[Kstars-devel] A short mockup of my GSoC ideas.

[Prakash Mohan]

>> Add a filter by type. -> Similar implementation like FindDialog.
>
> I don't see why this is required, if you provide 'sort by type'
> feature. If you have a filter by type, the user is seeing a part of
> his observing list, whereas 'sort by type' shows him the entire list
> without any loss of ease, IMO.

Okay. If thats the case, sort by type is already present in KStars now.

>> Observing logs :
>> Create a QGroupBox kinda thingi to make it user friendly. -> It'll look
>> something like
>> http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/images/parent-child-widgets.png
>> Store the logs in a meaningful format.
>
> In the backends, this would probably be a good XML format, with
> structures for Describing equipment (telescopes, eyepieces...),
> observing sites and observing "sessions".

Hmm, yeah seems like the right thing to do.

>> Widgets of :
>> AltVsTime -> Need to investigate further on the crash. Seems like its
>> a widget already!
>> A click on this should take to the man AVT window.
>
> You probably meant "main AVT window" ;-). It's good news that AVT is a
> widget.
>
>> IMO :  I'll have to create a new AVT widget which just plots the graph
>> and provide a wrapper window for using the existant tool/call it for
>> inclusion in Obslist.
>
> Right. I suggest you separate the plotter bit of AVT and make a widget
> out of it. You could then embed this into the avtUI widget.

The plotter is a separate widget already. I could comfortably embed it
in the Observation list. I'll do a bit more research and find out what
exactly the AVT window does.

>> SkyCalendar
>> I'm thinking of making this tool functional to all objects, so I need
>> to see if this  :
>> 1. Feasible
>> 2. Generalize if it can be done
>> 3. Add filters, etc.
>> -- Basically a lot of work to be done, which is not exactly related to the
>> GSoC
>> but needs to be done to make the SkyCalendar a non-redundant and useful
>> tool.
>> What should I do about this ?
>
> Hmm... This sounds like a good idea. Although rise and set times are
> relatively straightforward for deep-sky objects in comparison to
> planets, it will be a useful tool to have. I don't know how one would
> go about doing this, though. ISTM that it almost amounts to having to
> re-write SkyCalendar - if this is the case, you might want to keep
> this for later. I'll take a look at the code and see if I'm talking
> sense.

Okay. I'll be waiting for your response on this. Till then I'll put
SkyCalendar on hold.

>> DSS Image
>> - Research not done yet.
>
> This one should be simple, but rather useful. Ideally, we should have
> a facility to cache the images of all objects in the observing list on
> the harddisk, so that when I take my laptop to the field for instance,
> I can always see if I've found a supernova in a galaxy, or it's just
> some old Milky Way star.

:) yeah, the very same thing I had in my mind.

>> FOV tool
>> - Research not done yet.
>
> What exactly do you want to do with the FOV tool?

When I point my telescope or a Binocular at an Object, I'd prefer to
see how the FOV looks like right ? What I want to do is, for a given
object and equipment, show the FOV around it.


>> 3. FindDialog -> To make things easier for me | Increase Usability.
>
> I still think it should be the other way round - I must be able to add
> object to observing list from the Observing List dialog. Having an add
> object to observing list in the find dialog feels out-of-place for me,
> but that's okay.

I'm going to provide functionality for the user to open FindDalog from
within the Observing list anyway. Why I want to add a "Add to list"
option in FindDialog is for increasing the usability. If I'm planning
an observation session and I have a few objects in mind, I'd prefer if
I can simply do a Ctrl + F , type name and click add to list. That OK?

>> Buttons to be added within the list
>> 1. Conjunctions
>> 2. FindDialog
>> 3. WutDialog
>
> This sounds okay. IIUC, you suggest that we add the facility to invoke
> these dialogs from the Observing List dialog. Fine.

Yeah, pardon the little ambiguity in the mail.

>> INDI
> What exactly do you want to do with INDI?

Well, I'd like Observing list to provide functionality to :
1. Show where the telescope is currently pointing at.
2. Slew to any object in the list.
3. If the telescope is anyway connected, I'd also prefer to have the
telescope type automatically selected in the Observing logs part.

>> Storage format for logs
>
> I'll do some homework here and find out how feasible the COMAST XML
> schema is.

That would be really helpful. Thanks.

Cheers,
Prakash

-- 
Prakash
Undergraduate Student
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute Of Technology Madras