[DogParkList] Re: MacLoggerDX Contest Log Fields

[Don Agro]

Hi Scott,

On Sunday, June 1, 2003, at 10:13  AM, B. Scott Andersen wrote:

>     "Programming is like pinball: the reward for doing it well is to 
> do it again."
>        -- old programmer's saying
>
> Well, Don, you've sure done it well. Now, look at all the people who 
> want
> you to do it again!    :-)

Heh ! I am starting to think that contesters are as fanatical as Mac 
users :)

> Don wrote:
>> I think that the constraint will be adding as much support for 
>> contesting as possible without downgrading the user experience for 
>> the DX'er.
>
> I think that this a good trade-off point. MacLoggerDX is a very nice 
> logging
> program to use on a day-to-day basis. Is has been fun to show the 
> program to
> PC-using friends because they are stunned by the elegance of the look, 
> the
> grayline map, the DX spotting stuff, and how "comfortable" the 
> interface is
> to use. I wouldn't want to give that up!

Agreed.

> Comments and suggestions by John Bastin (K8AJS) and Jonathan (G0DVJ) 
> provided
> pretty good insight into the real problem at hand. The question 
> becomes: should
> MacLoggerDX fill that need?
>
> I fall into category 2
>> 2 - people who make a serious or semi-serious attempt to improve 
>> their scores over last time and send in an individual entry to some 
>> degree of competitiveness
> and I believe that the program can modified (slightly) to handle this 
> without
> compromising the experience we have with the program day-to-day.

This is what I would like to concentrate on in the short term.

> It might also be nice if casual users, type 1 from the list
>> 1 - people who work a few QSOs in a contest and effectively give 
>> points away to the serious entrants but who probably don't bother to 
>> send in an entry themselves.
> could be encouraged to participate in contests and even turn in a log 
> (since
> we've made it so easy to do so!).

All the comments so far have been extremely useful in painting the big 
picture.
For the immediate future, I would like to concentrate on getting rid of 
any limitations in MacLoggerDX that affect Category 1 and Category 2 
contester as well as optimizing the link to your Cabrillo formatter.

> CONTROVERSIAL CONJECTURE: really, a bare bones, lighting fast, 
> multi-seat
> contesting interface might actually be better built with a CURSES 
> interface
> in a terminal windows!

Yes, my short list for a real contesting platform would include:

1) very fast central database server with record locking and contest 
specific features.
Doesn't need to be SQL, but needs to be faster than tab-delimited-text.

2) Data entry screen configured for each contest - optimized for speed, 
dupe checking etc.

I really think Category 3 contesters would be better served with a 
separate package with ADIF import/export back into MacLoggerDX.

> I'm off to the office (I'm trying to finish something before I leave
> for JavaONE in San Francisco). Sorry about not looking over the new
> software before commenting, Don. I'll try to do that tonight when I
> get back.

No problem, I'll look forward to your comments.


Best Regards,
Don Agro

D o g   P a r k   S o f t w a r e   L t d .

email: dagro@dogparksoftware.com
   www: http://www.dogparksoftware.com