Upgrade OpenCPN to wxWidgets 3.1.4 with touch gestures support

[mgrouch]

Hello,

I think it would be nice if OpenCPN binaries could be upgraded and built
with wxWidgets 3.1.4. They are encouraged for production use already.
With this upgrade I think it could finally support touch gestures which is a big deal for usability in a cockpit. There are new classes to support touch events

https://docs.wxwidgets.org/trunk/cla...ure_event.html

Please consider this upgrade.



Thanks,
—MG

[mgrouch]

I’ve played with wxWidgets 3.1 on raspberry pi. To be exact with their sample from samples/event and it worked awesome. It could zoom with two fingers, rotate, recognize long touch event which can be mapped to currently missing right click emulation in OpenCPN. With this OpenCPN could be finally comfortably used on raspberry pi with touch screens. I was also able to compile OpenCPN with wxWidgets 3.1.4 and GTK3. And it even somewhat started displaying a chart for a second but crashed after that. It issues report I’ve posted the script how to build it. If we could pass that crash I see that I could manage to add event listeners for touch gestures handlers. It could be a big leap forward for touchscreen support on rpi and other Linux platforms.

[rgleason]

mgrouch,

I believe that we are not at that point in the development cycle, where this could be done. There are many considerations that the programmers have to consider. Eventually they will get there, but negotiating the various considerations is sometimes difficult, as I understand it.


Perhaps you should make a Tracker request against the development version of Opencpn or the most recent version.

[seandepagnier]

What other gestures would be nice?


3 fingers for rotating the chart? 3 fingers and tap to measure, double tap to make route?

[mgrouch]

I’d say in the order of priority. I do have and I used OpenCPN on my boat in cockpit with touchscreen. long tap for right click, then two finger zoom, and scrolls like on a mobile phone because the scroll bars are tiny on 7”, and switching between apps/closing one starting another not up to today’s standards. but it’s a different story. Probably needs Wayland tiling window manager instead of what is currently in Raspberry OS

[mgrouch]

Automatic pop up of onscreen keyboard for when you hit an input field. This feature exists in Wayland tiling managers. They recognize that you have no real keyboard attached and pop up on screen keyboard

[verkerkbr]

Originally Posted by mgrouch

Automatic pop up of onscreen keyboard for when you hit an input field. This feature exists in Wayland tiling managers. They recognize that you have no real keyboard attached and pop up on screen keyboard

MG,


Interesting to see these options for the touchscreens. OpenCPN has a setting for touch screens. But I don't see what this does.


Bram

[mgrouch]

I’ve made some progress making OpenCPN recognize touch events. Two fingers zoom and long touch for double click. More details here


https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/issues/2057

[mgrouch]

More progress. Zoom, pan work with touchscreen. Somehow with OpenGL on zoom needs 3 fingers. Right click with long touch solved too. Copy paste somewhat work with touch. Popping up onscreen keyboard on entering an editable field not working yet. More details here https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/issues/2057