[Hamlib-developer] Gnome RIG 0.2

[<al...@ph...>]

Hi everybody,

I am happy to announce the first official release of Gnome RIG (grig-0.2). Gnome
RIG is a graphical user interface to the Ham Radio Control Libraries, written
using the Gtk+ and GNOME widgets. In the present release only a little subset of
the full Hamlib API is supported (power, frequency, mode, filter, agc and some
gain levels) but more widgets will be added along the way.

The controls are packed into a single Gtk-widget, making it easy to include them
in any other Gtk/Gnome program. There are wrapper functions for the supported
hamlib API calls, so a program using this 'hamlib-widget' doesn't even need to
know anything about hamlib. Eventually, this widget will become a bonobo control
making it embedable in any Gnome program that can use bonobo controls (Gnumeric,
Abiword, etc. - yes, you will be able to control your RIGs from your spreadsheet
file :-).
Gnome RIG works with both version 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 of Hamlib. I have chosen to
support both versions, because Debian 3.0 comes with hamlib-1.1.2. The only
difference, as seen from the program, is the lack of rotator support in 1.1.2.
Although rotator controls are not implemented yet, the program will ask you to
configure your rotators anyway (just select the dummy backend if you don't have
any).

Oh, by the way, if anyone is going to wonder how to change the frequency, just
left/right click on any digit of the frequency display. There isn't and will
never be any 'software tuning knob' as I find them silly and rather useless.
There will, however, be support for hardware tuning knobs that can be plugged
into the USB port (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate).

Unfortunately, I can only test the program with the dummy backend, so I hope
that many of you will test it with real radios. You can get the source code from:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25530
Comments and questions are welcome!


Alex, OZ9AEC