[Beta] MapperLive v0.6.0 - Real Time Mapping, Multi-Language Support
 

Attached is my latest programming project, MapperLive. Requires .Net v2.0 or higher.

MapperLive, as the name suggests, will show real-time feedback as you map. It will also output to SVG. The output should be nearly identical to the latest mapper2 version.

It uses all the same commands as Mapper2, plus a few new ones:

• /em start new map line
  Ends the current line (picks up the pen)
• /em color [color name]
  Changes the color of the current and subsequent lines to [color name], e.g. 'black', 'blue', 'green', etc.If color name is not set, resets draw color to black.
• /em width [Line Width (#.#)]
  Changes the width of the current and subsequent lines to[Line Width]. If no Line Width is supplied, resets width back to 2.0.
• /em mapgroup [Layer Name]
  Creates a new group of lines. Each group will be on it`s own layer in the svg file. Use to separate floors or areas when mapping.If Layer Name is not set, defaults to "Layer n", where n is the number of the mapgroup.

MapperLive also has basic zoom and navigation controls. With the Move Tool, left click and drag. With the Zoom tool, Left Click zooms in, Right Click zooms out. Yes, I know the zoom is funky, I'm working on it.

You can toggle the visibility of layers as you are working. See the layer control at the bottom of the interface.

To see realtime feedback, open the logfile you will use (File->Open) and check "auto-parse". As you add lines, they will be immediately displayed. The display will also auto-scale to fit the lines.

NOTE
This is a Beta. I have not tested it extensively and it's possible that it will explode, kick your cat, etc. No warranty expressed or implied.

TODO

• Multi-Language Support (Parse/Commands Only)
• Clean up Interface
• Make Zooming work more intitively, include scale drop-down
• Add Map Extents to display, limit pan, zoom.
• Add LayerName command to set first layer name

Your feedback is welcome.

EDIT: New Version 0.5 Below

I was hoping you would do a GUI one. I started one a while back based on you mapper math but lost interest.

Yeah, gm9 sent me a copy of your code and I was inspired.

I've just learned about matrix transformations which make the math super duper easy. I'll be posting my source code once I have something closer to final.

For me, the hardest part of this project is the UI work, not the math. Trying to make it intuitive and easy to use is hard.

MapperLive 0.5.0
 

New Version 0.5.0
New Version Below

New Features

• Multi-Lingual Parse Support
  Now in place for Russian, German, and French. MapperLive will parse the log files produced by these languages. It's easy to add your own favorite language by creating and appropriate .ini file.
  
  Select your language file from the File->Settings Dialog.
• Mouse Wheel Zoom Support
  Mouse Wheel now zooms in and out. Zoom is roughly (but not totally) centered on the location of the mouse
• Other Zoom Stuff
  • Drop Down and custom Zoom Levels
  • Right Click = Zoom in
  • Right Click Drag = Zoom to selected area
• Dragging movement no longer allows you to drag the map off the screen.
• Greater persistence of user settings, window position, etc.
• Display
  • Border around displayed map area
  • Customizable map area and display area colors (in Settings)

Fixes

• SVG Output in counties which use a comma as a decimal now works properly
• Various file and stability related crashes have been fixed

To Do

• Create Help Files, Multi-Language and English
• Clean up Layers Interface
• Add "groupname" or "layername" type command

I would love to have any feedback or feature requests you may have. The small amount of feedback I've already gotten enabled me to fix a bug that I could never have caught myself.

I couldn't get it to do anything.. turned on logging browsed to my log file and started getting some /locs.. Nothing showed on map.. I checked autoparse and tried again but nothing.. English is not an option in the dropdown. I know its the default but /shrug. And its in .NET. :P

I got the following if I scrolled the mouse wheel while over where the image should be.

Done some testing :P

The zoom, you could zoom out way below 0% making it a tiny dot only.
I think there is no reason to be able to zoom below 100% as it still fits if you make the window smalest possible.

You can't edit the Style Name, this is not good if there is no styletag to be found in log.

There is no limit to zoom in, you can zoom so long that you get an error with a big red cross on the screen, and there is no way to fix it by reloading a file, you have to close the program.

The SVG file works fine now. :)
It still says MapperLive v0.1
There is no Min ,Max elev. values.

And as Landiin says there is no way to change back to english if you select any other language , you are stuck :(

Same as Landiin, does nothing, getting the same error message as he does when scrolling on the (empty) main window. Loading a log does not change anything.

