Releasing source code for Linux based desktop US weather app this month (might work on MacOS/Windows? with some effort)

Joshua Tee

Joshua Tee

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As some of you might be aware, I am the author for the following US weather mobile apps:
‎wXL23
wX - Apps on Google Play

Since the pandemic started, I've started working from home and have been using my mobile devices less. I decided to work on some native desktop ports (just for fun/to learn) and ended up creating something I thought it might be worthwhile to share. Additional motivations included better use of screen real estate, easier support for keyboard shortcuts, less resource intensive development environments, and creating a piece of software not tied into proprietary frameworks/vendors.

By the end of the year I hope to fully release the source code here (screenshot posted for now):
Joshua Tee / wxqt

This is a C++/Qt application best used on any modern Linux distro but it's actually been developed under macOS (on the old CPU and new CPU type) and theoretically should work under Windows.

Few notes:
- source code only (GNU GPLv3), you'll need to compile it yourself if you are interested (it's pretty easy if you have some basic UNIX/Linux skills)
- feature set is closest to wXL23 except no Level 2 (for two of the reasons listed here doc/FAQ.md · master · Joshua Tee / wXL23)
- It runs/compiles fine on my Raspberry Pi 400 and my low-end ARM-based chromebook
- If there are any strong feelings about the language/UI toolkit choice I also have an equivalent Gtk/Vala port but no plans to publish unless there is interest.
- For me, this is a lower priority than the 2 published mobile variants from a support standpoint.

If someone has interest in any specific Linux distro variants (sorry, I don't have access to Windows outside of my day job) that they might want me to test before release please let me know.
I have steps listed for Manjaro 21.1.6+ (KDE), elementary OS 6, Ubuntu 21.04 (or anything based on it) but it's really just making sure you have the C++ compiler (C++17 minimum) and the necessary Qt (5.12 or higher although my Pi has 5.11.X and it works) dev stuff.
MacOS steps require this: Homebrew but it's probably not needed if you get Qt directly from Qt | Cross-platform software development for embedded & desktop

I will comment on this thread when it's released later this month.

thanks
 
I have Linux Mint Uma running on an older iMac I can test it on. Also have a newer iMac running Monterey and a Windows 10 VM. Also planning on grabbing a Raspberry Pi. Let me know how I can test! Also, any chance you can include some form of PWS support in it (maybe even NWS CWOP)? I'm looking at putting my PWS back on CWOP and maybe PWS Weather. Having the ability to view my own station from Linux would be huge.
 
I have released the source code here: Joshua Tee / wxqt

The steps to compile/run. (Please note there is a link to a 2nd file that has distribution specific commands to run to load prerequisite software which is basically C++ and Qt development stuff)

I would be interested if someone figured out the steps to get this to run on Windows so I could document for all. One possibility is to use WSL.

EDIT: FYI - My mobile variants and the desktop version use https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/ for Nexrad radar data files. At this time, it does not seem to be performing as well as normal.

Nathan,
Thanks for your suggestion on PWS, I've had a number of requests over the years so much so that I added an item to my FAQ


Nathan Parker said:
I have Linux Mint Uma running on an older iMac I can test it on. Also have a newer iMac running Monterey and a Windows 10 VM. Also planning on grabbing a Raspberry Pi. Let me know how I can test! Also, any chance you can include some form of PWS support in it (maybe even NWS CWOP)? I'm looking at putting my PWS back on CWOP and maybe PWS Weather. Having the ability to view my own station from Linux would be huge.
Click to expand...
 
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Cool. I use a version of wX on my android tablet. Would be cool if someone eventually does a windows port with this.
 
@Joshua Tee:
Since I had some time off I tried to go looking at some of this...but anything on the gitlab.com pages won't show (menu on the left & along the top are there, but the main panel is blank). I don't know why other than, maybe it doesn't like the FireFox or PaleMoon browsers.

I'd be using Win 7 or maybe 8... but as far as I could tell looking at the QT and MSYS2 sites, they will work on those versions.
 
Those show perfectly!
I'll have to look at this more when I get the chance (especially since the tablet version I have seems to have given up the ghost with the start of the new year :( )
 
I started with trying this tonight on a Win 8 laptop.
Downloaded/installed MSYS2 (from an admin account). That worked fine,
But when I do a "pacman -Syu"
It first says "key (some gibberish) is unknown" and asks if I want to import PGP key y/n ..
If I do Y it says "key could not be looked up remotely" & asks about importing again (asks the same thing a few times with the same result to a 'y')
If I do 'n', it just asks the same thing multiple times
eventually it says "Synchronizing package databases"
Followed by 5 files with errors like this:
"mingw32.db failed to download"

then a whole list of stuff with "error: failed retrieving file" :
most being: (filename) "SSL certificate problem: certificate is not yet valid"
some: "Could not resolve host"
and after each group a "warning: too many errors from (host name)" "skipping for the remainder of this transaction"

The PC does have internet access, infact I can see that it goes & connects to(or atleast attempts to-I can't see if anything is actually transferred) various servers.

--------------
Some of the "Could not resolve host" makes sense, because it attempts to connect to Russian/Chinese/India/UAE servers. Such not allowed & is blocked on my network (for good reason).
The "SSL certificate problem" thing? I'm not sure what it means??
Same with the initial question about PGP keys?
Any ideas? is there a way make it use a standard http connection instead of https - or just ignore certificate errors?
I might be able to get part of the updates then. (the parts in those blocked countries its going to have to do without (which is probably good anyway since they're likely unsafe))
 
For anyone interested, I did figure out some of the issues I was having...
The "SSL certificate problem: certificate is not yet valid" problem is because my date was wrong, set to sometime in 2017 (likely because the laptop has been just sitting around without a battery).

The PGP key thing took some google'ing... Looks like its something that happens sometimes.
If you get a "key (some gibberish) is unknown" and asks if I want to import PGP key Y/n ..
and it won't work whether you do a 'Y' or 'n' for importing, use this:
pacman-key --populate msys2
Then do:
pacman -Syu
and it will work :)
You can then continue with the rest of the updates/installs.

-----------
I now have wX installed & partially working.
 
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