[MacLoggerContest] MacLoggerDX Contest panel

[David Ferrington, M0XDF]

Thank you for your input, you are one a the few who has done so. I'll  
be reading this completely later and correlating it with others.
73 de M0XDF
-- 
Don‘t complain. Nobody will understand. Or care. And certainly don‘t try
to fix the situation yourself. It‘s dangerous. Leave it to a highly
untrained, unqualified, expendable professional.

On 11 Nov 2009, at 16:48, Rich Seifert wrote:


> At 10:03 AM -0500 11/1/09, Don Agro wrote:

>> We have had a few requests for changes to the Contest Panel and  

>> would like to invite you to share your experiences/frustrations  

>> with the Contest Panel and Contest Helper in actual contests.

>>

>> David Ferrington (M0XDF) has generously volunteered to moderate  

>> this discussion and to pass on the results so that they can be  

>> implemented in the next release of MacLoggerDX V5.

>>

>> David is an avid contester has been a Ham since 2003 and passed his  

>> Advanced in the U.K. in 2006.

>>

>> Any suggestions/complaints regarding the Contest panel of the  

>> Contest Helper are welcome.

>>

>

> OK, here's what I think is probably my biggest "wish" with respect  

> to MLDX contesting. If there was a way for users to create a contest  

> template, the application would naturally grow to support a myriad  

> of contests, large and small.

>

> The "Template Editor" would have to be relatively simple to use,  

> i.e., more like a scripting language than writing code. The user  

> should be able to define at least three things:

>

> -The fields in the contest exchange (syntax)

>

> -The range of valid values (and defaults) for each of those fields  

> (i.e., context checking), and

>

> -How pressing certain keys (e.g., space, Return, Tab) cause the  

> cursor to navigate around the fields.

>

> There is no particular need to try to "force fit" the contest  

> database into the standard database layout used for everyday  

> logging. Export can be to Cabrillo, or if that is too limiting/ 

> cumbersome, at least to a tab or comma-delimited file. From that,  

> one can manipulate the data into whatever format is needed for log  

> submission.

>

> The problem, of course, is support when things don't work. Since the  

> contest templates would be user-generated, they would also be  

> subject to the errors and flaws common to non-professional software.  

> That said, over time the more widely-used templates would become  

> more stable and reliable, and the oddballs would fall by the wayside  

> (a Darwinian approach).

>

>

> Once the template syntax and semantics are defined, one could then  

> define various real-time "contest parameters" calculated from the  

> database, e.g., multipliers, run-rates, etc.

>

> At some point, though, you have to draw the line and say "this is  

> not a full-blown contest logger; if you want all that stuff, then  

> this isn't the program for you. This is why I regard the  

> "templating" as a much higher value-item than the "real-time scores."