Also I get this error when trying to load a language file:
EDIT: After editing a language file filename into the .config file by hand and then switching to that language file in the application it works, but only if that language is selected. Funny enough, everything stays in English though.

Regarding the zoom issue jnils reported, I cannot reproduce that, somewhere after a couple of million zoom percentage it simply grays out but you can zoom back or select a different zoom level from the dropdown and it works fine.

Trying to save an .svg works but gives this error if the .svg extension is not associated with any program on the system:
The ZoneRect in it seems to be messed up completely though, maybe an issue with a comma as a decimal separator?

Regarding the .jpg export: shouldn't it rather be a transparent .png or .gif? And include the zonerect as well?

When it grays out you have to zoom some more :P

I did get the zoom error to if i try to zoom before a log is selected, but as the file is reloaded every time you open the program, it have only happend ones.

You should disable zoom value editing unless you skipp the custom mode and let the user type a value direct.

I have incorrectly characterized the "Language" support. I have changed the label to read 'Secondary Parse Language', which is more accurate. I have no desire to add multi-language to the interface, as it's a pain in the butt and I just don't speak any other languages.

I'll add some min and max values to the zoom level. Also, if you use the drop-down zoom select it should ALWAYS recenter.

I'm making the Style Name user editable.

Fixed the version display.
I plan to add min/max elevation values for each layer. I just need to figure out how to present that information.

As I mentioned above, the language is secondary, so English will always work. The language support is for the Parsing ONLY.

I'll add some error checking and limits on when you can scroll/zoom so it's not possible to zoom on an empty file.

The language support is for the Parsing ONLY.

Looks like I have to add some additional error checks when you have no default language file.

I'll take a look at this. I was pretty sure the outputs were right. Note that it is not actually outputting a "zonerect', just the coordinates of the upper right and lower left corners of the map.

I have not decided if I want to officially include Image output as an option. It's kinda useless because you still need to do line cleanup. If I do include it in he final release, I will add an interface with size, format, and preview type options.

I forgot to mention:
Feature

• Drag and Drop support for log files
  Drop your log file anywhere on the interface and it will open it up. This is the same as doing a File->Open and selecting the file.

Yes I understand, but the values did look like a hundred times too high although I did not double check with the actual zonerect yet (can do though if you don't find the issue - I used the french log I sent you a while ago).

It would be helpful if I could see the actual SVG file contents, but this sounds like the same issue that jnils was having, IE: localized comma outputs. I'll see if I can nail it down.

I did another test of my autoparse code and everything seemed to be working. Was the log file on a different drive from the MapperLive exe? Did you try to open the file again with MapperLive? Are you able to parse the log with mapper2.exe? Did you have the autoparse checked prior to opening the file?

Why the hatin' on .NET? Sure, it's a PITA that you have to install the libraries, but you only have to do that once (for the most part). It is SO easy to develop with, I love it.

New Version 0.5.1
New Version Below . . .

Fixes
I think I've got fixes for most of the bugs listed above.

• Zoom now has an upper limit of 1000% and a lower limit of 50%. There shouldn't be any way to get around this.
• Zoom with no map loaded will no longer cause a crash.
• Loading a language with no map loaded should no longer cause a crash.
• Auto-Loading the SVG file is now an option and the code checks if there is a file association for SVG prior to launching.
• Disabled the ability to edit the zoom drop-down
• Disabled the ability to edit the language select drop-down

Features

• I've added a "Clear" button which clears the current map and the logfile listed.
• SVG auto-load is now optional and off by default (Setting Menu).
• Map Style Name is now user editable. Detecting it in the log file will overwrite anything that was typed.

Unable to Reproduce

• Auto-Parse not working (see prior message)
• SVG min/max numbers orders of magnitude too big.
  This may be related to some culture setting, but I double checked my code and it should force the output to US culture settings for the SVG output. I ran the sample french input file you provided. I'd like to see the actual .svg output, as it may have some clues for me.

The UL and LR vaules is missing the comma and i think UL Y is the same as LR Y or the otherway around :P

There is no limit to how much text you can enter in Style Name, you can fill it with hundreds of chars.

There version string is wrong again , you should consider using a constant :P

New Version 0.5.2
http://www.bellumaeternus.com/mapper...Live_0.5.2.zip

Ok, I had the association check backwards (d'oh), and I didn't check it prior to actual launch. I now do, and I've wrapped a Try block around the launch code, just in case.

I'll take it under consideration.

I'm not sure that I want to. I suppose it's easy enough to do, I just have to save it when I close, but I need to make sure to only reload it if it's the same file. I'll see what I can do.

