Thread: RRGAS - Gas prices for the US - Status: Updated 12/01/10

I have found one small issue with the GasNav (EDIT: RRGas rather). For some reason it is firing when Road Runner starts up, and has to finish what it is doing before RR becomes ready. It delays startup of the skin just slightly on the desktop.

In the car, where I do not have Internet it is another story. It holds up RR from loading for like 30 seconds or more in the car. It locks rr so tight, then the 3D logo is frozen instead of spinning on the main menu. It's like it is taking Priority over Road Runner or something.

GasNAv or RRGas?

Sorry about that! I dont know WHY I typed that hahaah! I meant so say RRGas.

Talking with BlueZX3, Guino said there is something you have to add to the extension code, to do with a timer or something to allow it to run in the background when RR is loading... He had the same problem with one of the first extension plugins he created. I have never created any extension plugins, so I have no clue exactly what the code would be.

I'm not surprised.

I have speed issues when I develop at work as I run off a USB stick that is running at 1.1, so it is very noticeable, but when I tried it on the Home PC is didn't seem to delay things.

The reason is it is basically loading from the old file if it is the same day and zipcode as in the ini. If not it then tries to access the website to get new information, this is probably where it is slowing RoadRunner down.

Although the downloading from the internet is supposed to be delayed for 4 seconds (maybe it needs more) to allow RoadRunner to do it's thing.


What I'll add is some extras to the ini.

1. Setting to allow or disallow RRGas to load from the internet if the the old info is not todays

2. A delay time, so the user can configure it themselves.


I will also try to add a check for internet and if none is present it will use the cached version.

guino wishes that plugins which demand high cpu priority use a timer as an intermediary. Basically, instead of RR running the functions directly RR would simply activate a timer which would then run the functions thus releasing RR to go about its further processing. The problem is i've never figured a way to do this without some other function failing and its a PITA to code for in my very noobish opinion. If u wish to see the timer plugin example i can supply it but its somewhere here on the board already.

That jogs my memory on another thing.... I recall Blue saying that the timer somehow allows the process to run as another thread. This way RR and it can be doing their separate things as the same time, and the plugin will not interfere with RR doing its thing.

The downloading is done off a timer

Trouble is the downloading is what ties up the processor, especially while it waits for the site DNS to resolve the first time.

Similar to the initial delay you see when trafficams first loads.



adding the ip addresses for www.automotive.com and local.yahooapis.com to your lmhosts file might help speed the initial access. (trouble with that is, if either one changes their IP in the future)

Originally Posted by Enforcer

The downloading is done off a timer

Trouble is the downloading is what ties up the processor, especially while it waits for the site DNS to resolve the first time.

Similar to the initial delay you see when trafficams first loads.

It may be with a timer, ( and sorry I dont understand that part at all), but it does not seem to be a separate process. If it were a separate thread, then there is no way it should make a 3D spinning logo in the main menu remain frozen until the gas plugin is done doing its thing. It appears to be running in the same thread as RR, thus they are both fighting for CPU cycles.

I've tried everything I can think of to get Enforcer Personal Freedrive 1.06 to route to a gas station and nothing seems to work for me. I'm using Havic 2.1 skin and have changed the exectbl.ini to execute "rrgas_#_fdnavigate" when selecting a gas station. It jumps to Freedrive, but just sits there - no route. Tried both with and without an existing route in place and the existing route is removed but no new routing.

Enforcer is there something I need to turn on in your personal edition to get this to work?