[Tlf-devel] new beta available

[Rein Couperus PA0R]

* I have done some work on the GUI, to include Joop's suggestions.

* I also have recoded the RTTY window. Hopefully this kills Ed's error
message at startup (I don't get any errors at startup with UBUNTU Dapper
LTS, so I am doing this blindly).

* I have done some performance tests with a qso file of 10k qso's (the
cqww test log of ts7n). It shows that:
- the strategy using hashes for the call and log checks is fine, there
is NO performance penalty for large logs.
- the scoring routine is interfering with operation with log files > 5k.

I have put the scoring routine in its own fork now, which solved the
problem.

I changed the position of the other forks in the program (cluster,
rtty), which reduced the footprint of the program considerably, and
reduced CPU load.

To get a gradual upscale in resources, xtlf looks for input sources at
startup, and only forks if they are available.

This means that:
- you have to start xdx before xtlf if you want cluster support.
- you have to start gMFSK before xtlf if you want to use the RTTY window

Xtlf has a LARGE footprint, and uses 40 MB (+12 MB +12MB + 11MB) memory.
Especially when running together with gMFSK you need lots of RAM, and
running GNOME doesn't help either.

But I guess as soon as Vista (address@hidden) hits the sales counters a
new generation of computers will see the light (Vista (address@hidden)
won't run in 512 MB).

On my laptop (1.8 GHz Sempron, 512 k) xtlf runs with 6% CPU.
Running CW and SSB it is lightning fast, even with very large logs.

BTW: I broke the multiplier check in the process, it has to be relocated
in the program. I will repair that in time for the iaru test.

Install for the non-debian version:
-----------------------------------

- Download xtlf-1.0.3beta.tar.gz into your home directory
- Untar it
- Go into ~/xtlf and do 'sudo ./install.sh'
- You can now remove the ~/xtlf directory and start the program with
'xtlf'.

Please let me know if this installs o.k. now.

73,

Rein PA0R

See some of you at the Ham Radio Show in Friedrichshafen? I will be
manning the EUDXF and RRDXA booths part time.