Support Forum / Форум поддержки

I am developing programs to plot cities on a map.
It is flexible for adding different countries and intended for making a game with it so that you learn your topography with fun.
The programs display major cities and if you touch the city-dot, its name will be displayed, with some info and the distance to your home.
A screenshot is attached.
Available programs: "Netherlands", "Russian Federation", "Russian Southwest" and "World".
Furthermore I have made PDF-files with background info on Mercator-projection.
The complete folder and its zipped version are available via DropBox.
The content of the folder is described in the file "-READme.txt"
The folder and the zipped folder can be accessed at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mx60yc9yua7y ... bTW4a?dl=0

Modifications:
20131224
GPStimeOut added to Program section > Constants. TimeOut changed to 5000msec, was 3000
Removed x-y valus in text-bar
Attached zipped folder removed. Changes to DropBox-folder goes faster and easier
20131228
- Added call to GPSCOUNT in function 'Home', which is in accordance with example "my GPS position"
- Facility added to set home-position, if GPS is not active
- Textbar removed, replaced by info-section and field for city-info with "parchment.png" as background
- touched city indicated with circle and straight line to home
- text font and size adapted for iPad or iPhone
- Finish-button added, with goodbye message
20131229
- makeover from background of instruction&info-panel
- line, between home and selected city, made 'moving'
- added a bar with signature as display border below the map
20140101
- Added "languages.txt" and made the program multilingual
Available languages are: English, Dutch, German and French.
Feel free to correct my translations or to add another language
20140102
- Minor wrap-around problem on display repaired.

20140113 Subject: MercatorWorld: Russia added
Complete restyling and organisation
- Changed names of files. Major program files in capitals, rest in lower case
- Added number of columns as data-item in city-file. Table-array is now initiated with the correct size
- Home function has now timeout parameter: Home(TimeOut). Now no global parameter need to be set: was GPStimeOut
- Debug solved in FoundCity. Search did not result in nearest city
- Files and folders reorganised for easier expansion with other countries
- "Russia" added with 'zoom'-version for SouthWest area.
- Functions adapted and added for better handling of invalid GPS and Home-position outside map.
- "languages.txt" reorganised.
- Image-background of text-panels changed to rounded rectangles for easier adaption of size, more text, larger textsize and cooler style.
- screenshot renewed

20140118
- Language is now set by the variable 'Language' in the first line of the program
- Russian district names are now dependent on the 'Language' variable
- The Netherlands is added to MercatorWorld. The program to run is named 'Nederland'. The local language is chosen for that name because that name (program-name) occurs in the top-bar during run-time.
- For the same reason the names of the Russian programs has been adapted.
- Documentation files on Mercator-projection have been corrected on minor details.
- Several other files have been adapted/corrected

20140119
- The appearance of the spots representing the cities have been improved.
The function 'PloitCities' in the file "mercatormap-b.txt" makes now a call to the function 'Plot(n,x,y)' which should be located in the main 'country'-programfile.
In this way e.g. district-capitals can be given a different appearance
- The default city-spot is now in two contrasting colours (field and border) for better visibility.
- The appearance of the city-spots in the MercatorWorld-'countries' have been changed accordingly.
- The city-list for Russia have been sorted such that the largest cities are plotted at the end and can thus not be obscured by other cities.
- The capital cities of the Netherlands have also been shifted to the end of the file for the same reason.

20140120
A few bugs repaired
- No scientific notation for large city-size
- 'Billboard' panel adapted regarding panelsize and textsize
- Languages file extended with "No GPS-data"

20140225
- moving circles realised as sprites
- sprites only generated once, opened in edit-mode if redrawn
- France added
The folders on DropBox are updated

Very impressive work!
Manuals are also great.

First comments:
1) When I launch program on iOS Simulator, I get warning that NO GPS AVAILABLE, although location simulation is available there.
2) When running on iPhone horizontally, it has black stip on the right, also text does not fit available space: 3) Country is written in quotes, I can suggest to write without quotes.

