Thread: Good name for Car-PC system?

Originally Posted by redheadedrod

Actually RR is closed source but that is fine. The vast majority of FE's that are out there now (other than OM) that I am aware of use older technology as you mention. RR is written in Visual Basic and I have no clue what Centrifuse is programmed in. And if you actually go through the process as a professional software engineering group would go through and produce a roadmap with all of your requirement documentation and such and build off of that in an agile style programming environment then you have a pretty good chance. If you guys are programming as a group of hobbyists and have some ideas that sound really good and a simple plan you guys will get lost in the details and although you have good intentions may not fare well. It is too big of a program to develop in a hobbyist manner. There is nothing wrong with using public domain libraries when they make sense. If you are using C# in a windows environment you may not need a lot of the libraries because C# does the work for you but there are times that it makes sense to use a library if it is a solidly built one. Other times if you can get the source code to the library it can be good because you don't need to start from scratch. Thing about using public domain libraries is that in a lot of cases people have gone over it and over it until it works well and may have been touched by many people and is already solid and efficient. So don't just decide to write everything yourself because it sounds good.

Anyhow, good luck in your quest. If I wasn't already tied up I would see if I could join your team since I am a Software Engineer Student now. I have been apart of teams and done my own "hobbyist" style programming and learning how to go beyond that now.

Ofcause, we are not doing everything from scratch, the whole music core is an open source very well known and used project that does the job. Writing that from scratch would simply be stupid

We know it is a big task to finish this, but we are certain that we will! This project, as many other, has started as a hobby project. The first goal of the project is to have the basic features working, so that we can install it in our own cars and have people do the same as a test group. We own Centrafuse and used it for some time, but everytime i sat in my car, i thought that we could do this better, so we are!

We know what we do, we are both professional .net programmers, so we know what it takes. It's a challenge, sure, but else it would not be fun, right?

Furthermore, we have allied us with a specialist in ICE here in Denmark, were we live, he knows the market and has a lot of customers.

You could go with either Car Butler or "The Butler". Then those that drive with your FE could say "I have a butler"...

Originally Posted by redheadedrod

You could go with either Car Butler or "The Butler". Then those that drive with your FE could say "I have a butler"...

I don't think that would work really well

I like the clean look to it and agree that CF does have a relatively efficient layout. I run CF myself and like it to a degree. My big problem is with consistency. One day everything works exactly as expected and the next day, things don't. For example, some days my plugins that rely on internet access will all tell me that I don't have a connection but windows tells me that I do. Some days my Market app simply disappears when I try to go back to a previous screen and I have to re-open the app. When it works as expected, I love it, but like many, I tend to hate it when it doesn't.

A few questions if you don't mind. Was that an actual screenshot of the program or just a graphical mock up? I was also curious as to the purpose of a HOME button on what appears to be a HOME screen.

I would gladly volunteer as an alpha and/or beta tester.

Its going to be hard to get others excited when you have great skins like that already available to RR(elite 2 and DFX5 for example).....just saying!!!

Well he did say it wasn't complete, and honestly that's more polished looking then anything I've seen from RR already imo.... If it's as polished looking as Centrafuse when it's done, but functioning even 50% better then I'd be all over it personally.

Originally Posted by locs4dayz

Its going to be hard to get others excited when you have great skins like that already available to RR(elite 2 and DFX5 for example).....just saying!!!

A great skin does not make a great front end. Pretty software is rarely good software.

Skins are just window dressing. Its the core beneath that really matters. The core is the issue I have with both Centrafuse and RR. A skin is pretty much just a "custom paint job" which can be applied equally well to both a solid running machine or an anemic family sedan...... its whats under the hood that really matters.

Originally Posted by XSiveJeff

A great skin does not make a great front end. Pretty software is rarely good software.

Skins are just window dressing. Its the core beneath that really matters. The core is the issue I have with both Centrafuse and RR. A skin is pretty much just a "custom paint job" which can be applied equally well to both a solid running machine or an anemic family sedan...... its whats under the hood that really matters.

I totally agree. Yes ofcause there is some good looking skins, but 99% of the is simply horrific! But what really matters, is the core. The skin and plugin makers can't change how the core works, so it's important that it works really well.

What hardware/software function's are you planning on including i.e. radio's, obd2, tpms, pdc, gps software, fusion brain/phidget's ect. Fuctionality are what make a great front end. SNO