Coastal Explorer

What works

The program launches and appears to respond to most type-ins and menu/toolbar inputs. Chart (map) collection and management appears to work correctly (note requirement for volume serial numbers - see Bug 11832). Raster charts display quickly and respond well to pan and zoom commands. Vector charts display, too, although panning and zooming are much slower; important data is not visible on vector charts. It's possible to zoom in and out, move the ship icon around (invokes dead reckoning mode), create and manipulate routes and waypoints. Both Planning mode and Cruise mode appear to invoke as expected.  The Chart Portfolio tool also works. 

What does not

Vector charts do not display depths or other notations. Serial I/O has been tested and is still not operating, although the problem appears similar to a problem seen, and fixed, some time ago. Testing is continuing, with hopes of a quick resolution.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Data inputs from GPS, instruments, or AIS receivers are still untested. Until serial I/O works properly, there is no way to know if the application will operate an autopilot correctly.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Without serial I/O capability, Coastal Explorer remains effectively a trip planner and tide predictor using raster charts; the main use, autopilot control, is not available at this point. Based on raster chart route planning alone, CE would rate at least a Silver. However, problems with vector charts and the lack of serial I/O prevent this.

The "App under wine" and "App under WinXP" screen shots cover approximately the same geographical area. The "jaggies" in the wine image are due to the built-in world map being being pushed well beyond its resolution limits and is not a bug/error. Fuzziness in the WinXP image is due to compression artifacts from getting the screen shot file under 600K and is also not a bug/error.

Aside from the screen sizes and presence of the RNC chart in the WinXP image, the biggest differences in the screen shots are actually relatively subtle. Note the differences in the toolbar at the top of the screen and compare the icons/buttons. This difference has, so far, responded strongly to changes to comctl32 but, as the wine image shows, there's much room for improvement.

Although somewhat difficult to see in the WinXP image, there are at least two white/red tide level diamonds shown (for the most obvious one, look on the west coast of Kent Island, about midway between the Bay Bridge and Bloody Point). Under wine the tide diamonds show up in the right place, indicate rising and falling tides correctly, and clicking on a diamond will open up the appropriate tide graphing tool, all as expected. What is missing is the caption, below the tide diamond, showing the (computed) depth of water at the tide reporting location. A minor point, perhaps, but indicative of problems with displaying data throughout the app.