Thread: My Custom Frontend

This is looking good MOnline! Is the interface hardcoded or using a skin interface?

Sorry for the late reply MOnline but here's the promised example (actually it's the full function):

This function returns an string array with the house numbers.
It's by no means perfect since it doesn't always match the actual street but it will give a pretty good estimate. But it only searches for 400 numbers. I figured I didn't need it any higher since no streets around here are longer. If you want it longer just change the 400 number to what you want. But be aware that this will require som more processing time.

Code:

Public Function Dest_GetNumbers(Target As DestPoint) As String()
    Dim Latitude, Longitude As Double
    Dim House() As String
    Dim HouseNumber As Integer
    Dim ArrayIndex As Integer
    Dim ConsecutiveHits As Integer
    Dim DestPointData As DestPoint
    
    Set DestPointData = New DestPoint
    With Target
        DestPointData.City = .City
        DestPointData.Description = .Description
        DestPointData.House = .House
        DestPointData.Latitude = .Latitude
        DestPointData.Longtitude = .Longtitude
        DestPointData.Street = .Street
        DestPointData.Telephone = .Telephone
        DestPointData.Zip = .Zip
    End With

    Call Dest2.GetCoordinatesFromAddress(DestPointData)
    Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude
    Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude
    ArrayIndex = 0
    ConsecutiveHits = 0
    ReDim House(0)
    
    For HouseNumber = 1 To 400
        DestPointData.House = HouseNumber
        Call Dest2.GetCoordinatesFromAddress(DestPointData)
        If (Longitude <> DestPointData.Longtitude) Or (Latitude <> DestPointData.Latitude) Then
            If House(0) <> "" Then ReDim Preserve House(UBound(House) + 1)
            House(ArrayIndex) = HouseNumber
            ArrayIndex = ArrayIndex + 1
            ConsecutiveHits = 0
        End If
        
        If (Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude) And (Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude) Then
            ConsecutiveHits = ConsecutiveHits + 1
            If ConsecutiveHits >= 10 Then
                HouseNumber = 400
            End If
        End If
        
        Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude
        Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude
        
        DoEvents
        
    Next HouseNumber
    Dest_GetNumbers = House
    Set DestPointData = Nothing
End Function

As for the speed I used the GPS data. If you do some searching on google you'll find lots of info about this GPS data string. But to get you started, here's the one you need to work with:

Code:

 String: $GPRMC,<1>,<2>,<3>,<4>,<5>,<6>,<7>,<8>,<9>,<10>,<11><CR><LF>

Data:
1)     UTC time of position fix, hhmmss.sss format.
2)     Status, A = data valid, V = data not valid.
3)     Latitude, ddmm.mmmm format.
4)     Latitude hemisphere, N or S.
5)     Longitude, dddmmm.mmmm format.
6)     Longitude hemisphere, E or W.
7)     Speed over ground, 0.0 to 1851.8 knots.       <---- THIS IS THE ONE
8)     Course over ground, 000.0 to 359.9 degrees, true.
9)     Date, ddmmyy format.
10)    Magnetic variation, 000.0 to 180.O.
11)    Degrees
12)    Checksum.

Hope this helps.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask, I just completed an early but working version of my own frontend (using plugins for winamp control, powercontrol of the laptop and destinator).

Btw: Go with a plugin interface as early in the stage as possible. This will really make your frontend a LOT faster if done correctly.

Cheers
Borte

With plugins I mean that you should set your application to use plugins (dll's created by yourself and others). Here's how I structured my frontend:

Main application:
Handles graphical interface
Handles variables
Handles calulations
Handles text
Handles functions
Connects and talks to configured plugins

Plugins:
WinAmp: Handles all functionality for winamp (playing, browsing and so on)
PowerControl: Handles all functionality for powercontrol on the laptop
Destinator: Handles all navigation functionality

When the main application sees a skin command that it doesn't recognise it will pass the command to the plugins for execution.


This approach has a quite a few advantages:
It will make you application faster since it will give you multithread capabilities (If you program your plugins correctly).
It will make it easier for you to replace any of the plugins without affecting the complete application.
It will make it easier for you to replace the main application without affecting the plugins and functionality.
It allows you to customise the functionality (ie. using only the plugins needed).

My main application will not do anything useful (other than maybe building a calculator and displaying graphics) unless you configure some plugins.
With WinAmp, PowerControl and Destinator fully working the complete application starts up in about 2 seconds.

And when will this be available for download?!?

just download and install freedrive :-)

CdR