TUI design (and ham radio control)

[MarkMLl]

Some years ago I wrote a media tester (SD-Card etc.) with a frontend which could either be driven from the command line, from a GUI using Lazarus/LCL, or from a TUI.

I was able to design the TUI using Dialedit3 ** which was somewhat laborious but better than laying it out by hand.

The GUI and TUI end results presented a very similar "look and feel", except that the TUI had no WINCH signal handling so couldn't be resized (that might be why I added window-resize tracking to the Lazarus IDE's console window).

Since we've moved on about ten years, has there been any improvement in the availability of TUI design tools for FreeVision?

Context: I've got an Icom IC-PCR1000 receiver, which uses traditional Rx techniques (i.e. has a better frontend etc. than an SDR) but requires a computer to control it. By now there are a few Linux programs that drive it (as well as Icom's own Windows-only software) but I thought it might be a "fun winter project" to run off a demo using Lazarus + FPC which would be a useful showcase of their capabilities (and which would very carefully avoid interfering with any existing SDRs etc. which might be being used in parallel with the analogue receiver).

However /if/ I do this, it would be useful to be able to say "...and look how easily you can write something which will run in a shell without a desktop!".

** https://github.com/MarkMLl/Dialedit3b  https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=18998.0  plus sporadic other discussion most of which loops back to the same place.

MarkMLl

[jamie]

How does the icom interface?

high speed USB serial port ? Bult in standard serial port or vender specific USB drivers?

[MarkMLl]

How does the icom interface?

high speed USB serial port ? Bult in standard serial port or vender specific USB drivers?

RS232. Don't see that as relevant.

MarkMLl

[jamie]

How does the icom interface?

high speed USB serial port ? Bult in standard serial port or vender specific USB drivers?

RS232. Don't see that as relevant.

MarkMLl

Ok, so.
 Just though maybe you were doing SDR with it.

I know with mine Icoms,  I can control the radio via the serial port.

Excuse me for being stupid.
 

[MarkMLl]

Ok, so.
 Just though maybe you were doing SDR with it.

No, might be using it for voice monitoring and would very much want to keep it distinct from SDRs doing other work (e.g. monitoring 1090MHz with a 1MHz offset either way to have the best shot at picking up contacts with wandering tuning).

I know with mine Icoms,  I can control the radio via the serial port.

This one /only/ has serial control (but I'd not have been able to afford it otherwise). One particularly useful point (which was significant in my choice) is that it can work way down into VLF.

MarkMLl

[Curt Carpenter]

Do either of you know of an up-to-date equivalent to the Icom IC-PCR1000 in a similar price range?  I haven't had the itch for a long time, but my antennas are still up...   

[MarkMLl]

Do either of you know of an up-to-date equivalent to the Icom IC-PCR1000 in a similar price range?  I haven't had the itch for a long time, but my antennas are still up...

Well, just to get "price range" into the record: a Yorkshire dealer is currently having a "junk sale" and is asking £159 for a PCR1000: which is almost exactly twice what I gave for mine, and substantially more than many second-hand transcievers. Not to mention that few things have anything like the coverage.

These days, people would almost certainly say "go for an SDR". But the problem is that- certainly if affordable- they don't have anything like the frontend performance.

I guess that something with a nicely-selective tuned frontend and IF followed by a broadband ADC and suitable software would be quite attractive. But GOK how much it would cost...

Which means that I guess I'm asking the same question that you are :-)

MarkMLl