1 Reply by Stuart (edited by Stuart 09-05-2008 10:54:22)

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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

Not quite sure what use it is, but I have got the Hoverfly Recording Scheme running quite happily on my new Asus eee 900!

The Asus eee runs Xandros 4.0 (a flavour of Linux) and I have switched to the KDE "Advanced desktop" rather than the default "Easy mode" user interface. This gives a very Windows XP-like look and feel - so everything is pretty familiar and Open Desktop - which comes pre-installed - supports all the usual Word, Excel and Powerpoint file formats.

I installed Wine following instructions that are widely available on the eee user forums. Wine is often referred to as a "Windows emulator" - allowing Windows software to run under Unix based operating systems (like Linux and Mac OS) - but it is not strictly an emulator. It provides a layer on top of Linux that supports the Windows API. It essentially translates Windows API calls into native OS calls. It also provides the software with a Windows directory structure (which appear in the file manager as subdirectories under a ~\.wine directory in the Linux filing system) and the Windows registry services (which are text based - so you can go in and edit it the "registry files" with your favourite text editor!).

I don't have a USB Optical drive (the tiny Asus eee doesn't have a DVD/CD built in), so I copied the Rec2002 install CD onto a USB memory stick and installed from there with no problems. I then copied in the HRS database, maps files, etc the same way, via a USB stick, into the correct places in the directory structure created by the install.

Rec2002 runs fine, if a little slowly (not surprising since it is only a Celeron 900MHz processor throttled back to 680MHz to reduce power consumption). The peculiarities I have noticed so far:

- the splash screen at startup doesn't work. Normally you run Recorder.exe - which just displays the splash screen and calls Recorder.ex_ - which is the real application. Wine does not recognise Recorder.ex_ as executable - so this doesn't work. Consequently, I deleted Recorder.exe and renamed Recorder.ex_ to .exe. This works fine and means it goes straight to the login without the splash screen. I suspect this could be easily fixed by modifying the Winecnfg to accept the .ex_ extension as executable.

- the handling of the Rec2002 toolbars is rather odd and annoying. Even if you turn the toolbars off, when a Window is opened, the toolbar associated with it draws one icon at a time and it doesn't seem possible to shift both toolbars to one line - so the window jumps up and down as the toolbars are drawn and removed.

- the filter results window at the end of the Report Wizard is drawn without a title bar or frame so you cannot move or resize it. However the controls all work fine, so this is not really a problem.

2 Reply by davec (edited by davec 09-05-2008 10:58:48)

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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the info. It's good to know that Recorder 2002 will run (mostly) under Wine. The eee seems like a great machine, though I don't own one. I'd like to see Recorder less Windows centric, but know it's just not going to happen.

Dave Cope,
Biodiversity Technology Officer,
Biodiversity Information Service for Powys and Brecon Beacons National Park.

davec's Website

3 Reply by charlesroper

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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

The obvious way of achieving a less Windows-centric version of Recorder would, of course, be a web-app version.

Thanks for the post Stuart, I've been thinking about getting an Asus eee for a while now and was waiting until they brought out a model with a larger screen.

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

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4 Reply by davec

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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

charlesr wrote:

The obvious way of achieving a less Windows-centric version of Recorder would, of course, be a web-app version.

Umm...not so sure unless it was a RIA class app. Most browser based, complex web apps I've ever seen were dreadful. Would anyone really want to re-build recorder in DHTML? The server side would need to be cross platform too. The last spec I saw for recorder web was all .net based - not quite an open platform and it still needed SQL server (I think so anyway - a while ago since I  saw the spec).

Not wanting to be an OS zealot, but I always like to have options.

Dave Cope,
Biodiversity Technology Officer,
Biodiversity Information Service for Powys and Brecon Beacons National Park.

davec's Website

5 Reply by Stuart

  • Stuart
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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

The reason I started my original post with "Not quite sure what use it is" is that I don't really intend to run Recorder directly on the Asus. When we do Diptera field trips, we normally have to spend much of the evenings pinning stuff (unfortunately, flies don't keep!)  - and I always ID what I can at the time. Otherwise it is likely to be added to the huge stack of stuff I already have awaiting my attention - maybe when I retire ....

These days I use a GPS in the field and "mark" a waypoint whenever necessary. I record the waypoint number in my field notebook against the pooter or tube number (all my tubes have a bit of masking tape with a number written in black marker-pen). So the first job, in the evening is to download the waypoints from the GPS to a spreadsheet - which the Asus will do fine - and annotate it with location names and tube numbers from my notebook. Then the Asus will sit next to my microscope and the IDs can go straight onto the spreadsheet as I do them. It comes with Open Office installed and that will save to .XLS format quite happily. So, when I get home, this file can be loaded straight into Recorder via the Import Wizard.

6 Reply by charlesroper

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Re: Recorder 2002 running on an Asus eee under Wine

davec wrote:
charlesr wrote:

The obvious way of achieving a less Windows-centric version of Recorder would, of course, be a web-app version.

Umm...not so sure unless it was a RIA class app.

Yeah I agree. I didn't really mean re-create it fully as a webapp; I was thinking more of a refined subset that would be compatible with the non-web version on the backend.

RIA's are looking increasingly impressive, though. Have you seen Buzzword? Quite nice, if a little quirky in the UI dept. Photoshop Express is pretty amazing too.

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

charlesroper's Website