Removal of SimulateSend & Code/Doc cleanup

Author: joergschultzelutter

README.md

@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ You can either specify all parameters during the initial setup of the library or
 |``Parse APRS Packet``|Parses the given APRS packet. In case the packet is either invalid or its format is unknown, an exception will be triggered|``aprs_packet``|
 |``Connect to APRS-IS``|Establishes a socket connection to the APRS-IS network| |
 |``Disconnect from APRS-IS``|Disconnects from the APRS-IS network| |
-|``Send APRS Packet``|Sends a raw APRS packet to APRS-IS in case an open connection to the APRS-IS network has been established|``packet`` and ``simulate_send`` (bool)|
+|``Send APRS Packet``|Sends a raw APRS packet to APRS-IS in case an open connection to the APRS-IS network has been established|``packet`` (string)|
 |``Receive APRS Packet``|Receives an APRS packet to APRS-IS in case an open connection to the APRS-IS network has been established. The default setting uses the parameter values ``immortal`` = ``True`` and ``raw``= ``False``, meaning that aprslib will try to re-establish the connection in case it is lost and will also auto-decode APRS packets when received|``immortal`` and ``raw`` (both boolean params)|
 |``Get <field name> Value from APRS Packet``|various wrappers; e.g. ``Get Message Text Value From APRS Packet`` will return the decoded message string if it is present in the message|``aprs_packet``. If you specify a field that does not exit in the packet, this keyword will cause an error. Both raw and decoded messages are supported.|
 |``Get Value From APRS Packet``|called by the aporementioned ``Get <field name> Value fron APRS Packet`` functions |``aprs_packet`` and ``field_name``. If you specify a field that does not exit in the packet, this keyword will cause an error. Both raw and decoded messages are supported.|

src/AprsLibrary.py

@@ -334,11 +334,15 @@ def connect_aprsis(self):
         # Finally, connect to APRS-IS
         self.ais.connect(blocking=True)
 
+        # Are we connected? If not, then properly destroy what we 
+        # may have gathered as data and raise an error
         if not self.ais._connected:
             disconnect_aprsis(self)
             raise ConnectionError(
                 f"Cannot connect to APRS-IS with server {self.aprsis_server} port {self.aprsis_port} callsign {self.aprsis_callsign}"
             )
+
+        # Yay - we made it. Return the object to the user.
         logger.debug(msg="Successfully connected to APRS-IS")
         return self.ais
 
@@ -364,24 +368,25 @@ def get_aprs_configuration(self):
         }
         return myvalues
 
+    # Send an APRS-packet to APRS-IS. There is no sanity check
+    # on the data provided to this function - everything
+    # is sent 'as is'
     @keyword("Send APRS Packet")
-    def send_aprs_packet(self, packet: str, simulate_send: bool = False):
-        if not simulate_send:
-            # Are we connected?
-            if not self.ais:
-                raise ConnectionError("Not connected to APRS-IS; cannot send packet")
-            logger.debug(msg=f"Sending message '{packet}' to APRS-IS")
-
-            # Try to send data to the socket
-            try:
-                self.ais.sendall(packet)
-            except:
-                raise ConnectionError(
-                    f"Error while sending message '{packet}' to APRS-IS"
-                )
-        else:
-            # just pretend that we send something to the socket
-            logger.debug(msg=f"Simulate message 'Send' of message '{packet}'")
+    def send_aprs_packet(self, packet: str):
+        # Are we connected?
+        if not self.ais:
+            raise ConnectionError("Not connected to APRS-IS; cannot send packet")
+        
+        # We seem to be connected
+        logger.debug(msg=f"Sending message '{packet}' to APRS-IS")
+
+        # Try to send data to the socket
+        try:
+            self.ais.sendall(packet)
+        except:
+            raise ConnectionError(
+                f"Error while sending message '{packet}' to APRS-IS"
+            )
 
     @keyword("Receive APRS Packet")
     def receive_aprs_packet(self, immortal: bool = True, raw: bool = False):
@@ -454,6 +459,12 @@ def get_msgno(self, aprs_packet):
             aprs_packet=aprs_packet, field_name="msgNo"
         )
 
+    # This is the core function which will extract the requested
+    # field name from our packet(s). The packet can either be in 
+    # raw format (str or bytes) OR decoded. If you try to access
+    # a field that does not exist, this function will raise
+    # an exception. Use the "check ..." methods if you want to
+    # find out if a field exists or not.
     @keyword("Get Value From APRS Packet")
     def get_value_from_aprs_packet(self, aprs_packet, field_name):
         t_dict = type(dict())
@@ -537,6 +548,9 @@ def check_packet_msgno(self, aprs_packet):
             aprs_packet=aprs_packet, field_name="msgNo"
         )
 
+    # This is the core function which will check if a field exists
+    # in our packet(s). The packet can either be in 
+    # raw format (str or bytes) OR decoded. 
     @keyword("APRS Message should contain")
     def check_if_field_exists_in_packet(self, aprs_packet, field_name):
         t_dict = type(dict())
@@ -556,10 +570,8 @@ def check_if_field_exists_in_packet(self, aprs_packet, field_name):
 
 
 #
-# Internal functions that are not to be called by Robot keywords
+# Internal functions that are not to be called as Robot keywords
 #
-
-
 def get_alphanumeric_counter_value(numeric_counter: int):
     """
     Calculates the alphanumeric two-character APRS-IS message counter