Update:

After a long struggle i decided to get rid of WaitDialog and do everything within WorkerProcess.. I hope, in this way, to be able to send the dialog full screen, as it seems i am not able to send WaitDialog full screen on the phone...

One step closer to 1.3.0...

Yesterday work was good. PNG support is implemented and operative... Also, i fixed one more bug in the extra_zoom of libjpeg, which is not bad.

The new chunk management code is simpler and faster, and this is good too... But not as good as i hoped. This make me more strong in advocating the map management changes i want for 1.4.0, so stay tuned about that!

Anyway, today i am struggling with a workaround for the annoyng "dots drawn as lines and lines drawn as squares" bug that keep hitting, and that Nokia is still investigating. Since this bug is inside Qt code, i cannot do much besides a couple of workarounds.

1) Find the "precision" that causes the problem and "force" lines to be longer than that. This might not be very nice, but if it works its the fastest workaround.

2) Rewrite the drawing code: do not apply trasnformation to the painter but to the drawing points instead. This can be arranged, but its more work and i am bit reluctant to go this way

Lets see... Stay tuned!

Update: i have solved the main problem using a QPainterPath instead of a QVector of QLinesF... Dont ask why, but this way it works and the Qt bug is not triggered...

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA 6 is out! Go get it with all these great improvements!

Libpng...

Work is progressing in integrating libpng...

I come out with a better algorythm to draw the cached chunks. Right now it works, but when you zoom out/in to a different "zoom level" it will cause a reload of all the nine chunks, which is SLOW. I want to change so that at any time it load only a few chunks (the visible ones). This will cause more reloads while you pan, but it should be faster on average...

Update: i finished implementing the libpng reader, it works, but maybe some more testing can be useful.

Update: i rewrote the chunk management code in LayerMap, it seems to be faster, i am testing it right now!

New week, new news...

Hi all!
Still no news for the bug in Qt...

Anyway, i found out that to keep the screen always on you need the "ReadDeviceData" capability which cannot be acquired for "self signed" applications, so i cannot distribute this function from the web site. I added some #define to let it build only for the next OVI store release.

Update: i clean a bit some libjpeg files, which where unneeded. I am also working on fixing the fact that sometimes a map chunk is not properly displayed, like it is not loaded...

Update2: i am also thinking about adding libpng support... guess what, maybe its faster than libjpeg for chunks?

I am in the process of fixing the Image classes to add PNG support. Libpng does not seems to be that a bad boy, so i decided to waste my time on it. Also in the hope that it will be faster than libjpeg...

Anyway, i am adding a generic Image class with a ImageLoad static method. You call that and you get an Image* back which can be of any ImageJpeg o ImagePng class type...

Found a bug in Qt for Symbian...

hi guys!
Yesterady an user reported a nasty bug... It seems that when i am drawing points and lines close to the limit of the (fairly limited) precision of Symbian's float, Qt get confused and paints lines instead of points and even worse insteads of lines.

So far, the only workaround seems to be: avoid tracks with points too close toghether!
(i will try Qt 4.7.1 later on to check if, maybe, that solves it...)

I opened a bug un Nokia (QTBUG-16632) but still no news from them.

Anyway, there is another bug affecting the current beta4 which is fairly hard to pinpoint... and leads to a crash. I will be checking on that today.

Oh, by the way, i added the "altitude correction" feature yesterday too.

Update: i am working on a strange bug which shows only on Symbian device and which causes BETA4 to crash sometimes when tracking. I had to implement a way to "inject" fake GPS points on the phone.

Meanwhile, i added the "quick autosave" feature. Now if you autosave the live track you will never loose a point.

Update: released 1.3.0 BETA 5 which adds all these new things and fix, i hope, the crash on track bug in BETA4!

A new beta by today...

... since of course beta 3 introduced a new bug: it crashes when starting to record a new track. It does not if you load a live track first, then start recording.

I fixed it today, and also added support for map zooms over 8, up to 256. So now you can actually load maps up to 64k x 64k pixels! (whether this is feasible with current computers its hard to say, since its a over 34GB image...)

Forther work for today, i hope, is adding the vertical correction feature (to add a fixed offset to the reported altitude)... and of course the save tracks as delta.

Stay tuned!

update: beta 4 is out it fixes that bug!

Planning for 1.4.0...

Yes, 1.3.0 is not yet out (and BETA 2 has a couple of nasty bugs) but i have added a small roadmap to 1.4.0.

1.4.0 will feature a centralized map storage... So you will "import" your maps into the storage and then you can simply see them on the tracking table when you move on them, without having to manually load them each time. This will improve loading times, make things easier, and open the road to implement "map layers" like OpenStreetMap of GoogleMaps...

Maybe 1.4.0 will also feature some UI changes, i hope so, we will see.

Stay tuned! I plan to release a BETA3 today to fix a couple of stupid bugs in BETA2 which affects track rendering.

Update: i spent some time with valgrind to debug the crashing libjpeg problem... I found a couple of issues in my code: the first was related to the use of new[] paired with delete operator instead of delete[]... The second was more tricky. I was using a QFile object, then passing it over to fdopen() for jpeglib, and i forgot to call fclose on the FILE* data... causing another small memory leak.... Now are fixed, lets see if this solves the crash...

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 beta 3 is out. Please go fetch it! It finally fixes the map loading crash bug and also the couple of minor regressions on beta 2!

Progress...

Yesterday i fixed the most serious bug in 1.3.0 BETA1, the autosave not working. I improved a bit how it works, now it will ask, on exit, to save the live track only if the autosave option is not selected.

I fixed some more things, including the speed of drawing thousands of points and the annoying "select button not enabled" in the save track file dialog.

I think i will release a BETA2 later on today.

Stay tuned...

Update: i have improved a lot the drawing speed of huge tracks! Now i store a separate list of QVector<QLineF> and draw it in one go with QPainter::drawLines()... This is MUCH faster than before using a for to paint a serie of drawLine( point, point)...

Update: FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA 2 is out! Go fetch it from the google code page!

New Year news...

Hi all!
First of all, a good news: FreeTrack has been published on OVI store, finally, just at the beginning of 2011. I would like to find a way to publish statistics, let see what i can do.

These past ten days have been very useful for FreeTrack. I did a lot of on-the-field testing and found out many bugs and improvements that i need to introduce into 1.3.0 to make it a very good next release. This means that its official release date will be pushed further, but also means that current BETA1 is quite good (yes, at least one major bug you must be aware of) if you need huge maps support, or you can stay with 1.2.0 otherwise.

Some things i will work on for 1.3.0:

• Lat/Lon are inverted in the GPS data dialog (not big deal, its pretty obvious...)
• Long tracks (>1000points) are VERY slow to draw, this needs to be fixed
• There must be a vay to compensate for altitude offset (my is always 22 meters below)
• serious bug: live track is NOT automatically saved... so ALWAYS ALWAYS save your tracks manually before closing FreeTrack 1.3.0 BETA1!

So, stay tuned, in the next days i will work on these issues.