AMP Wishlist Thread

[bcohen5055]

Ok, after looking at the phydgits site it may be possible to develop some functions without having the actual phidgets. The display can easily display text info similar to that of the current GPS window, so if there is a way to pass those strings along to a plugin they can be output to a small display in the dash to show heading, distance, speed, next turn and maby some other basic stuff like that. Can I get any documentation for writing a plugin for AMP?

[aychamo]

Are you wanting to show anything on the mac's screen itself, or just output to the hardware device? The good news: in AMP's implementation of GPS, I output a .plist (NSDictionary) that contains all the GPS info you could want, so your plugin will be able to open that dictionary and get everything it needs.

[bcohen5055]

Ok well I havn't really looked closely at implimenting this. Right now it is just an idea. I think it would be good to continue the on screen GPS but this will just allow another option for people who want it. I don't have a carpc and won't for quite some time but this just seems like an easy little add-on I think I can do.

[JakobMetzger]

bcohen, thanks for helping out aychamo. i know he really wants everyone else to help out and make as many plugins they can. just want to thank you for helping out. im slowing learning cocoa but it might be a while b4 i can help you two guys code AMP.

[macalanche]

Quote: Originally Posted by aychamo

Hey!

I think they are both good ideas. Does anyone have an idea on how to implement "gestures"? Maybe you can look into it and see what you can come up with?

People have been playing with inkwell over at http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/maccar/70112-inkwell.html maybe this can work with a gesture input.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/inkwell/

[iamgnat]

Quote: Originally Posted by aychamo

I've made the code available if they want to change things to their liking.

I know a lot of people would like to help, but they don't know how to program.
...
I just hope some people can pick up programming and start doing some plugins or tackling some of these feature requests.
...
I just need some help in sharing the load, is all.

Bobby,
No offense, but you need to put your money where your mouth is. AMP is a great App, but to really have others help you out in a useful manner you can't just pass around a source ball.
I tried to help out with the code, but everytime I would have a chance to make any significant changes you would come up with some other little change and my version of the source was then invalid. I tried to help this situation by setting up a SourceForge project, did the leg work to figure out simple instructions to setup XCode to use it, and outside of my initial imports it was never used.
I've tried emailing you about getting the current versions in SF, but they have gone unanswered. Given this, I have requested the SF Admins to remove the project.
I can understand wanting to maintain control since it is your baby, but you can't keep calling for help without making the source available in such a manner that people can realistically work cooperatively on it.
I love AMP, I think you have a lot of good ideas about it, and I hope it continues to grow.

-dave

[aychamo]

Wow..

I'm asking people to write addons for requested features, not add them into the core of AMP. AMP is already huge and difficult to manage, and we don't need a lot of extra crap added in.

I understand what you're saying, and I somewhat agree, but at the same time I dont really like the idea of people just making changes on a whim and then just sticking them in the core code. When I first came up with AMP I just wanted to make something that I wanted to use in the car. I hope it's something that other people want to use too.

So, as I said above and before, I need help with people writing addons, etc, and we can work together if any changes need to be made in AMP's core system. Like gnat said, it is like my baby and I guess I'm a bit over-protective of it.

[Jirka Jirout]

Quote: Originally Posted by aychamo

I'm asking people to write addons for requested features, not add them into the core of AMP. AMP is already huge and difficult to manage, and we don't need a lot of extra crap added in.

Considering the monolithic and static design of the application and lack of a clearly defined API for add-ons, it is very difficult to add anything to AMP without playing around with the core and tweaking it.

[LightningMac]

so... are all the other coders out of the loop now? are we at a stand still?

I thought what Bobby was asking for was clearly plug ins for say a weather or traffice plug in? Sounds like he's taking on the GPS himself, but would it be easier say if he opened back up the code, showed some trust and assigned or people volunteered to take on a new feature specifically? I see a lot of talent here... Can't we get it organized and get moving in a productive way?

Just my 2 cents... (stepping off the soapbox)

[aychamo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jirka Jirout

Considering the monolithic and static design of the application and lack of a clearly defined API for add-ons, it is very difficult to add anything to AMP without playing around with the core and tweaking it.

