Released: WeatherMan v0.1

**warnockm** · 12-11-2005, 01:17 PM

I wrote a small weather program for the car computer called WeatherMan. using an internet connection and Map Monkey, WeatherMan will get your current location, look up the weather from Weather.com and display it for you. This is the initial release so i do expect some bugs.

I use Windows XP SP2, Frodoplayer, and MapMonkey, and a GPRS connection through Cingular and this allows me to get the weather.

Requirements:
Windows - I use Windows XP Pro SP2, but it should work with any version
Microsoft .NET v1.1
MapMonkey
Internet Connection
800x600 screen resolution

Give the program a try. I've tested i pretty thoroughly, but be ready for bugs, and please let me know in detail what happend. Also, think of any features you would like to see. First off, it's not super pretty. If you can think of any other objects that would make it look good and make it more usable. Also, the Extended Forcast is not complete. I'm getting to that.

http://www.warnockinc.com/downloads/WeatherMan-v0.1.zip

**kmcniece** · 12-11-2005, 01:56 PM

Although some will tell you to "just look out the window"...
I for one, like what you did in functionality. If you can change/skin the interface, it will become more useful to the end user around here.

Nice work. Wish I had some programming skills.

**wizardPC** · 12-11-2005, 05:23 PM

that ******* rocks

**theheel** · 12-12-2005, 01:48 AM

in my case i dont have gprs or any cell phone internet... but have a wireless card.

so i was wondering if it could poll every few seconds or have that as an option for the people who do use cell phones and dont want to eat up minutes, to see if there is an internet connection and when there is a connection automatically update and get the most recent information and display it?

edit: i posted that before testing it out, i see that u have something related to refreshing updates through internet... ill test it out some more. looks promising

edit2: i missed the part that it needs map monkey, was wondering if it would work with other gps software like iguidance (probably not) but thats ok..

**warnockm** · 12-12-2005, 11:29 AM

Although some will tell you to "just look out the window"...
I for one, like what you did in functionality. If you can change/skin the interface, it will become more useful to the end user around here.

Hehe, yes, you could look out the window, but WeatherMan includes Severe Weather Alerts which come out hours before a storm. It will create a popup if there is an alert in your area, and will display an icon w/ the alert after you close the window. Also, the extended forcast will be included in the next version. I'd also like to get the weather for your destination town, but i haven't been able to poll this information yet. As for skins, i'm currently adding skin support for that sleek touchscreen look, as well as customizable graphics

in my case i dont have gprs or any cell phone internet... but have a wireless card.

so i was wondering if it could poll every few seconds or have that as an option for the people who do use cell phones and dont want to eat up minutes, to see if there is an internet connection and when there is a connection automatically update and get the most recent information and display it?

You need to have an internet connection to get the initial weather update. If you lose your connection it will not update and will keep the last known weather information on the screen. I could add cached weather so you don't need the initial connection to see weather as well as a button to turn off network connectivity.

I'm looking into adding Freedrive support. I need to read up on it because the interfacing doesn't appear to be the same as MM. I haven't seen any way to poll Iguidance information because they haven't released an SDK.

**reiner15** · 12-12-2005, 11:45 AM

very very nice! this is one program ill put on my list to install when i get my carputer going

**Magician** · 12-18-2005, 05:44 PM

Here some more wishes and request for scenarios that this app would support:

1. Once-a-day retrieval of 10-day forecast; then of course, if network connection is not available, it should start trimming the old data.
2. It should be very resilient to network fluctuations. It should never pop-up for network related problems. If it can find its way around, it should download the update, otherwise just display whatever it can.
3. Fahrenheit / Celcius permanent switch setting should be included.
4. Skinnability is important; but what's important is to be able to automatically switch day and night skins, like FrodoPlayer does.
5. It could find its own location based on IP address / ISP info. There is Microsoft Location Finder which provides some APIs to leverage mappoint service to obtain this => this should help with driving through regions. Not sure how cellular networks are gateway'd into the Internet but in most cases results are accurate.
6. In my opinion text fonts in the screenshot above is too small. There may be too much information too. I'd recommend re-thinking the way main display is organized.
7. Integration with a temperature sensor? This way car's inside/outside temperatures can also be displayed in the same screen.
8. Screen resolution should dynamically scale. I think this will be a major issue across various carputer users.

HTH.

**warnockm** · 12-18-2005, 11:11 PM

Magician,

Thanks for the tips. I'll include what i can in the next release. Right now i'm adding skin support and multi-resolution compatibility. I noticed some problems if the network connection isn't great. If you are in a gray area between having no connection and having a great connection, the program appears to lock up. This is because it wont' do anything until it gets its information. I'm addressing this. I really like the idea of the multiday forecast and using that information. I want to cache the weather data so that this is possible. I'm not sure if you saw the settings section, but there is a Standard/metric switch. I dont know if the IP/location idea will work. I'm using cingular/gprs data connection and it gives you an internal 10.0.0.0 type IP, and it can't get much information from this. also, it doesn't change when you change locations. I'm going to incorperate some other navigation software capabilities into it (next freedrive, maybe Iguidance if its possible?), perhaps even looking raw GPS data. Map monkey makes it so easy because it can give you the zip code, and the weather channel webpage lets you search by zip. as for the textsize and what you see on the screen, what would you like to see? If there was one screen that you had on most of the time, what information would you include? if you get a chance, download Weather Watcher. Its a free weather too that has some great information in a nice layout, but does not incorperate GPS information, nor is it touchscreen friendly. I'm thinking of using that as a basis for my layout.

Again thanks for the ideas, this is the kind of information i need to incorperate other features.

**thanatos106** · 12-18-2005, 11:23 PM

I just found out about this APP and to tell you the true this is what I been waiting for...

Like kmcniece if you find the way to make it skinnable and also to separate the weather info and the settings (meaning just open a config and when hit save all you see is the output info) it will be even better.

Congrants and thanks for bringing the weather to non RR and CF users

FP rocks.

Thanatos.

**warnockm** · 12-19-2005, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by thanatos106

... and also to separate the weather info and the settings (meaning just open a config and when hit save all you see is the output info) it will be even better.

i don't think i followed this. can you explain?