Yeah, I figured out what I was doing wrong with the auto-detect. That should be fixed now. I also added the capability to remember the last used logfile directory, which I also added to the drag and drop.

Ok, I think I finally have this one licked. I can't auto-detect the setting of the file because it may have mixed languages. What I am doing, now, is to force the program to use US settings and I do a search and replace on the comma, replacing it with a period. When I had changed my system settings to fr-FR, I actually got an exception, so I'm not sure how it even worked on your system at all.

What I want to occur is that the files will always be handled identically, regardless of the country they are in. That way I can write my code uniformly and just move everything to a single standard.

Anyway, check out the fixes.

Thank you for continuing to hit this with a hammer. I'm getting better code because of it.

Haha! I have already fixed both of these issues (I think). See version 0.5.2. I was actually using the code from the EQ2MAP updater, but what I didn't realize is that it uses the first, second and FOURTH numbers in the revision field, not the first second and third.

Well, as long as it doesn't cause a crash . . . :P

I'll see about adding some limits there in the next version.

Nice fixes, found ony 2 things.

1. If you move a map to the edge of the screen and reload a new log, it don't re-center.
2. The zoom vaule don't change the first click you zoom out even if the picture gets smaler.

Likely explanation is that I'm not French and that I never tried with that setting. :)

One way to deal with it would be to split it up while regex parsing, i.e. search for something like (-?\d+)[,.](\d{2} to pull both parts of the decimal in separately regardless of the actual separator used.

Will do. :)
EDIT: Seems to work now. Good job.

It's what I do best. :D

Great feedback guys, I really appreciate it. I think that the code is stable enough right now that I'll work on the next major revision. My focus for the next release will be additional information provided to the user about what the program is doing. I'll be adding status bars updates, etc. I'm also going to focus on getting the layers interface to work better, display more information, and have a cleaner look and feel.

The 0.5.0 release showed me that I probably need to do some code reorginization. I need to better encapsulate my parser and mapdata classes so they can't GET into bad states like they were. I ended up putting a lot of band aids on them which really need to be turned into changes to the class structure.

Looking forward to hammer the bugs you'll put in doing that. :D j/k

New Version 0.6.0
http://www.bellumaeternus.com/mapper...Live_0.6.0.zip

New Features

• New Layers Interface - Pretty Drop Down box
• New "Extents" info display - also a pretty drop down box
• New Command: /em groupname <My Name Here>
  Allows you to set the name of the first layer. Has not been translated to other languages
• Status Bar now shows last command and other statuses
• Status Bar now has Line and Point Counts, Current Color, and Current Line Weight
• You can't see it, but the underlying structure has been largely rewritten to make it a bit cleaner. This is mostly to make the code a bit more presentable and makes me feel better. It may have also reduced the number of stupid bugs.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed parse error when numbers exceeded 1000 in english and other languages.
• Fixed the scaling of the Extents lines so they are no longer unreasonably big in the SVG output.
• re-added the min/max z values in the SVG output.

Random Thoughts
I'm pretty comfortable with the current feature set. I have a couple other ideas up my sleeve, but I don't know how useful they'd be in the long run. This basically covers the feature set of the old Mapper2, plus a couple of bells and whistles. It should be easier to use and work with Unicode and other languages and stuff.

I'm away next week, so it'll probably be a bit before I put out another version, except for any immediate bug fixes needed for this one.

Possible Features
Shout if anything here catches your fancy.

• SVG Output Options
  Maybe add the ability to output each layer as a seperate file. The data structures exist to enable this, just have to write the code.
• Image output options
  IE: Background color, Transparent, Size options, draw extents, etc.
• Display Features
  • Highlight last point
  • Highlight current line
• New Input Command: Circle from 3 Points
  • It's possible to determine the center and radius of a circle that passes through 3 points. I am thinking about adding vector circle support. You would just say "/em start a circle" followed by 3 points representing the edges of the circle.
• Your Feature Here
  If it's interesting enough, and doable, I'll consider it.

Feature proposal, unless you have it already: an undo command.

/em undo [#]

The optional parameter [#] indicating the amount of log lines that should be undone.

I'm not doing maps but I can see that being useful. :)

You could try to make the line thinner as it flotes together when you zoom in full, looks ok on the svg and jpg tho.

I can't get the autoparse to work , i have to turn it off then on again to get an update.
Might consider add a update button or make the window update when it gets focus.

I can't get the color comand to work, its black all the time, did work in mapper2.