pyqso/README.md

    Copyright (C) 2013-2018 Christian Thomas Jacobs.

    This file is part of PyQSO.

    PyQSO is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    PyQSO is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with PyQSO.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

# PyQSO

PyQSO is a contact logging tool for amateur radio operators.

[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/ctjacobs/pyqso.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/ctjacobs/pyqso)
[![Documentation Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/pyqso/badge/?version=latest)](https://readthedocs.org/projects/pyqso/?badge=latest)

## Dependencies

As the name suggests, PyQSO is written primarily in the [Python](https://www.python.org/) programming language (version 3.x). The graphical user interface has been developed using the [GTK+ library](https://www.gtk.org/) through the [PyGObject bindings](https://pygobject.readthedocs.io). Therefore, in order to run PyQSO, the Python interpreter must be present on your system along with support for GTK+. On many Linux-based systems this can be accomplished by installing the following Debian packages:

* python3
* gir1.2-gtk-3.0
* python3-gi-cairo

Several extra packages are necessary to enable the full functionality of PyQSO. Many of these (specified in the `requirements.txt` file) can be readily installed system-wide using the Python package manager by issuing the following command in the terminal:

    sudo pip3 install -U -r requirements.txt

but the complete list is given below:

* python3-matplotlib (version 1.3.0 or later)
* python3-numpy
* libxcb-render0-dev
* [cartopy](http://scitools.org.uk/cartopy/), for drawing the world map. This package in turn depends on python3-scipy, python3-cairocffi, cython, libproj-dev (version 4.9.0 or later), and libgeos-dev (version 3.3.3 or later).
* [geocoder](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/geocoder), for QTH lookups.
* python3-sphinx, for building the documentation.
* python3-hamlib, for Hamlib support.

### Hamlib support

There currently does not exist a Python 3-compatible Debian package for [Hamlib](http://www.hamlib.org). This library must be built manually to enable Hamlib support. As per the instructions on the [Hamlib mailing list](https://sourceforge.net/p/hamlib/mailman/message/35692744/), run the following commands in the Hamlib root directory (you may need to run `sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool` beforehand):

    export PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3
    autoreconf --install
    ./configure --with-python-binding
    make
    sudo make install

You will also need to append the Hamlib `bindings` and `bindings/.libs` directories to the `PYTHONPATH`:

    export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/path/to/hamlib/bindings:/path/to/hamlib/bindings/.libs

## Installing and running

Assuming that the current working directory is PyQSO's base directory (the directory that the `Makefile` is in), PyQSO can be run without installation by issuing the following command in the terminal:

    python3 bin/pyqso

If the Python package manager `pip3` is available on your system then PyQSO can be installed system-wide using:

    sudo make install

Once installed, the following command will run PyQSO:

    pyqso

## Documentation

Guidance on how to use PyQSO is available on [Read the Docs](http://pyqso.readthedocs.io/) and in the screencast below.

[![PyQSO: A Logging Tool for Amateur Radio Operators](https://img.youtube.com/vi/sVdZl9KnDsk/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdZl9KnDsk)

The documentation can also be built locally with the following command:

    make docs

which will produce an HTML version of the documentation in `docs/build/html` that can be opened in a web browser.

## Contact

If you have any comments or questions about PyQSO please send them via email to Christian Jacobs, M0UOS, at <christian@christianjacobs.uk>.