I just updated ro SD 3.0.6 and wanted to try out the option to show airfield IDs on the map. I selected the appropriate option in the map layer setting but still see only the full names. This is true for large, medium and small airfields in several European countries as well as Florida, US.

Is it me or a glitch in the program?

-- Chris.

Great idea regarding virtual radar, we will propagate the option there too.

Chris, there are plenty of mapping options which do not apply to all chart styles. The SkyDemon chart style contains a huge number more features than all the other styles, which are primarily designed to mimic the old paper-based charts. Having said that, we don't want to get rid of those styles altogether so we'll do some work for the next version to make them inherit some of the extended functionality we develop for our main style.

For me the Skydemon scheme in the maps is the best option, specially if you need a view on the terrain for example if you fly in the alps.

Just thought a bit about why that statement got me thinking. In general programming terms it is good style (and makes a lot of sense) to keep appearance and function separate. In this example, appearance is the chart style and function is how I can interact with it. I would, therefore, expect that chart styles be implemented independent of the functions available to interact with them. It would seem to be a violation of good programming style to get these concepts confused.

There probably are some good reasons why you did this. However, nothing in the chart style informs me that what kind of functions it implements. So there is another issue, apart from the programming paradigm: user actions aimed at changing how the map is displayed (i.e., airfield identifiers or no) have unpredictable results (i.e., in some chart styles it performs as intended whereas in others it does nothing). This latter inconsistency could be remedied by alerting the user whenever he chooses an action incompatible with the currently selected chart style. Although not pretty, this would at least give the user a clue.

I am a great stickler for GUI design and consistency. SD does much more right than wrong and is better than all of its competitors that I know of. However, being a stickler, I hope I am permitted to stickle.

Greetings, -- Chris.

P.S.: What other options are incompatible with other chart styles than SD?