Re: [Xlog-discussion] Log as diary

[Martin Ewing AA6E]

Joop Stakenborg wrote:
> Op dinsdag 26-02-2008 om 14:44 uur [tijdzone -0500], schreef Martin
> Ewing AA6E:
>
>   
> >   Conventional logging apps seem to grow out of contesting needs 
> > historically, and they're not  trying to fully emulate the way I (for 
> > one) used my paper log.
> >     
>
> Hi Leigh and Martin,
>
> interesting topic. There are already plans to add XDIF support to a
> future version of xlog, although it make take a while. XDIF would add
> much more log-information such as which transceiver was used, from which
> QTH did we make contacts and so on...
>
> In the meantime, adding a general note field to the log is not such a
> bad idea. But how do we display it? Would this information need to be
> visible all the time or is a simple popup dialog sufficient? I am open
> to ideas...
>
>
> Regards,
> Joop PG4I
>
>   
Joop,

I think Leigh and I are talking about different things.  XDIF is nuts & 
bolts, while I'm thinking of the user experience.  To first order, the 
user doesn't care about the underlying technology.

On the user level,  I can imagine a button or menu item on the xlog 
panel that says "Add Special Remark" (or some such).  It could bring up 
a simple text box for you to type an arbitrary note.  Then a "Save" 
button enters the text (with date/time) into the database.  (You choose 
the db technology!) The "New Special Remark" pane could be an 
alternative to the "New QSO" pane.

Now, how does the log viewer panel look with this feature?  It shows 
QSOs as usual, but a special remark needs to show between QSOs, if not 
in a separate pane for remarks.  It could be a text line that crosses 
the usual QSO columns, and shows in a distinctive manner - italics, 
green color, whatever.  It's probably enough to show the first text line 
of the note.  If it is longer, you would select it for viewing bringing 
up the full text entry/edit dialog, which would let you read, edit, or 
delete the remark.

The remark entry wants to be keyed by creation date, most likely, and 
should be sorted along with QSOs by date.  Nice, but not essential: an 
ability to search on contents.

As you suggest, you could use a pop-up like word processors do.  You 
could annotate a QSO and indicate by a colored flag or asterisk. (Or 
possibly between QSOs.) Click on it and you can view, edit, or delete 
the note.  The advantage is that it needs little screen space and it 
minimizes the violence to your current layout. However, I'm not so much 
interested in annotating a single QSO (although that could be useful) - 
I want to say that I installed a new antenna, or something like that 
that applies to many future QSOs.

Even though it sounds fairly simple, I know this might be some work.  I 
just wanted to put the idea out there for consideration.

73 Martin AA6E