[Kstars-devel] RFC: Redesing of KStars

[Thomas Kabelmann]

Hi all,

while trying to refactor the skymap I gave up because there is a bad design in 
kstars and it would be nonsense to refactor it that way. Currently we hold 
all data in KStarsData and for each data element we have a init/load method. 
The same problem is in the skymap. We have for each drawable object a draw 
method. So these 2 classes are blown up and unmaintainable.

My idea is now to rip off all code belonging to drawable objects from 
KStarsData and SkyMap and create new classes for drawable objects. So we need 
a sane interface for drawable objects. The API should look like the 
following:

class KStarsElement
{
	public:
		void init() // init data
		void load() // load data from file
		void draw() // draw data to skymap
		void update() // update data
}

Element classes will be for example:
- solar system
- deep sky objects
- horizon
- ecliptic
- constellation lines
...

These KStarsElements will be managed in KStarsData. So KStarsData can init, 
load and update them at once, the skymap can draw them at once. Another 
advantage is, that the element class doesn't need include the KStarsData 
class and KStarsData doesn't need that much friend class clauses.

Since this is a big job, I would hear your opinion about the idea and how we 
could realize it. Should we open a new branch, or should this work done in 
KDE4 branch?

Regards,
Thomas