Freescan: FreeSCAN Open Source Project - Developers Wanted!

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ka3jjz

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Not to worry, Matt. It's not a small job you've undertaken, and we all have other lives to lead...

I found another instance of an import bug that I will write up in the Bugs and Issues wiki...see this entry


There's an entry for 14282, in the 20 meter band, on AM. The only radio that could handle this is the BR330 - none of the others would. Suggest this could be programmed, but locked out. The user can then unlock it if s/he was using that radio.

Mike
 

GTR8000

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Those of you working on FreeSCAN, you should give serious consideration to rewriting the RRDB import routine. Specifically, to have it take Categories into account when returning results for county conventional listings. Currently the software only displays the Subcategories, which can lead to some very vague results in large counties such as Los Angeles.


74477

74478
 

GTR8000

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Note that this is not an issue in software such as ProScan, which takes the top level Categories into account...

74479
 

K7MFC

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Nothing published publicly, but I have been working on the application. Mostly just stuff to assist with my own development, small big fixes, etc. My day job has taken up most of my development time, unfortunately. I'll post here when any significant progress is made..
 

WD6ABC

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Love that program, and I used to program in VB. I had asked him a few years back on getting it to connect via IP, so maybe now there's a chance to do that!

WD6ABC
www.remscan.com

John
 

nick0909

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I'm interested in tracking this project... I created the RemoteFS app for Android that uses the freescan server for remote control by reverse engineering the communications protocol, but if we are upgrading things maybe we can do it better. There's also a bit of a bug in the authentication used that I'll try to create an item for in git to track.
 

K7MFC

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Unfortunately no. My (paying) full time software job has left me with little time for side programming projects like this. A few people expressed some interest, but ultimately nobody requested to be made a contributor. I'll still keep the source code repository hosted and will eventually add some of what was discussed in this thread as issues to GitHub but I don't see myself having any appreciable time to work on FreeSCAN in the near future.
 

INDY72

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*Plays Taps* As happens so much in the software dev world, whether its scanner software, or making games for RPGMaker, or other formats.... Paying jobs and getting the bills paid MUST be the priority, and thus side projects like this.. RIP.
 

K7MFC

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Aside from lack of time, the fact that this application is written in a language that I haven't used in 10 years, and is not written in the most organized fashion makes this project difficult. Working with legacy code is one of the biggest challenges in software development, and FreeSCAN is certainly a challenge on this regard. Ideally, I would rewrite the entire app in C# and implement better patterns and OOP fundamentals, but that is a massive understanding.

For now I will leave the GitHub repo and website up in the hopes others will find it and maybe want to contribute. I may still find some time for this in the future, as it's still an area of interest for me as far as programming side projects.
 

eorange

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In addition to the drudgery of maintaining legacy code...it's also not appealing that it's written in VB (at least for me).
 

K7MFC

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Being written in VB is probably the biggest deterrent in attracting contributors. I personally find the syntax not very readable, and it makes working with legacy code all that much more difficult.
 

ProScan

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Excuse me but I see some misinformation here. I just want to set the record straight in case others are thinking about programming in VB .Net and possibly program and improve Freescan.

VB .Net language is not legacy by any means. It's supported 100% by MS. Perhaps the word "legacy" was the wrong wording. It's also 100% OOP language . VB and C# converts to the same common intermediate language.

If the source should be in C# to encourage developers then there's many websites and programs that will converts files and projects, VB from/to C#. It shouldn't take more than 20 hours to do by an experienced programmer.
 
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eorange

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I don't think anyone meant to say VB is not capable or supported. But speaking for myself as a longtime C# (and other modern languages) developer...I have no motivation or incentive to adapt my efforts to VB. It's just not in my personal or professional interests. I think @K7MFC used "legacy" to describe the design of the software.
 

ProScan

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I don't think anyone meant to say VB is not capable or supported. But speaking for myself as a longtime C# (and other modern languages) developer...I have no motivation or incentive to adapt my efforts to VB. It's just not in my personal or professional interests. I think @K7MFC used "legacy" to describe the design of the software.

Fair enough
 

K7MFC

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VB .Net language is not legacy by any means. It's supported 100% by MS. Perhaps the word "legacy" was the wrong wording. It's also 100% OOP language . VB and C# converts to the same common intermediate language.

I never claimed VB.NET is legacy - the project itself is. FreeSCAN is legacy code in the sense that it is no longer supported by its original author. My personal preference is also not to use VB.

If the source should be in C# to encourage developers then there's many websites and programs that will converts files and projects, VB from/to C#. It shouldn't take more than 20 hours to do by an experienced programmer.

The issue is not just converting the VB code to C#, the complexity lies in the need to refactor and re-architect the entire application.
 
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