4th Line Free Form Text & Scratch data overwrite each other

[Kyle Sanders]

I am sorry but it's late and I don't know how to word this simply without a scenario.

CID: 658

QS 270/210 658

The aircraft now has a heading of 270 and Speed 210 assigned and I see it in Field F.

QS `TESTTEXT 658

The aircraft now has TESTTEXT as the 4th Line Data in Field F. I no longer see H270 S210.

 

It appears that the 4th Line Data overwrote the Scratch data.
It is my understanding that the 4th Line Data and the Scratchpad are two separate things, but I may be wrong.
If that is true, why does 4th Line Free Form Text and Scratch data overwrite each other?

 

REVERSED SCENARIO:

QS `TESTTEXT 658

now has TESTTEXT in the 4th line and I see it in Field F.

QS /210 658

now has a Speed of 210 Scratch assigned and I see it in Field F while I no longer see the TESTTEXT.

QS /* 658

No scratch or 4th line data is in Field F now.
I had hoped the TESTTEXT was just "under" the speed scratch and by removing the speed, the 4th line data would show again.

 

Am I misunderstanding this concept or is this feature just not simulated fully on vERAM?

[Ross Carlson]

Entering scratchpad text clears the assigned heading and speed. Entering assigned heading or speed clears the scratchpad. All of these fields are different formats of the "4th line data". They don't time share with each other or anything like that.

This is how I understood it to work in the real system back when I wrote vERAM. Are you saying it has changed since then? If so, I just need to know the logic and I can update vERAM to match.

[Kyle Sanders]

Let me get confirmation before I give you a definitive answer.

[Dhruv Kalra]

Heading/Speed data overwrites freetext, and vice versa. I’ll check it to be certain when I go back to work on Monday.

Edited December 24, 2020 at 02:57 AM by Dhruv Kalra

[Evan Reiter]

@Dhruv Kalra, while you're checking on that, would be good to also clarify how/if the heading/speed data transfers between facilities and positions. If this is a real-world feature, it would be nice for it to be added to vERAM. Presently, only the free text transfers between vERAM clients.

[Ross Carlson]

VATSIM's network protocol unfortunately does not support the transfer of assigned heading or speed data.

In discussions among the developers, I have advocated for a more extensible network protocol where different radar clients could define their own structures for sharing data among instances of the same client. Hopefully this sort of design will be available in the future, and then we'll be able to propagate things like assigned speed/heading between clients.

[Kyle Sanders]

11 minutes ago, Ross Carlson said:

VATSIM's network protocol unfortunately does not support the transfer of assigned heading or speed data.

In discussions among the developers, I have advocated for a more extensible network protocol where different radar clients could define their own structures for sharing data among instances of the same client. Hopefully this sort of design will be available in the future, and then we'll be able to propagate things like assigned speed/heading between clients.

Ross I’m happy to hear you are advocating for this.

 

It would be pretty cool to also have it restrictive like real world... for example, there is no “scratch/4th line” transfer to other non-ERAM facilities in real world. The receiving computer must be ERAM to get that data.

This goes for things like “VFR/OTP” as the cruise altitude too.

 

Thanks for your attention to this matter, Ross!

[Dhruv Kalra]

3 hours ago, Evan Reiter said:

@Dhruv Kalra, while you're checking on that, would be good to also clarify how/if the heading/speed data transfers between facilities and positions. If this is a real-world feature, it would be nice for it to be added to vERAM. Presently, only the free text transfers between vERAM clients.

All ERAM 4th line data transfers to other ERAM facilities. It doesn’t transfer to any non-ERAM (STARS, Canada’s CAATS, Mexico’s Eurocat) facilities.

STARS scratchpad data only displays and transfers to other positions within the same STARS site (including any towers adapted under the same computer).

Edited December 26, 2020 at 05:37 PM by Dhruv Kalra

[Kyle Sanders]

On 12/23/2020 at 9:56 PM, Dhruv Kalra said:

Heading/Speed data overwrites freetext, and vice versa. I’ll check it to be certain when I go back to work on Monday.

This has been confirmed:

The 4^th line data is overwritten by the last Scratch or Free Text Form entry.

Sorry, I had a complete misunderstanding of that.