I thought I'd try setting up a blog using the new WordPress facility at the famous Open Source Software facility - SourceForge.net. So far, the format is a little disappointing. What do you think?
Update 8/21/09: I see that the SourceForge.net blog (above) now sports a reasonable (if unimaginative) blueish skin. SF has now provided us with two (count them, two) themes!
Showing posts with label sourceforge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sourceforge. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Report from DCC 2007
About 200 hams and friends gathered at the 26th TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference for 2007 was held in Windsor Locks, CT, Sept. 28-30, 2007.
Many great papers and conversations. I presented my talk (PDF), "SourceForge, Hamlib, and Rigserve: Free Beer, Free Speech, and Rig Control", which is also printed in a somewhat different form (PDF) in the Proceedings.
A few cheap photos from my Treo 650 phone:
Bruce had many fine insights into the state of the amateur radio world. For one thing, he noted that the average age at DCC is about 10 years less than at Dayton. "We are the future of amateur radio."
Many great papers and conversations. I presented my talk (PDF), "SourceForge, Hamlib, and Rigserve: Free Beer, Free Speech, and Rig Control", which is also printed in a somewhat different form (PDF) in the Proceedings.
A few cheap photos from my Treo 650 phone:
A typical session
Gerry Youngblood explains the Flex-Radio SDR-5000
Steve Bible, N7HPR, TAPR Vice President
Banquet speaker Bruce Perens, K6BP
Bruce had many fine insights into the state of the amateur radio world. For one thing, he noted that the average age at DCC is about 10 years less than at Dayton. "We are the future of amateur radio."
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
SourceForge, Hamlib, and Rigserve... DCC'07
My contribution for the TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference, Sept., 2007 appears here, as a PDF.
DCC is always a good show for advanced Amateur Radio technology. This year, it will be in Windsor Locks, CT, not too far from me. Previous Conference Proceedings are available.
DCC is always a good show for advanced Amateur Radio technology. This year, it will be in Windsor Locks, CT, not too far from me. Previous Conference Proceedings are available.
Friday, February 16, 2007
New Rigserve Project on Sourceforge
Some of you know that I've been working on "Rigserve", which is meant to be a much streamlined server-style application providing much of the functionality of Hamlib. We avoid most of the cross-platform problems by defining our API over an IP connection, which is human-readable and even testable over Telnet. Rigserve is implemented in object-oriented style using Python, which should allow it to run on many platforms. I am not sorry to jettison low-level C, the GNU Automake stuff, SWIG, and all that!
We have talked about the relationship of this development to Hamlib. Should we think of it as a candidate for "V2 Hamlib"? Well, Rigserve is not a library, and there is no backwards compatibility. Rigserve does share some philosophy with Hamlib, but that's about it. I have concluded that it should stand on its own, but we should give full credit to the many folks who have brought us Hamlib as we have it today.
[There are some alternate approaches, too, such as XML rigCAT descriptions at http://w1hkj.com/xmlarchives.html . These may be useful to both Hamlib and Rigserve down the road.]
There is now a project at http://sourceforge.net/projects/rigserve with a slightly updated version 0.21 available for download. The files are managed in the Subversion (SVN) repository.
I would welcome anyone who wants to contribute to rigserve to join this project. There shouldn't be a conflict of interest here, because the intersection of hotshot C and Python programmers is probably limited. Though I am neither(!), I will continue to support the TenTec Orion for Hamlib.
It has been interesting to start a Sourceforge project and to learn Subversion and the other tools. Frustrating, too, because SF's shell server and compile farm chose this week to go into meltdown. The project web page is at rigserve.sf.net.
73, Martin AA6E
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Hamlib, reloaded
The Hamlib project has been working on a rig-independent API for software developers that will allow them to connect to a wide variety of ham rigs without worry about their individual interface quirks.
Lately, we have begun discussing how this project can envolve into a "version 2". There is a new blog at hamlib-developer.blogspot.com to support development of Hamlib. If you want to take an active part in the Hamlib project through this blog, please contact me.
The Hamlib project is supported at sourceforge.net/projects/hamlib, which provides a mailing list, CVS, and other amenities.
Lately, we have begun discussing how this project can envolve into a "version 2". There is a new blog at hamlib-developer.blogspot.com to support development of Hamlib. If you want to take an active part in the Hamlib project through this blog, please contact me.
The Hamlib project is supported at sourceforge.net/projects/hamlib, which provides a mailing list, CVS, and other amenities.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Free Software and Ham Radio: The Hamlib Project
A great feature of Amateur Radio is the range of activities you can join in. Everyone can find a home with some operating style or technology work. Some of us combine on the air work with computer programming.
I’ve found a particular corner of ham radio called the Hamlib project, initiated in 2000 by Frank Singleton (VK3FCS/KM5WS) and Stéphane Fillod (F8CFE) and supported by dozens of hams around the world. The Ham Radio Control Libraries are intended “to provide a consistent interface for programmers wanting to incorporate radio control in their programs.” This project is an example of “free and open source software”, developed by a large group of people who volunteer their time. You’ve heard of Linux and the Mozilla and FireFox browsers? They were created the same way.
