Share Learner files

[espent 1,397]

Is it possible to share Learner files among users? I guess they will change a bit depending on the scenery you have for the airport, but that is another discussion.

It takes quite some time to generate good Learner files.

Edited March 25, 2022 by espent

[kiek 1,215]

I think you mean airport files. Well at my site there are already a few.

I don't intend to host airport files, but if someone does that, fine.

 

 

[vin747 316]

i'm surprised nobody has posted some airport files on flightsim.to already.. maybe this hasn't gained traction yet.. 

[kiek 1,215]

37 minutes ago, vin747 said:

i'm surprised nobody has posted some airport files on flightsim.to already.. maybe this hasn't gained traction yet.. 

My program exists already 5 years (for FSX and P3D). Maybe there is no real need for a repository.

There are some 20.000 airports. Nobody flies to all of them, so the interest is very diverse. If you fly to say 10 airports in your area only, it is easier to let Learner do that for you, may take a week, but then you are fully prepared. You do not have to be at your PC to let Learner+RT run.

Edited March 28, 2022 by kiek

[vin747 316]

Just doing my first Learner + RT right now for KATL.. also reading your manual.. lot to digest.. 😀

[kiek 1,215]

5 minutes ago, vin747 said:

Just doing my first Learner + RT right now for KATL.. also reading your manual.. lot to digest.. 😀

PSXT is a complex program, you really have to study the Manual.  In my youth and during my working live I was used to reading Manuals (there was no Internet), but younger people think everything works intuitively (which is not the case here) 😉

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by kiek

[AeroMaster12 46]

I've been using PSXT for about a year now, and I absolutely agree - reading/studying the manual is paramount. But the effort in the end is well worth it!

Back to the topic on sharing parked_updates XML files... given that these files change so often (parking gates get reassigned, new aircraft/gate assignments can happen daily depending on how long the Learner tool has been used on a particular airport), flightsim.to wouldn't be a great source for hosting these files.

I believe that we should use a dedicated Git repository to share parked update files. I'm considering creating a repository and uploading the airports that I have had the Learner tool create and allow others to pull/push their updates. The thing to keep in mind of is different airport versions (payware vs freeware-modified vs default), but that could be separated by filename. Also, there will be plenty of file conflicts, that would require sorting out for each major push, but that would be at the discretion of the user proposing the change.

If I were to create a repository, @kiek, would be able to share a link on your landing page so that others are aware of a community-based driven Learner assignment? 

[kiek 1,215]

1 hour ago, AeroMaster12 said:

If I were to create a repository, @kiek, would be able to share a link on your landing page so that others are aware of a community-based driven Learner assignment? 

Yes of course, you are welcome.

[AeroMaster12 46]

Thanks for your support, kiek! I've started a repo here and uploaded all of the airports my system has generated. To anyone else reading the thread, feel free to merge your edits, or download the airports that you fly into. Note that I mainly fly within the USA so I won't have coverage for Europe, but maybe this is where you can help!

🔗 https://github.com/aharonhannan/psxt-parked-updates

To clarify - @kiek, no need to spend time to actively maintain this effort (unless you really want to). Just consider this a form of convenience for everyone using your tool. A link to the repo on your site would be appreciated, and maybe it can help gain traction of PSXT and RealTraffic! 

 

[somiller 694]

10 hours ago, kiek said:

PSXT is a complex program, you really have to study the Manual.  In my youth and during my working live I was used to reading Manuals (there was no Internet), but younger people think everything works intuitively (which is not the case here) 😉

 

Anyone who's tried to install an MSFS update is MORE than capable of running PSXT/RealTraffic. I would argue MSFS updates are less intuitive than configuring and running PSXT - at least PSXT includes a manual (and a good one at that)!

[airportdisco123 4]

I would also like to share my airport files as well. I primarily fly in the Japan, Indian sub-continent and Asia-Pacific Region. The Github link can be found below.

 

https://github.com/adriannomi/PSXT-Learner-Airport-Files.git

[airlinetycoon 22]

The ideal variant would be a cloud solution in which many users would automatically load the updated user airport files.
I had solved this in the past via a shared Dropbox account that 4 users used. An updated Airport folder was created in the Dropbox files. This was then linked to more PSXT via mlink. So everyone had access and the updates grew steadily.

[AeroMaster12 46]

@airportdisco123 - Rather than splitting and creating multiple repositories, what are your thoughts on contributing to the repo I shared, that way we establish a single source to fetch from? Feel free to clone my repo, and add your RJAA.xml and other Asia-Pacific airport files

@airlinetycoon - The problem that you will encounter with this is file conflicts (same-line edits), etc. Unlike a Word document file where multiple people can asynchronously add or update content, collaboration of code files require staging of changes that don't conflict with one another. However, taking your idea with thoughts on automation, one could write code that automatically fetches the latest changes from GitHub (aka "cloud solution") and merge them with your local files. The idea of having a Git repo is exactly what you're suggesting - building parking positions steadily together. 

[airlinetycoon 22]

@AeroMaster12Not really. An example, if 2 users load a file, the first at 10:00, the second at 10:15, then when PSXT does an update of that file, say user 1 at 10:35 the file is overwritten. PSXT then overwrites user 2 at 10:45. Of course, user 1's data is then no longer present, but user 2's file also contains most of these updates. We have a gap of 10 minutes here, which would certainly be bearable. That would be the worst case. If user 1 saves at 10:45 and user 2 loads at 10:46, it would be the best case.

[AeroMaster12 46]

11 minutes ago, airlinetycoon said:

@AeroMaster12Not really. An example, if 2 users load a file, the first at 10:00, the second at 10:15, then when PSXT does an update of that file, say user 1 at 10:35 the file is overwritten. PSXT then overwrites user 2 at 10:45. Of course, user 1's data is then no longer present, but user 2's file also contains most of these updates. We have a gap of 10 minutes here, which would certainly be bearable. That would be the worst case. If user 1 saves at 10:45 and user 2 loads at 10:46, it would be the best case.

In the range of 2-10 users, sure, there wouldn't be an issue. But say you have 100+ users writing to a file at around the same time (consider those who are using historical data or the learner tool) - you're bound to have conflicts. Obviously, we're not at that point yet, however, it's never too early to consider how to handle changes at a large scale. 

From an architecture standpoint, something I also noticed is that PSXT write changes to the file until PSXT closes the handle. That means if you have multiple people running PSXT, and committing at the same time, realistically, only that snapshot would be written to the disk. I was able to repro this behavior a while back - have an XML file open and make some changes wil PSXT is running. Then, close PSXT - see if the file changes and wipes what you had recently saved.