Wow.. That's amazing, because I added WarDriving, an "add-on" launcher, and Disk Utilities without touching AMP's core.

[aychamo]

Quote: Originally Posted by LightningMac

so... are all the other coders out of the loop now? are we at a stand still?

Well, to be honest, no other coders have really done anything. AMP is a process for me to learn Cocoa. AMP is not at a standstill.

Some people has negative things about AMP's monolithic design, but the other day I was interested in maybe porting a version of AMP to the TV, for a home media center software, and I looked at iTheater's soure-code, and it has literally 1/10th the features of AMP, but has 10 times the # of files, and almost not a single line of comments. I can't fathom how that's a better design.

[Jirka Jirout]

Quote: Originally Posted by aychamo

Wow.. That's amazing, because I added WarDriving, an "add-on" launcher, and Disk Utilities without touching AMP's core.

Difficult != impossible. Would this be as easy if you could not even see the source of the app? If the add-ons are completely independent, do not use any services of the core applications and are just launched by it, what is the point of having a front-end application? ;-) It is kind of like the old DOS days - there was (supposed to be) an operating system, but most of even the most basic functionality had to be implemented by each application...

Quote:

I looked at iTheater's soure-code, and it has literally 1/10th the features of AMP, but has 10 times the # of files, and almost not a single line of comments. I can't fathom how that's a better design.

Splitting the implementation into tens of files by itself does not necessarily mean a dynamic structure or a good design. But to reduce such a complex application to just one class is really a bit strange approach. But it is your app and you can do whatever you want.

[Bugbyte]

Quote: Originally Posted by LightningMac

so... are all the other coders out of the loop now? are we at a stand still?

I thought what Bobby was asking for was clearly plug ins for say a weather or traffice plug in? Sounds like he's taking on the GPS himself, but would it be easier say if he opened back up the code, showed some trust and assigned or people volunteered to take on a new feature specifically? I see a lot of talent here... Can't we get it organized and get moving in a productive way?

Just my 2 cents... (stepping off the soapbox)

Well, our work on Harmony was going a lot slower than Aychamo's and with less results. Combined with my recent move I haven't had any time to work on it, unfortunately. It really needs to be in Cocoa, anyhow and in order for me to climb that hill, it is going to take more time before any obvious forward progress could be made.

It's just a little difficult to get restarted on it when you know you're going to return to 'newbie' programming status.

I think Bobby's doing an amazing job and I know everyone is extremely appreciative.

[ilmiomac]

Just one suggestion...
I've seen that the optimized web browser has a keyboard entry screen
but what about other applications that need to be approached with a keyboard input? And what about international keyboards?

The solution could be the keyboard implemented in Mac OS X 10.3.9 and on: it is activable in the "international" system preferences and it appears as a choice in the upper menu.
It's not a visible application but I think with some trick or hidden/visible button on AMP you can make it appear when it's needed, inside your browser or other software giving the user another way to input data.
It comes in two sizes: the bigger one is about 580x275 pixels and fits perfectly AMP. The smaller (that can be resized) can be used with a stilus.

Take a look at it and let us know if it's easy to implement it in AMP.

Check this page for the keyboard images...
http://www.macitynet.it/immagini/tut...eyboards.shtml

[iamgnat]

Quote: Originally Posted by aychamo

I'm asking people to write addons for requested features, not add them into the core of AMP. AMP is already huge and difficult to manage, and we don't need a lot of extra crap added in.

Jirka already spoke to the plug-ins better than I could, but I agree with him. You and I had discussed cleaning up the core code so that it wasn't so monilithic and that is what I kept trying to do and getting stopped by your other changes.

Quote:

I understand what you're saying, and I somewhat agree, but at the same time I dont really like the idea of people just making changes on a whim and then just sticking them in the core code.

As we have discussed in the past, I completely agree with this view. The idea of something like SF is that A) you can restrict who can change the code and B) if someone does add something that you don't like, you can roll back to previous versions of the source.

Please don't mistake me. I think AMP is great and you have done great work. My only complaint is that you keep asking for help, but don't make it easy to do so.

-dave