You may know about “software defined radio” (SDR). That’s not what Hamlib does. Hamlib manages the control functions of radios, including DSP and SDR rigs, but it does not do signal processing itself. Hamlib is largely developed in the C language under Linux, but it is adaptible to other operating systems (MacOS, Windows) and languages (C++, Python, Perl and others).
If you’re a programmer using Hamlib, you can write applications to work with many current and older radio devices that permit computer control. This is a big benefit, because you can spread your time investment over the greatest number of potential users. Most radio control packages today are written for specific devices (“rigs”), but the potential “market” for software for one radio model is always limited. Even hams who write “free” software think about market share!
The Hamlib project is ambitious, aiming to support over 200 rigs and variations, ranging from scanners and shortwave receivers to exotic computer-based DSP transceivers and some antenna rotators. The strategy (Figure 1) is to provide a library that adapts many different radios to a higher-level application program. If you are a typical ham who is not a programmer, you can download a software application package that is built “on top” of Hamlib. A number of Linux applications are already available for digital mode support, logging, etc. Check the Hamlib web site at http://hamlib.sourceforge.net .
Figure 1: Hamlib is the “glue” that connects applications programs to ham rigs.
Hamlib is tackling a big problem. How do you provide for scanners with a thousand memory channels, priority sampling, and so on in the same program with multi-band VHF transceivers and computer-based DSP HF radios?
The problem is not as bad as it might be, since rigs tend to fall into categories (receivers, VHF transceivers, HF transceivers, scanners, etc.) and into product families that share similar interface protocols (Icom, Ten-Tec, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc.) It is also possible to define a useful subset of each rig's functions -- at minimum. frequency, mode, and transmit/receive. For many rigs and applications, such as QSO logging, that is sufficient.
If you want to write a ham application program to talk to a radio, you have an interesting choice: Should you aim for the best possible interface for a particular rig on a particular operating system? Support a particular rig on multiple operating systems? Support many rigs, as Hamlib does, on a variety of operating systems? It's a trade-off of man-hours, features, and desired market share.
[A shortened version of this article is scheduled for publication as a "Stray" in QST.]
I’ve found a particular corner of ham radio called the Hamlib project, initiated in 2000 by Frank Singleton (VK3FCS/KM5WS) and Stéphane Fillod (F8CFE) and supported by dozens of hams around the world. The Ham Radio Control Libraries are intended “to provide a consistent interface for programmers wanting to incorporate radio control in their programs.” This project is an example of “free and open source software”, developed by a large group of people who volunteer their time. You’ve heard of Linux and the Mozilla and FireFox browsers? They were created the same way.
You may know about “software defined radio” (SDR). That’s not what Hamlib does. Hamlib manages the control functions of radios, including DSP and SDR rigs, but it does not do signal processing itself. Hamlib is largely developed in the C language under Linux, but it is adaptible to other operating systems (MacOS, Windows) and languages (C++, Python, Perl and others).
If you’re a programmer using Hamlib, you can write applications to work with many current and older radio devices that permit computer control. This is a big benefit, because you can spread your time investment over the greatest number of potential users. Most radio control packages today are written for specific devices (“rigs”), but the potential “market” for software for one radio model is always limited. Even hams who write “free” software think about market share!
The Hamlib project is ambitious, aiming to support over 200 rigs and variations, ranging from scanners and shortwave receivers to exotic computer-based DSP transceivers and some antenna rotators. The strategy (Figure 1) is to provide a library that adapts many different radios to a higher-level application program. If you are a typical ham who is not a programmer, you can download a software application package that is built “on top” of Hamlib. A number of Linux applications are already available for digital mode support, logging, etc. Check the Hamlib web site at http://hamlib.sourceforge.net .
Figure 1: Hamlib is the “glue” that connects applications programs to ham rigs.
Hamlib is tackling a big problem. How do you provide for scanners with a thousand memory channels, priority sampling, and so on in the same program with multi-band VHF transceivers and computer-based DSP HF radios?
The problem is not as bad as it might be, since rigs tend to fall into categories (receivers, VHF transceivers, HF transceivers, scanners, etc.) and into product families that share similar interface protocols (Icom, Ten-Tec, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc.) It is also possible to define a useful subset of each rig's functions -- at minimum. frequency, mode, and transmit/receive. For many rigs and applications, such as QSO logging, that is sufficient.
If you want to write a ham application program to talk to a radio, you have an interesting choice: Should you aim for the best possible interface for a particular rig on a particular operating system? Support a particular rig on multiple operating systems? Support many rigs, as Hamlib does, on a variety of operating systems? It's a trade-off of man-hours, features, and desired market share.
[A shortened version of this article is scheduled for publication as a "Stray" in QST.]
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