Re: [gpsd-dev] gpsmon quirks with SiRF 3

[Eric S. Raymond]

Hal Murray <address@hidden>:
> 
> If I run .gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0
> 
> It starts up in NMEA0183 mode as I expect.
> "i" switches to SiRF, again, as I expect.
> 
> "n" switches the display to NMEA layout, but the header still says SiRF.

So far, all is as expected.  The SiRF driver hands off NMEA0183 to the NMEA0183
packet parser, but remains in control so that methods such as the mode,
speed, and rate switchers will remain available.

> Another "n" now says: Device type has no mode switcher.

Here something has gone slightly awry.  The command interpreter should 
still know that it has the SiRF mode-switcher capability available.

> At this point, "i" doesn't do anything.  (no pause either)

Given that we've somehow lost the knowledge that the SiRF driver is supposed
to be in control, this is not surprising.

> If I start over and feed it an "f", it starts blinking "Unknown command "f"
> The logging and display update stops.  After I type another character,  it 
> clears the blinking error message and stars logging/updating again.

This is expected, but it's a flaw.  Ideally packet-log updates should not
block while waiting for you to dismiss the error indication.
 
> Is that what you expect?  (It seems reasonable to me.)

I've noted these as minor bugs and added them to TODO.  Fixes can wait until
after 3.10 - the gpsmon UI is not the most robust code in the world and I
won't be destabilizing it this close to release without much stronger
reason.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>