Thanks for your remarks and merry christmas. Have you identical greetings in Russia?
1. I have added 'GPStimeOut=5000' in Program section > Constants
TimeOut was 3000 msec. Can you check wether the new 'constant' cures the problem with GPS?
On your iPhone-screenshot, I could not see a circle on the map indicating your home-position.
Did GPS not work on your iPhone either?
2. The black strip is due to the fixed aspect-ratio of the map. On iPad there is a black strip at the bottom.
I removed the x-y values in the text-panel so that Long.- and Lat.-vlues should fit.
I will change the text-panel to a panel-overlay on the map. Then there is more space for the map.
With the plot of the home-position, I learned to use sprites as graphics layers. Very convenient for overlays! Thanks.
3. I have removed the quotes.
They were added to indicate that e.g. "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" is a single country with a lot of words in its name

I have removed the attached zipped folder because it takes rather long to attach it and it is more convenient to keep it updated on DropBox only.

Dutchman wrote:Thanks for your remarks and merry christmas. Have you identical greetings in Russia?

Merry Christmas for you too!
Our big national holiday is New Year, it is celebrated at night January 1st, and continues with 8 days of national holidays.

Dutchman wrote:TimeOut was 3000 msec. Can you check wether the new 'constant' cures the problem with GPS?

No, it is the same, but just waits longer. I can suggest you to redesign the way you detect absence of GPS.

Dutchman wrote:On your iPhone-screenshot, I could not see a circle on the map indicating your home-position.
Did GPS not work on your iPhone either?

This screenshot is made on iOS Simulator...

Dutchman wrote:With the plot of the home-position, I learned to use sprites as graphics layers. Very convenient for overlays!

Probably I will add an option to position sprites using their center, not only top left corner. It should become even better for some tasks.
Also just a reminder - sprites can be semi-transparent.

Mr. Kibernetik wrote:

Dutchman wrote:Thanks for your remarks and merry christmas. Have you identical greetings in Russia?

Merry Christmas for you too!
Our big national holiday is New Year, it is celebrated at night January 1st, and continues with 8 days of national holidays.

Actually Christmas in Russia is on the 7th of January due to the Russian Orthodox Church still using the Julian Calendar which all of Russia used until 1918 I believe, so it is certainly within the national holidays listed above.

I have updated the original post, including the screenshot and the link to the updated files.
The major changes are:
- Added call to GPSCOUNT in function 'Home', which is in accordance with example "my GPS position"
- Facility added to set home-position, if GPS is not active
- Textbar removed, replaced by info-section and field for city-info with "parchment.png" as background
- touched city indicated with circle and straight line to home
- text font and size adapted for iPad or iPhone
- Finish-button added, with goodbye message

@Mr. Kibernetik
Can you please check if the GPS-function now operates correctly?

Dutchman wrote:@Mr. Kibernetik
Can you please check if the GPS-function now operates correctly?

Great update!
This info background looks gorgeous.
Yes, currently GPS works even in Simulator, good work!

One note:
when there is only one command in condition, then it can be written just after THEN or ELSE. For example this line can be written as and in upcoming version 3.2 it could be even shorter, like

To get rid of black strips around the map, I can suggest to paint background with cyan color which exists on map as color of water.

When continuously pressing the map, info window blinks, showing the same information again and again.

Yellow/red coordinates window probably now looks a bit out-of-style near this super-cool info window.

In smart BASIC there is possibility to set different styles of lines, like dashed or dotted line. Probably you will like it to be used for distance red line.

How can I copy Files in Mercator.zip into SmartBasic? I have Dropbox but no Import in SmartBasic. Thanks a lot for your help.

Bolgheri wrote:How can I copy Files in Mercator.zip into SmartBasic? I have Dropbox but no Import in SmartBasic. Thanks a lot for your help.

Command OPTION DROPBOX ON turns on access to Dropbox.