Many customers write in, asking why some feature isn’t yet in LuckGrib, and if there any plans to add it in the future.

Firstly, you should understand that the software development team behind LuckGrib consists, currently, of a single person. There are a lot of potential new features that could be added to this new product. I can’t imagine that it will ever compete, feature for feature, with other larger team efforts. One developer isn’t able to compete feature for feature with a large team.

One of the goals of the effort behind LuckGrib is that, for the features that are added to the program, that they be implemented in a thoughtful and elegant manner, while at the same time being extremely high performance (for those features where this makes sense.) LuckGrib strives to be best in class for those features that are implemented, and this preference will limit the number of features that are added.

Two examples of this best-in-class character apply to both the Offshore Data satellite download facility, as well as the Weather Routing system. The Offshore Data system offers the highest file compression on the market, paired with a highly optimized download protocol for efficiency and error recovery. The Weather Routing system has a wide variety of unique capabilities, unavailable at any price in other systems.

As a negative example, I see no need to add e-charting capability to LuckGrib at this time. E-Charting is solved by other apps and requires a large effort to do well. Implementing a quick-and-dirty e-charting capability holds no interest to the author. The LuckGrib basemap is good enough to provide context, although it is clearly not intended for navigation.

Preference is given to other areas that would add more value and help LuckGrib shine. LuckGrib has been built with the offshore sailor in mind, while at the same time being very usable by anybody who is interested in studying the weather. Some of the features may only be of use to sailors, other features are useful to everybody. The intention is that all features that are present are powerful while being easy to use.

If you have an idea for some feature you would like to see be made available in LuckGrib, please let me know. Areas that receive a lot of requests will be considered as a higher priority, although a good idea, sent in by only a single person, will appeal to the author as well.

Your requests are valued - please send them in.