[Kstars-devel] [Bug 157263] New: >2-minutes timesteps are not correct

[Jason Harris]

You are right, the exact definition of the timestep changes at a
particular timescale.  It should be "10 min" though, not 2 min.  For
timesteps up to 10 min, time passes at a rate of "X per second".  At
10 min and above, the context switches, and instead, every frame
displayed is X later than the previous one.  For example, when set to
"10 min", you'll notice that the values of the seconds and
single-minute digits do not change, and the ten-minute digit advances
by one on each timestep.

I know this is an inconsistency, but I think it's valuable to make
this transition at some point when going to larger timesteps.  For
example, you can set the timestep to "1 day", point south at noon, and
then start the clock.  You will then be able to watch the Sun move up
and down in the sky as the year progresses, illustrating the reason
that we have seasons.  You could not do that if the "1 day" timestep
meant "make time pass at 1 day per second, showing many frames at
random time intervals".

I suppose the same effect could be achieved even if we did change the
meaning of large timesteps, by pausing the clock and using the "change
time by a single step" action (mapped to ">" and "<" in the default
en_US layout).  Unless there's good reasons for changing the current
setup, I'm inclined to leave it as it is.

I've CC'd the kstars-devel list in case other devs want to chime in.



On 6 Feb 2008 15:30:23 -0000, Frederik Schwarzer <schwarzerf at gmail.com> wrote:
> ------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
>  You are the assignee for the bug, or are watching the assignee.
>
>  http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157263
>            Summary: >2-minutes timesteps are not correct
>            Product: kstars
>            Version: unspecified
>           Platform: Debian testing
>         OS/Version: Linux
>             Status: NEW
>           Severity: normal
>           Priority: NOR
>          Component: general
>         AssignedTo: kstars 30doradus org
>         ReportedBy: schwarzerf gmail com
>
>
>  Version:           1.3.0 (using KDE 4.0.0)
>  Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages
>
>  The time scales above 2 minutes are not correct (if I understand it right)
>  "1 sec", "2 sec" ... "1 min" all set the given step per second.
>  "2 min" sets about 30 minutes per second, "5 min" sets about 2 hours per second, ...
>
>  Or do I just not see the clue?
>